Saturday Shopping

This will be a brief blog since I’m getting ready to head out for my wine history/tasting class this afternoon and don’t expect to get back until late.  I’m looking forward to this since I’ve not taught it since I left SDSU.  Back then I had “people” - competent, and caring people who took care of all the details. All I had to do was tell them when I wanted to offer the course and what wines and food I wanted and it was all taken care of.  I would leave my office ten minutes before the course began, confident that all the AV equipment was up and running and loaded with my presentation. I knew that all the wines were properly chilled and opened, and that the glassware and course materials were all distributed.  I would walk in, introduce myself, and we would be off.

I don’t have “people” here. I’m the “people” and that means that I have to sit in traffic, do the shopping, do the schlepping, set up the materials, bring my own AV equipment and get to the venue an hour before the presentation to do all the set up.  I really, really liked it the SDSU way.

Same Salads, different angle

Four Salads

Dinner last night was a lot of fun. We had two AAS singles over to finish off the remains of the eggplant moussaka.  Earlier in the afternoon I made four salads, one with chopped cabbage and a creamy curry dressing; one with beets with cumin and Greek dressing; one with carrots that I shaved with a potato peeler so that they looked like strips of pappardelle, flavored with ginger, tarragon and a touch of Dijon and mayo; and finally a tomato, basil, garlic salad.  I took a long serving dish and covered the bottom with spinach and then mounded the four salads on top. It looked fantastic and it was devoured with gusto.  I’ve placed two pictures on the online version of the blog.

Today we had to do some errands. First was filling up the car with gas, and now that we know our numbers it was a piece of cake and very satisfying.  Cindy marched up to the window and told the lady what pump number, how many liters she wanted, and gave her the pin on the school’s credit card, all in Russian. Last time she had to use a pen and paper but today, I’m sure they mistook her for a native speaker.

After that we headed to the embassy to do some American shopping.  They had the turkey I had ordered back in October, which is very good since four people are coming tomorrow expecting a turkey dinner. It is a good old Butterball, filled with chemicals, water and other nasties, but I’m looking forward to cooking it. No pumpkin to be found but I got yams and will make a yam pie and see if I fool anyone.  I’ve got all the other ingredients I need so I’ll be up early tomorrow - well not too early - cooking up a storm.

Happy Saturday, Cindy and Wm

PS Yesterday was the 100th posting to this blog.