Math, Booths and Whiskey Hot Sauce

Let’s talk about the election. Kidding, let’s talk about me.

My 3 week absence is due to, you guessed it, technical issues. I fought it at first then caved and became ok fine, I’ll just go with it. It wasn’t like a vacation. Quite the opposite and I sadly report that I didn’t use the time to step the cooking up a notch or even find more recipes to share. Nor did I use some of the forced free time to plan my Thanksgiving meal. This homecooking food blogger….wait for it…isn’t preparing a Thanksgiving meal. No roast beasts, no smashed roots, no pies the equivalent of crack. At least not by my hand. If we have guests here on that day, we plan to purchase the meal. I just don’t have the energy or wanting this year after 4 years of hardcore preparing and cooking. Last year it was the two of us alone for the first time on Thanksgiving (it was also our anniversary) and I made a meal big enough to feed 8 people for hours and hours and know what we did for the rest of the time? Watched the National Dog Show then Greg fell asleep on the couch while I sat stuffed and growing increasingly angry.

Thanksgiving 2010

So, I am not up for it especially with all the problems and projects still lying around the house, waiting for a time to be addressed. It’s not my style to leave things hanging, I want to tackle the issue or at least make a plan so that I don’t go insane. But that hasn’t happened, I’m feeling rather defeated not being in control, able to help or the one with the knowledge on these particular issues. When Greg, the one who has such knowledge and experience, gets home, he is too tired or bombarded with something else that needs his attention. I’ve learned how to fix quite a bit but some of these problems revolve around the fact that you find a solution one day, think you’re good to go, have the same old problem come up, do that thing that fixed it the first time and it doesn’t work. This + this + that (should) = the solution but it’s more this + this + that = more problems = confusion = wasted time figuring out the next thing to try = more wasted time and no solution = weeks of no progress and the feeling that something somewhere hates you = wine (and lots of it) = sleepy time = waking to another day where you face the same problems (maybe a touch of wine flu).

I should use the old equation of flour + sugar + pumpkin puree + some other ingredients = delicious pie but even that, if you try a new recipe, can turn out wrong. My cup is not half full or half empty today. It’s full of piss.

Sure I have about 20 recipes sitting in my desk that at one point I really wanted to share-today I can’t even recall what most were like even though I’ve written yummy, wowzers or awesome on them. Only a few stick out.

Thanksgiving 2011

I’m extra cranky because Greg has been given yet another task to complete in a tiny amount of time at work which has allowed me to see him maybe a few hours a day. With the purchase of the new company (you should read that post on the other blog that I linked to below), Greg has more projects to do. The one now being a lounge in Minneapolis-he designs restaurant furniture (now it’s no longer just chains) and is trying to design some tall, round booths where people can sit atop them. (The purchased company sat on this task with this big customer then suddenly it popped into the lap of Greg’s company and therefore Greg…cause he didn’t have enough on his plate.) It’s a pretty colossal deal because if they do this right, it could mean all kinds of great things. Greg is stressed to the max. They want this done soon. Like now and he has to start from scratch creating the seating. I can’t say who the client is but they have a few really popular clubs/lounges/restaurants in and around Minneapolis. When he met with the manager yesterday he was informed that they already have events scheduled so it must be done on time (opens Nov. 19th). I would love an invite but that probably isn’t going to happen.

*Update: as of tonight my husband informed me that the restaurant/lounge didn’t like the timeline to get the second floor finished (cause gee, you can pull out seating for hundreds in less than 2 weeks…) so they are working with another company (good luck) for the second floor and Greg’s company gets to finish the lounge as originally planned. Gee, he had all of the programs/design done and they were about to go into production…someone in charge of getting this restaurant together is not doing a very good job and now I’m an angry wife and food blogger who has seen her husband’s time and talent wasted. Is this how it goes when you’re opening a restaurant? Leave seating up in the air until you reach 2 weeks til opening night?

Oh, we got another puppy. You may or may not know that we have Henry a sheepdog who is 11 months old and now we added a corgi who is about 10 weeks old. Her name is Vivi (like Vivian but it’s not short for Vivian). She’s been here almost 2 weeks and is a sassy, little nugget.

A lot of other “stuff” is going on in our lives. Out of sloth, I will link to my other blog (which had its fair share of problems too but for some reason I could get around some of them by doing something that took 5 times longer) and it’s there you can read about how I put nail polish remover in my eye for shits and giggles, how I am that person on the side of the road shoving stinky curb couches in our car (we have plans for them), all about how Greg’s company purchased their competitor, you can see what color I’m painting the majority of our upstairs (or was), how ugly our bathroom is (insert a yo bathroom joke), we knocked down a wall dividing the galley kitchen and dining room for funsies (not really), about how a nice young lady wants to do a short documentary about our furniture refinishing business, and my plans for the dining space. That about covers the antics at the Witkamps. Forgot, I was sworn to secrecy about something yesterday at city hall. I have to keep it hush hush until the end of January. It made my day, more like week, it certainly made up for some of the bad times we’ve had for a few months.

How about some whiskey sauce? It’s so darn hot and pretty darn amazing.

Whiskey Hot Sauce from Georgia Pellegrini
makes about 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vinegar
¼ cup Serrano peppers, seeds removed and diced
2 tbsp chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, roughly chopped
½ cup onion, finely diced
½ cup carrot, peeled and finely diced
1/4 cup whiskey
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup brown sugar or molasses
¼ tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp salt

In a saucepan, heat the vinegar with a cup of water then add the diced peppers, chipotle peppers in adobo, onion and carrot. Let them simmer over low heat, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes to soften. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan, stir and return to a simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Puree in a blender or food processor, transfer to a jar and let cool. Store in the refrigerator for up to a year. Put it on everything. I put it on a chickpea, potato and leek soup that I’ll post later. Maybe I do have a few more goodies to share after all.