Week ? - A whole bunch more stuff.

I am no longer keeping track of weeks, though a quick review of the calendar shows that it's about 27 or 28 at this point. Major progress has been made by Jim and Shannon as they have summitted/climbed the planned mountains and made the first half of their trip a reality. They are now off to New Zealand and South America it appears, which doesn't really lend itself to many cuisine ideas. This is actually fine as there's a whole raft of bizarre items left, which is going to require a bit of creativity on my part.

That may be a stretch as the last few things I've used have had no creative element whatsoever. For example, spatulas were used to scrape, tea towels to clean, chef's knife to cut, wrapping paper to wrap, tea to drink. I was able to use a set of a dozen wine glasses for a baby shower that I was helping to organize, and the Wine Away was used for the results of same.

The biggest hit has been the leopard-print glasses. I used them for a book club, to toast in celebration of one of our members' new home. They look rather well with white wine it them! And they add an element of fun and adventure to any setting - as anything with a leopard print will do.

I also used them at the inaugural meeting of my Cooking Light Supper Club, to make a low-fat, low-calorie tiramisu trifle. I captured that in this fuzzy sideways picture:


The picture does not show the leopard print decoration on the stem of the glasses, which really makes them fun. The picture does capture how blah a low-fat, low-calorie tiramisu trifle is. My philosophy about low-anything desserts has always been "why bother?", and that has not changed as a result of this experiment. The deciding factor is that what you see here is one serving - I mean, it's really just one bite. Why not just have a bite of something really good?

I also used the Bailey's and birthday candles for a celebration - I went camping for a friend's birthday and the Bailey's was wonderful in our hot chocolate. We used the candles (nestled in some homemade cookies) to sing "happy birthday". I'm not sure the birthday girl appreciated the singing (three computer programmers + two electrical engineers <> good singing), but I know she liked the sentiment! I also appreciated how small the candles were, as it was a very long hike in, and I tend to overpack.

At this point - kind of a halfway - the following items are left on the list:
Williams Sonoma Risotto Cookbook
One jar capers
One jar green peppercorns
White pitcher
Bamboo steamer
A set of two mini pizza stones
A bottle of D'anjou pear vinegar
Some sage meat seasoning
Half a jar of tamarind paste (plus recipe)
W/S Meyer lemon/rosemary marinade
"Better than Bullion", mushroom flavor
One bottle Zinfandel
One bottle Fume Blanc
Williams Sonoma Mango Peach Salsa
One-half jar roasted red chili paste
Canyon Ranch cookbook
One bag poppy seeds
One olive oil container
Two containers sea salt
Four mini cake pans
One container veggie demi glace
One bottle turmeric
A bottle of vanilla
One vanilla bean
Kirsch
W/S vegetarian cookbook
Canyon Ranch's Great Tastes cookbook
The Authentic Cafe cookbook
One tube pesto
One bottle Sancerre

I can't imagine why I haven't had the wine yet... !!