Proof of Life

Where have I been?  Last week I was teaching all day, every day, going to yoga, and finally coming home to deal with this:
And this:And Saturday morning we made these:And Saturday afternoon we got engaged. 

Oh yes, I am a coy one.

By the way, if your name is Jennifer or Daniel Kirchner, we're waiting to tell you in person this weekend, and I was 98% sure that you wouldn't read this.  So don't be mad, even though finding out from my blog is super lame.  

I also read my second favorite novel of 2008, The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves language and beautifully depicted, intricate webs of human relationships. 

I am also preoccupied with my love for our new kitchen.  It's a fun kitchen, with red formica counter tops, and lot's of room for two people to shuffle around each other.  (I chose to cut out the view of our nasty, sweaty yoga clothes piled on top of the washing machine.)  

I've been experimenting with a different "concoction-in-a-pot" each week, since we don't have time to make dinner every night.  Tonight I made an absurdly enormous pot of curry beef stew.  I think that I missed out on a stage of cognitive development somewhere, because I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my brain around volumetric measurements.  Matching the correct sized tupperware to my leftovers is a task beyond my capabilities.  And concoctions-in-a-pot tend to get out of control, so that we somehow ended up with a two-week supply of curry beef stew.  This is particularly unnecessary, since we're going on vacation for four days this week.  Anyway, the fun of concoctions-in-a-pot is that I use a recipe merely as an ingredients reminder, instead of following it line by line with all of that pesky measuring.  I also like to add ingredients that are not listed in the recipe, which can be risky.  For example, I decided to add a jalapeno to the curry beef stew, just to give it a little kick, and now it's almost too spicy for me to eat.  But Charley loves it, and had three helpings last night.  So overall I feel like it was a win.  

Another thing I like to experiment with is beverages.  This interest is rooted in my former life as a professional mixologist at the Knights of Columbus.  In any case, while I was making the curry beef stew I slipped some little bits of ginger into this gin and tonic that I was sipping:

and voila!  Best gin and tonic ever.

So, basically, the mad-scientist way that I cook is remarkably similar to the mad-scientist way that I paint.  Ha HA this IS an art-related post after all!