so the backstory is this, Z has a job where the people around him travel all the time, and everywhere. They go to Africa and southeast Asia most often with some Canada thrown in now and again. He never really either ‘has’ to go or ‘gets’ to go. Depending how you look at it. This time he did. He was asked to go to Bangkok, Thailand for a marathon software developing session called hackathon. We consulted with Shands and the transplant clinic first for the ‘all clear’ and when he got that, we moved into an appointment with a travel doc (where Z got a Typhoid shot), a trip to the mall for a few new clothes and a trip down the sample aisle at Target. All this to say, I was both good and bad with the whole situation. What I mean by this is, it was hard to send him off for two main reasons. 1. I wasn’t going. 2. I wasn’t going. And by that I mean, I didn’t ‘get’ to go and how can I take care of him if he gets sick and do you know how far it is to Bangkok-it’s a fierce time difference of 13 hours during daylight savings time. It was easy to send him off for the opportunity of a lifetime. He would get the chance to flex some work muscles and see what and how other people are doing their jobs. It would give him a shot in the arm (in more ways than one) of excitement about work and the craft of it all. 
So, as the trip loomed with a 3AM wake up call on Monday we went out to brunch at Cask & Larder on Sunday after church for a final hand-crafted meal. We feasted. I, on a gin cocktail with fernet branca, lemon juice, and grapefruit bitters alongside a seven day cured pastrami with cipollini mushrooms, brussels sprouts and a fried egg. I have this new thing for bitters. They are so …bitter. The meat was amazing and the onions-meltingly sweet and tart with some kind of agro-dolce vinegar thing going on. He, on a blue corn tamale with scrambled eggs, skirt steak and chicharrones. Delightful way to relax and get ready for his upcoming adventure.
Category: work
pin-luck
a week or two ago we had a semi-spontaneous (I say spontaneous because who does this?) Pinterest Potluck in our department at work. Each of us bringing in items we had pinned for a potluck that turned out to be fairly well rounded and included but was not limited to, two kinds of black bean soup, miniature bread bowls filled with spinach dip, buffalo chicken dip, veggie pizza, cake batter brownies, cookie pretzel brownies and my contribution, pumpkin strudel. Two tables fully laden and a seriously wide variety led me to peruse my ‘that looks good’ board for items I can make this week for supper. I have chosen six would be entrees based on nothing more than I want to eat them. These items will stretch all the way to my vacation and with any luck should make the coming week a little more interesting and hopefully more fun. Tonight’s offering, straight from the Soup Nazi and the Pioneer Woman and brought to my attention via a co-worker on Facebook – so it is double-dipped out of social media. Mulligatawny – which I had never heard of a month ago, is definitely one of my new favorites. We made it tonight from PW’s recipe, found here. I’m not really sure what I thought it was before I saw the post by the Pioneer Woman, I think something made by Native Americans that had corn in it. Why? I actually have no idea. But honestly, it is amazing. We used a British Hot Curry Powder by Sharwoods and while I was dubious to include the granny smith apple, it give a perfect hit of tart sweetness against the heat of the curry powder. A little chicken adds protein and a touch of milk gives some body. We served with a bit of basmati rice for bulk and some oven toasted na’an. This is fairly easy and a great way to dip your toes in the pool of curry.
candy
this week was a wild ride at work. There was a conference for the strategic players in the Americas area and a scripture celebration where we celebrated 28 recently completed scriptures. The conference was primarily in Spanish with English and Portugese simultaneous translation. Something of a language gap for us in the Discovery Center but a fun week all in all. The strangest moment came Thursday afternoon when the conference attendees all came out of the woodwork to converge on a huge round table dumping bags of candy from their respective home countries. Ranging from balls of coconut wrapped in lime leaves to salty sour tamarindo to goats milk caramel wafers. If this wasn’t enough-the Brasilians brought us boxes of thank you candy that turned out to be my favorite of the lot-chocolate stuffed with cashew nut cream. A sweet end to a busy week.
martin’s bbq
last Saturday we went to the Orlando Gift Show in hopes of finding some new vendors for the Village Shop. We were able to to find five – everything from fabulous totes from Madagascar to Spanish ceramic crosses and on the way home decided to stop for lunch. We picked Martin’s because it was near where we left my car and we could meet husbands/family and none of us had been there.
It is strangely confusing inside and hard to figure out. We were given a few tasters (on mint toothpicks) of pork -roast or bbq that wasn’t hot – weird. So, near as we could figure out it was Cuban or Puerto Rican. Closer inspection of their website reveals, Caribbean. Well, at the end of the day, my favorite things were the maduros (plantain) and flan de coco (AWESOME!) but I don’t really think it warrants a return visit.
rainbow
been spending a lot of hours at work lately with evening and weekend college groups visiting, a ladies lunch and some mia staff due to illness. The other night I was there until about 7 welcoming 180 college students from Indiana for the evening. They arrived with an unleashing of water from the heavens. This was the scene as I walked out the door for home.
My Urban Pantry 