Well, I’ll be honest, last weekend I never got around to making cheese, cupcakes, or yogurt. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t super busy though! Saturday morning we were up super early and took care of all our errands and Sunday, in the midst of football watching, we cooked up a storm. I only had K go back to the store twice for missed items… oops. Funny how you think you bought everything and realize you forgot two of the most basic ingredients: onions and garlic.
Saturday we had tickets to the second annual Nashville Whiskey Festival. We didn’t take loads of pictures (we’re really bad about that) but it was lots of fun. As I had anticipated, Macallan was the favorite of the evening and the represenative poured us numerous heavy pours of the 18 year Highland single malt. Yum. Some notable favorites were Balcones single malt whiskey and a Japanese blended whiskey. I tasted some Johnny Walker Blue but got rid of it after one sip. Too much peat! The Balcones Baby Blue (made with blue corn) was also a toss. Tasted pretty much like moonshine. Yuck! Though recently we tasted some real Kentucky moonshine at a friend’s home and that was actually tasty.
In advance of the evening, I made the baked orzo and eggplant dish from Smitten Kitchen I mentioned in this previous post. It turned out great though my eggplant didn’t so much fry as saute. It was still really good and filling enough to go into battle with so many fine whiskies. I also roasted a chicken but with one oven and a small miscalculation in cooking times, we only had time to pull the chicken out of the oven and cover it, not time to actually eat it. Oh well, these things happen.
We did the smart thing for the evening and grabbed a cab both to and from the event. No reason to risk injury or legal problems! While at the whiskey festival, we partook of one of our cigars that K had sweetly gifted me with after my first 5K after my return to running. He’s really the best! Quite often I ask him to split a cigar with me rather than lighting two. As a runner and generally a non-smoker, it creates less of an impact on the lungs while we still get to enjoy this little luxury. Our cigars come from the New Orleans Cigar Factory. They hand-roll the cigars at a shop on Decatur Street and have a store-front on Bourbon Street. Definitely a rare treat but 
since there was a cigar bar set up at the festival, it was definitely the time to enjoy one! I did get props from some random musician for being a woman smoking a cigar. While I think nothing of it, it was still nice to receive the compliment, even if there are certain societal/ gender implications in the interaction. I’m not getting into that here though. My dress also received a compliment from a gay man later in the evening. I was pretty stoked. It is one thing to be leered at (K and I both experienced that at different times in the evening) but completely another to receive a genuine compliment. The dress is mint green, one-shouldered, knee-length, and chiffon. I love it! We left the festival about an hour before it ended but we were both stumbling and it was time to go home. K passed out almost as soon as he hit the bed. A great night overall!
Sunday morning arrived bright and early. I love waking up with the sun and my Love! I
started off the morning by making us some blueberry pancakes. Yum! Then it was a whirlwind of savory dishes. I started the stock for my tortilla soup, had black beans soaking, and then started my chicken garam masala (the curry I make quite often) in the only pot I had left that was conceivably big enough. We loaded it up with peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower. As you can see, it all just barely fit. Hey, make do with what you have sometimes!
The black beans and tortilla soup came along slowly in the day but the soup required loads more chopping. We have a fairly small kitchen but we work well together in it. In the midst of all the standing, stirring, and chopping, we finally broke into the cheese we brought back from Wisconsin. So, this was our lunch:
Doesn’t that look incredible? The caprese salad was made with burrata and organic Tennessee tomatoes from our CSA. Here’s the point where I admit I had almost finished this post, hit Save Draft, and bam! The end half or so of it GONE! No idea where it went or what happened but this is part of the joys of technology at times. So, now, a bit frustrated, I will try to recreate everything else. Joy.
Following our tasty, cheesy lunch, I finished up the tortilla soup and the black beans were simmering on the stove. I was exhausted following 6 or so hours in the kitchen so I 
took a much deserved nap. I went to lay down right as the New Orleans Saints game started and when I woke up an hour later, I found that they’d kindly held the game for me… I mean, er, there was a rain delay. Following my nap, I had anticipated relaxing but decided instead to make a coffee cake. It looks prettier than it actually turned out. I attempted to turn a sheet cake recipe into one for my pretty bundt pan but I over-filled the pan, leading to some overflowing, so we had a fairly burned bottom and there was some uneven cooking within. Oh well, we ate it anyway. Not everything in my kitchen turns out perfectly but that’s just part of the fun of cooking and baking.
Finally, I want to share this. Yes, at the end of our epic day in the kitchen, all our dishes 
were clean and put away. It was pretty marvelous. Monday morning with no dirty dishes is pretty great too.
This weekend we will continue by making eggplant parmesan and I asked K to brainstorm a couple other big dishes. Having loads of food readily available throughout the week with our work and training schedules just makes life easier and far less expensive than eating out all the time. We also have 2 friends coming in town to visit with and a special Saturday evening planned. I’m really excited for Saturday and have another special dress to wear for that event. I like having reasons to get dressed up and K is reason enough.
I will ask, dear readers, if you have any excellent crockpot recipes to share, preferably ones that don’t include the words “can of” whatever ingredient. We tend to cook from scratch, rarely relying on pre-packaged items. It’s far healthier. So, if you have something great to share, please do.
nice.