Eff-Off:  So far, the week has gone well. Though a white paper I submitted in May has now been requested by my Exec Director... who I submitted it to in May. Now I have to find it.  Company e/m has purged since I sent it to him.

F0rn:  Since the theme is apples.  I do miss the Apple Scrapple festival in Bridgeville DE.  Though the Scrapple part i can usually do without. Scrapple is a local taste.  For lack of a better description, it is meat paste/sausage made from whatever is left after pig harvest time ground together with cornmeal, flour, and some mix of amorphous seasonings.  If I eat it, I am on team crispy.  The mushy preparation .... nope.

Eff off to:

1, SD 16 PMP - shes cranky and pulling my cheerful vibe down.

2. My one wisdome tooth is aching, and Im going to have to have it pulled soon. Which is a good thing so I can get invisalign...its just not feeling good right now.

Forn-Apple

1. Love this new recipe Ive seen online of caremel apple tortes. With nuts.

2. Im thinking I want to make an apple pie of my own, just for fun. I used to travel great distances when living down south to a little alpine town famous for its apple pie. My favorite is the flaky crust with ice cream served ala mode.

3. And looking for apple varietals I want to buy for my mini-orchard out back. I adore apple trees and loved having an apple tree previously. 

Eff off to my therapist, who has ghosted me for 2 months. I suspect that she got fired. Second therapist to ghost us since 2020. Never before have I seen such unprofessionalism in this field. WTF? I gave her a few chances to reply to my emails asking for a new appointment. Then I reported her to the state licensing board. Oops. 

Eff off to the "contractors" at work who think they can not do their jobs and then lie to me about it when I ask why they didn't do it, or why they left a mess for the next person.  I take a picture with my phone of the incident, then send it to their boss. Done arguing. Its hard to argue with a video or photograph, so that's what I do. My boss loves it. Now he can win every argument with these fly-by-night douches. 

DH got smart and said he is ready to adopt a dog together, but to not mention it AT ALL to the skids until the dog is adoped. I guess he, too, is tired of their constant effort to control this decision, along with every other decision we make. He finally gets it. Don't tell them anything until the deed is done. They get what they get and they don't throw a fit!

Forn: I am making a pumpkin spice cheesecake for the Halloween potluck at work. Its my first cheesecake. Wish me luck! 

Eff off to budget changes CONSTANTLY and people asking for a "budget summary only" or "estimated amount" needed for some very very vague reason...which means I certainly DO have to run numbers and alter my budgets.  AGH!

Apple dishes:  I pretty much only like apples fresh, apple pie or apple danishes/apfelkugel. Not a fan of cooked fruit in general. Which DH finds hilarious.

I have an apple sitting on my desk to eat as a matter of fact!  Farmer's market here I come for those apples, and nieghbors giving them away.

Sorry to hear about DH Cranky Pants.  Get well soon, buddy!

Apple treats that I like?  Ask me which ones I don't like: The list is smaller!!

I love apple anything in the fall!

Happy Friday!!

Eff off to mysterious debilitating illnesss. (DH is on the mend, but not nearly back to normal.)

Apples. So many things. Try pan frying some apples and onions for a nice sweet/savory blast. Make a little pan sauce with that and use it on pork chops or chicken, or with other veggies.

And soup. I always toss in an apple or two when I make creamy soups. I have lots of potatoes in the house right now so will probably make a pot of that this weekend and I'll use up whatever apples I have that are past their prime.

Eff off to co-workers who need specific "guidance" on things that should be obvious. We recently had an all-staff, off-site meeting, for which I was in charge of the logistics. On the last day of the event, several people complained that I hadn't given them "guidance" on when to check out of the hotel. These people travel for business all the time, do I really need to say to them "make sure you check out of the hotel by 11am" or whatever the time is on the information you received when you checked in? My current role was supposed to be one of "strategic leadership", but it's more like "office mom" and it makes me want to quit. 

Eff off to MIL...won't go into details, but she works my last nerve all the time. 

To that stupid "flat end" shovel that threw me off balance and I took a hard fall today. Trash. LOL I'm okay...just sore. And determined to finish my garden setup. No shovel is going to keep me down! haahha

StepHell has been quiet. No other contact from the money grubber and her need for $2K. SMH

Forn: Love apple pie with lots of cinnamon! And a scoop of vanilla ice cream! 

But I love making fresh apple sauce!!!  And canning it to have whenever we want.   Mmmm.

Eff off to people who cancel plans at the last minute.  So annoying!!!

Several quarts of apple pie filling and bought some apple cider from my fav orchard.  I also bought some concord grapes and made grape pie.

Eff off to work!  One month to go and they are thinking up pet projects for me to do before I leave!!  Thing is my predecessor, who was getting paid a whole lot more than I am, left a huge complex project that he couldn't be bothered with that I had to figure out so I have a right to leave at least one unfinished project!

Kind of scary though... money wise and I will need to pay for a health insurance plan for 3 yrs before Medicare kicks in.  Chef has 11 yrs to go before it kicks in and it doesn't look like the Gir will be off the payroll much before 1/2024.  

Chef will need to start picking up the slack!

Pan seared Lamb Loin Chops (Olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic).  Steamed artichokes with quick Holandaise (lemon juice, butter, mayonaise).   

Let tthe lamb rest on the counter for 30mins, rub with the Oil, etc....   Pan sear on med high 3mins a side (I like 3 though a little too rare for my bride so next time I will go 4.5 mins.  Let lamb rest off of heat covered for 15mins.

Steam artichoke for 45 minutes using a veg steamer (top side down). Do not boil in water.   Two servings of easy Holandaise.  Each serving is half a stick of butter and lemon juice (I used key lime juice concentrate and eyeballed it. It was lime juice heavy( and a T-spoon and a half of mayo).  Melt butter in Lime juice in the microwave and stir in mayo when hot just before serving.

Lime juice and salt in the steamer water for the artichoke.

Great stuff.

My cooking skills over the past three years of wall, to wall, to wall 80+ hour weeks COVID driven tax seasons have improved significantly.

Tomorrow I will break in our new electric grill (no gas, wood, or charcoal grills allowed in our Condo community) with low and slow wood smoked dry rubbed corned beef briket and a low and slow dry rub seasoned boneless turkey.   My nosey neighbor who was taking pics of the grill and complained to the HOA. My grill looks like a traditional gas or charcoal grill except for the big touch screen where you set the temp, etc....  The wood chip smoke tray should bet some major attention for the 6 hour low and slow (225*) cook time.

Should be good. I have never had a smoked corned beef briscuit.  Plenty of smoked briscuit, just not corned.  The briscuit is soacking in the fridge overnight to draw some of the salt.

Enjoy the weekend STalkers.

Apples ...

Many, many years ago when we lived in a place in the Highlands (I'd have been 11-14 at the time), my father (the village policeman) would regularly receive sacks of cooking apples (not much else will grow in that climate) from the local distilleries. They all seemed to have orchards. Anyway, we seemed to always have at least half a sack of apples sitting in one of the kitchen cupboards. I had a repertoire of at lease 20 apple dessert recipes with apple snow, apple crumble, apple balls, apple cobbler, steamed apple pudding, Eve's pudding, layered apple dessert (custard, raisins and whipped cream), apple sorbet, apple chips, and so on and so on.

Another apple experience was when invited to dinner by a German friend. She made us a fabulous meal, truly delicious and then produced her dessert. There were 6 of us  adults at the table and she'd made apfelstrüdel... only, as she couldn't decide which trype to make (straight apples, apple and blackberry, apple and figs with honey), she'd made all three ... in full size. Yes, they were fabulous but ... she made us finish all of them (and she wasn't the kind to argue with lol) before we were allowed to leave the table.  Looking back on it, the work she put into it, making all that paper-thin pastry, deserved a medal!  Very impressive!