use real butter

I must admit that my favorite potato is the yukon gold. Not for baking (baked potatoes, they’re not so special to me), no, but for just about everything else! The lovely, sweet and nutty, golden, firm-fleshed, yukon gold goes well in frittata, potatoes au gratin (with a good strong gruyere), hashed browns, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, soups, stews, and the list goes on. I love the yukon gold. It is a little nugget of earthy goodness.

…and I love my skillet. Thanks C, for the recommendation. The flavor just gets better with use.

The doctor’s solution for my shoulder is to medicate more. Advil – take 4, 3 times a day. Weeeee! I took four advil an hour ago and honestly, I can’t feel my shoulder at all. Wow. drugs. Wow!

Time equals 22 hours and counting. Mom and Dad arrive tomorrow night with Grandma. We even keep 3 pairs of fleece slippers for them when they visit our house. This is what good Chinese daughters/granddaughters do.

Tonight, we took a sampling of the leftover desserts to Melinda’s place and then to Squid’s house. We never spend enough time with these friends, but it’s always so enjoyable when we do. We are very sad to be leaving these people – some of our oldest friends in Pasadena (not in terms of age, but in terms of how long we have been friends). Wow, could it have been that long? I have known Melinda about as long as I’ve known Jeremy (over 12 years!) and I’ve known Squid for about 11 years. I need to set aside QT with these peeps.

I enjoyed chilling out with folks last night. It was a small turnout, which means lots of leftovers, but also a more relaxed atmosphere to hang out and chat. Some of the goods…

I noticed while cleaning up last night that the mousse looks a lot like brown vomit. A good thing not to tell people you’re serving it to, but who on earth came up with this recipe, I wonder? I didn’t like the CIA mousse recipe that much, mostly because it required 4 separate bowls and 3 whippings. Jeremy and I had an interesting discussion about organic coffee and how the flavor quickly falls off with elapsed time since brewing. Regular coffee doesn’t have this problem (he tells me – I don’t drink coffee). I wonder what sort of junk goes into non-organic coffee? Cooking for engineers has a great list of additives to foods. It’s interesting, and gross, and scary.Making chocolate shells because no one in Pasadena carried them pre-made. I actually liked playing with the balloons more than making the shells.



I guess that chocolate mousse isn’t so bad once you get over the mental image of brown vomit. I tasted some tonight and it’s very smooth with a good buttery mouthfeel, but not the bad buttery where it coats your tongue and you feel like you’re eating wax paper.