Last Tuesday, I was working from home. One of the things I like about working from home is I can wear my most comfortable pair of jeans which, while almost passable for running errands on a Saturday morning, are no longer in the category of office wear. GM had to take one of those medical tests you have to starve yourself for, so in interests of being a good wife, I dropped him off and went to get him a smoothie. Smoothie in my hot little hands, I headed back to pick him up. Have you noticed in a fit of generosity, Jambajuice overfills their cups slightly? It doesn't matter if you drink it right away, but if you don't it soon leaks around the lid and leaves raspberry colored stains on your pants.
I did manage to make it through the rest of my afternoon at home with only the usual amount of cat fur on my jeans.
In a desperate attempt to reduce the amount of leftovers & random ingredients in the kitchen, I made a lasagne (from the bottom up: sauce, boiled noodles, 1 lb drained ricotta, 6 fat cloves of garlic (chopped), 1 zucchini sliced thin, apx 6 ounces olive tapenade, sprinkle of grated smoked mozzarella cheese, no-boil noodles, 2 Aidell's portabella sausages (chopped), 2 Aidell's garlic and artichoke sausages (chopped), 1 cup caramelized onions, apx 8 oz Classico pesto, sprinkle of grated smoked mozzarella cheese, boiled noodles, 1 3/4 cup mushroom duxelle (shitakes, milk, provolone, shallots), smoked tomato sauce, all remaining grated smoked mozzarella cheese (1 1/2 pounds total), garnished with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella balls.) All went well until I tried to move the still-warm lasagna into the fridge. One slip, one wave of lasagne and there was cheese&tomoato sauce on the oven, the floor, my feet, and my pants. There was much cussing. A very wide spatual is the tool of choice for scooping up the sad remains. I felt like Kryten, "Bon Appetit, Bin!". Most of the lasagne is ok.
Still not sure the shitake mushrooms were the best choice, but we'll see what GM thinks.

GM and I did end up going to South Dakota last weekend. The visit to my brother's family went smoothly, and we all went to the WalMart portrait studio to get a picture taken. Mission Accomplished. We also went to see my eldest nephew in a community theatre production of Fiddler on Roof.

This weekend, GM's in Wisconsin at the Ring of Steel reunion. RoS is his old stage-combat troop. I hope he's having fun. I know I'm old&dull now; I woke up Saturday morning and realized the only constraint on my behavior (other than G-d and peer-like qualities) was 2,355 miles away and my next thought was ooo! I could have egg salad for lunch!

I made a veggie lasagne for next weekend {the usual sauce and no-boil noodles 1) drained ricotta with goat cheese, thin-sliced garlic, sliced zucchini, 2) cheese, pesto, chopped artichokes, chopped white-only leeks  3) portabella mushrooms cooked down with shallots, milk, and provolone, 4) chopped fresh basil, cheese, green garlic-stuffed olives, fresh tomatoes}. I also made Alton Brown's crepes. They are sadly disappointing.

The garden is in a terrible state. I've paid little attention to it all summer and the weeds are taking over the herb garden. Even more unhappily, last Monday I went out to look at the plum tree and thought "I should pick those this weekend" and when I went out Saturday morning, they were all gone. Not sure if it was the squirrels or the birds but not a single plum is left on the tree. 

Waiting for files to finish downloading is one of the most boring aspects of my job. That, and installing/uninstalling/reinstalling the product over and over again.

I'm going to make some lasagnas this weekend. I need to take one to my BrotherInLaw Rik when we go to visit him next weekend, so I'm going to do the sausage experiment I've been putting off. I've explored most of the lasagna parameters, but I've neglected variations on the meat layer. The last batch, which turned out very well, contained Italian sausages from the Tasty Salty Pig Parts People. I can't get those for this weekend, sadly they have no retail outlet, so I'm going to try some chicken/basil/sundried tomato sausages from Schaub's Meat Fish and Poultry. I got another kind of sausage from them, but I can't remember what it is now. I'll get some Hot Italian Sausage from Dittmer's and perhaps I'll check the meat counter at Whole Foods too. I've never made a lasagna with chicken sausage before, I hope it works as it would make feeding the nonporky people easier.

Yes, "making lasgane" means making 6-9 pans of lasagne. I have a big freezer.

3 minutes remaining.

GM and I played hooky from dance practice tonight. We went to a concert of medieval music at Stanford, staringfalzalot. It was really very pretty. Italian madrigals are quite different from English madrigals. Uh-oh, I might have learned something.
Got home and found a frantic message from Mumsey, pleading for the Queen of Lasagne to call her and give help. My evil plot to rid the world of bad stoffer's lasgne is coming to fruition, she volunteered to make lasagne for her church group when one of the other ladies threatened her with store-bought.  Heh.