Pumpkin and Spice

 I miss baking. I miss the feel of soft, smooth dough pressed beneath my palm, and the ache in my arm from whisking a custard. I love the mechanical whir of the floor mixer, and the satisfaction of having a recipe turn out perfectly.There's a satisfaction to the physicality of the job, too- coming home with an aching back and tired feet, and knuckles dry and cracking from being in flour all day. I miss that at my current job- I mean, cake decorating is all well and good, but it's very assembly line. The cakes are premade, the icings are premade... I just put them together.

My last day off, I had an overwhelming urge to bake something. I don't bake at home as often as I would like, mostly because I work all day, go to the gym afterwards, and am tired when I finally get home. Cooking dinner is generally the extent of my ambition. After that, I just wanna relax and maybe watch some Lost. (OMG! Final season of Lost!)

But, it was my day off, and it seems like ages since I've baked anything other than cookies. Given the luxury of time, I decided that baking a loaf of bread was just the baking-therapy I needed.

I've been doing great at getting to the gym after work, however, the downside is I don't get home until 6 or 6:30- which means by the time I walk in the door, I am starving. Kyle gets home shortly after, also hungry.

When I wasn't doing the gym-thing, I had an extra hour and a half to cook, but now, if I want dinner on the table by 7ish, I've got to be a little craftier. I'd love to spend time simmering, peeling and whatnot, but sometimes (and I'm sure you're with me on this) I just need to get dinner ready now.

My okra with sausage and shrimp fits the bill perfectly. It's quick, easy and healthy- plus, most of the ingredients are freezer or pantry stable, which is a bonus (in my opinion) because it means I can plan in advance, but if something comes up, nothing's going bad waiting to be cooked. (I usually plan 4+ cooked meals a week, but don't always wind up getting around to cooking all of them- either we go out or eat leftovers or whatever- so it's nice to have at least one that can lapse into the next week without ingredients spoiling.)

Still staring down the last remains of turkey in your fridge? Can't stomach the thought of anymore turkey sandwiches?

Personally, I underestimated my family's turkey-eating capabilities and had hardly any leftover turkey (in retrospect, I would have gone up a couple pounds, so as to have more leftovers.) However, I greatly overestimated how much cornbread dressing eight people could eat, and had three (!) tupperware containers filled with dressing. I froze one, we ate the other as sides with various meals, but I wasn't really sure what to do with the final tub. I mean, I loooves me some cornbread dressing, but even I have my limits.

While I occasionally enjoy an omelet when eating out at breakfast places (eggs benedict or biscuits and gravy are really my breakfast weaknesses), I'll admit, I kinda have a bias against them. I'm not sure if its because I've had my share of disappointing omelets (*ahem* more on that in a bit...), or because I hate making them, or because I tend to think of them as bachelor food... Did I lose you on those last two? Allow me to elaborate.

I'll do the last one first- When we were dating (and probably before we were dating, I just didn't know about it then) Kyle's "bachelor food" of choice was the omelete. A little unusual, as the stereotypical single-guy foods of choice are frozen dinners, pizza and beer, but if you think about it, an omelete is an ideal meal for one. It's cheap, fast to make, easy to vary by adding different fillings, and it's easy to make a single serving.

I don't know if I've suddenly become more popular, or if maybe summer's just a naturally busy time for everyone, but my calendar has been jam-packed lately. My birthday was June 1st, which was a Monday, so, of course, I got to celebrate the weekend before and the weekend after (which happens to be when my sister-in-law's birthday is, so we shared that weekend this year.) I've also  just started training at my new job, which means my schedule has been all over as I get trained for all possible positions. I'm going to be the "head" cake decorator, which is a nice 8:00-4:00 gig, but I need to know how to close and open as well, for when people are out on vacations, sick, &c. Nothing's terribly difficult, but I've had to train on the 5am shift, which (as I'm sure you're all aware by now) is not exactly in line with my natural sleep schedule, which tends to skew towards the night-owl side of things. Luckily, work is literally only a mile and a half away, so commute time is minimal and if I lay my clothes out and set the coffee maker up the night before, I can "sleep in" until 4:15am. That won't be my regular shift, but it's been kicking my butt in the meantime.

Anyway- Last weekend I had my birthday party. Now I love a good theme party, and I love the process of planning a party, so I kept myself pretty busy with the party preparations. I've been in a tropical mood lately, so I decided it would be a blast to have a Hawaiian Tiki Party! Our apartment complex has a cabana by the pool that's available to rent for parties, so we rented the cabana and decorated it with hibiscus flowers and colorful tropical decorations. The plan was for people to also be able to swim, but of course, it was raining and lightning, so that was nixed. The cabana was covered, though, so we didn't let the rain put a damper on our tiki spirit. (And honestly, after enough pina coladas, I don't think anyone cared about the weather!)