Of Food and Drink

My first cup of coffee in almost a week. *has bliss*

(I don't drink coffee when I'm sick. Tea heals faster, plus my taste buds don't like it then. So drinking coffee is a sure sign of recovery)


And here's an Improvisational Chef moment for neadods: Last post, I stated my intent to make a stir-fry. Stood in front of the stove and thought...maybe not. Too damn tired to stir or fry.

Made brown rice, as planned. Dumped a pinch of cinnamon into the liquid as it cooked, then, just before the rice was done, I added a few spoonfulls of leftover sloppy joe meat into the grain pan and left the lid on to steam it all together. Good, but not quite right. Added a handful of pignoli nuts. Perfect. And really, really easy.

Dessert was a fresh pear sliced in two and baked with candied ginger and dried apricot in the hollowed-out center. (EtA: forgot the dash of balsamic vinegar splashed on the pears before baking!) Yum. It's a little more prep-effort, but worth it.

Everything is Totally Under Control.

I have figured it all out.

All I have to do is write 500 words a day, every day, until the end of the year, and I will make all of my deadlines. That five hundred, of course, does not include the words needed on things currently without a firm deadline, or new proposals that may come up, or any kind of production-work or revisions on materials already handed in. Or anything non-project-related like freelance or Occasional Employment or Life Projects, or.... oh shit, the holidays!

Everything is Totally Under Control.
There is No Need to Panic.
We Have Enough Caffeine.


But for the rest of today, I am Furniture Refinishing Grrl. Wish me luck!

(EtA: the piece in question is a cedar-lined chest of drawers I was given -- provenance totally unknown, but it was NOT mass produced, by all evidence: the drawers seem to be made of an unknown but dark hardwood core and lighter veneers, hand-hewed and dovetailed, and painted with a whitewash and a faux country yellow wash that really, really did it no service. Oh, and the hardware's been changed at least once, based on the holes drilled. And there's a name (Blum) stenciled onto the back with "New Haven" that has led to a bunch of research dead ends. As I said to my dad, "it's not obviously valuable, but it is damned interesting...").

EtA: a professional carpenter friend of my mother's has told me to halt all work until he comes by next weekend to take a look. He doesn't think it's valuable, either, but he wants to see it, first. I did say the piece was damned interesting, didn't ?