Friday in the kitchen

Where did the week go? I've been busy checking the sale of donated small quilts on www.artdoinggood.com and every time I've gotten there, the pieces I've wanted had been sold. Oh well, since this is an ongoing process to raise funds for the Red Cross Katrina efforts, I hope I will have the opp to acquire a piece of someone else's art. If you haven't been there: GO!!!! and look at the lovely artwork your fellow artists have made. Meantime, I am thrilled that both of my pieces sold so quickly and that money is going to a good place. I am tempted to stay up late making a couple of other pieces but I'm probably going to cash in early: I take my mother home from the hospital tomorrow and it will be a long day. I've been cooking for days so I can fill her fridge and freezer with homemade soup, artichoke chicken, and brisket. Then Meals on Wheels takes over. Tonight, our dinner on the deck was accompanied by margaritas and blue chips with homemade salsa verde. I bought tomatillos and made it myself with cilantro, onions, salt, cayenne, lime juice. Made the margaritas from scratch, too - no mix for me. Pretty soon, though, my supply of limes from Costco will run out and I'll have to make martinis and something seasonal: apple salsa? After dinner, I baked. When I bake, it is usually at night: it is an activity that comforts me and is especially necessary this week. I made my beloved mandel bread (Jewish biscotti) and I'll be lucky if they last through the weekend. I will take some to my mother, but the rest will be inhaled by the human vacuum cleaner to whom I am married. I have to hide a few for myself: I must admit I find them addictive because they are not too sweet. If I could, I would back a couple more batches to take to our hosts in London and Paris for the next two weeks but I think customs are a bit fussy about bringing in unpackaged food. We leave on Tuesday to visit friends and family for 2-1/2 weeks. I am not taking my laptop but will read my e-mail on my friend Marlene's computer. I swore I would keep this blog art-related but food and art are intertwined, are they not? Creativity knows no boundaries. I have never been known to follow a recipe exactly -- at least after the first time.