keeping calm, carrying on

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas about stuff to do before we leave. We had lots of waxing sentimental on here yesterday (and keep it coming!) about the mountains, canyons, and the temple in particular — all things that I know are going to be so hard to leave. In eight years of living here, I have truly grown to love this place.

Things I’m looking forward to in California: green hills in winter, no snow, year-round farmer’s markets, and for the first time in my adult life, having my family close by!

Richard defends his thesis TODAY, so assuming all goes well, he’ll be officially DONE DONE DONE this afternoon!!! He practiced his presentation for me last night, and he is going to knock it out of the park (his thesis is about state consolidation [i.e. how the government has become stronger] in Colombia). He has worked so incredibly hard, and I am so, so proud of him and all that he has accomplished in his education. You go, love.

Today is also my last day cooking for the girls. I’m helping check them out of their rooms this weekend, then it’s sayonara, sorority. It’s been a wonderful job; I’ve truly never had a day where I thought, “Shoot, I wish I didn’t have to go to work today.” And I love those girls, dangit.

The Miss woke up extra early today and I slept not enough last night. I’ve decided that I need (no really, I need) this poster anyway, but maybe especially today…

patchy

I realize that it’s old news, but Joelle Hoverson’s Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts ROCKS. I finally checked it out of the library yesterday for the first time, and since then have been in a constant state of crafty drooliness. Happily, the project I most want to make is also very quick.

This afternoon I started assembling various types of paper to make a few faux Moleskine notebooks. I’ve never tried it before, so we’ll see how it goes.

Also today, I bought some batting and some luscious yellow minkee backing for the baby quilt. Now I just need a walking foot for my machine, which is something I’ve been meaning to get for years but never have. Here’s a peek…I can’t wait to show it to you once it’s finished.

School started up again this week, so I’m back in my apron at the sorority house, kitchen implements at hand. This week’s menu is up — and can I just tell you — Tuesday night’s dinner was an enormous (and unexpected) success. I thought a bunch of them hated fish, but the opposite turned out to be true. I broiled two sides of skinned salmon and brushed them with a bottled marinade at the end, then sliced them afterwards. Next time, I’d slice them before broiling. Everyone loved the noodles, and they are ridiculously easy (Rachel Ray, yo). The only change I made was that I used whole wheat spaghetti.

Coming tomorrow: a few sweet love notes.

clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls

Have I told you lately how rad my job is? Basically, I get paid to think up tasty dinners, buy the ingredients with someone else’s money, make them, and eat them. So rad.

For the last few weeks I’ve been craving Boudin’s clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl like none other, so tonight I made just that for myself the girls. The sourdough bread bowls came from the inimitable Crumb Brothers; they made twenty little 1-pound sourdough boules just for us (if you want to score some, call them up for a special order several days before you want to eat them). Their bread is flippin’ amazing. I mean, look at it!

The chowder recipe is from Cook’s Country Magazine and is both quick and delicious; it uses both canned minced clams and bottled clam juice, but is not remotely nasty-fishy. It’s a good chowder. A good ladleful of that nestled in a crusty, chewy, tangy bread bowl…well, it seriously nailed the craving on the head.

The funny thing is, almost every girl who expressed extreme excitement for dinner tonight talked about Boudin’s. If you haven’t been before, GO the next time you’re in San Francisco — and if that’s out of the question, tonight’s special is a pretty darned close approximation.