Indio, California: I stayed up so late talking on the phone, I went to bed without posting a Wednesday blog. A girl needs her beauty sleep... and our "alarm" (aka the construction crew next door) goes off sometime around 6:30 most mornings.
I am deep into a big project for Leo and Lucy's school (that they attend virtually) - again producing the school newspaper. Usually, my volunteer stint is only for the fall edition, as we are usually traveling at this time of year, and are without the high-speed wifi needed for this job. Lisa roped-me-in! However, this time the newspaper will have no size restraints, and I don't need to worry about black/white v color pages matching up for the printer, because this time the newspaper isn't going to be printed - only emailed as a pdf file. Yeah!
So now maybe you understand why I shook myself a second martini after dinner, and phoned Lisa's godmother and my sister in the evening. And maybe the second martini will explain how I accidentally Facetimed my brother?
Easy appetizers tonight: water biscuits and cream cheese, topped with the hot pepper relish Mary sent us from Portland, olives, pickles and baby marinated/grill artichoke hearts (addictive!).
A few weeks ago, I made potato risotto (using mini-diced yellow potatoes instead of rice). The stock for the dish was made from a smoked chicken, and I still had a few cups of the stock left-over... so boiled the farro in the smoky stock and popped it into the freezer.
To make this salad, I used the left-over grilled chicken from Monday night, the rest of the tomatoes from Lisa's garden, the last of the arugula, walnuts, and crumbled ricotta salata (ricotta that has been formed into a wheel and aged/dried). The salad was served with a bread-stick-thingy.
Nothing else to report! Until my next thrilling update, I remain, your newspaper editor/production staff correspondent.