Whew! Glad that's done (mostly)

I love doing what I do for a living - it's not exciting, it's not rocket science, and it's not going to make me the most popular person at a party - but it can be intense sometimes, and it's logical, and it's something that I know how to do well - at least most of the time. And this past couple of weeks have been some of the more intense of the year. But now, it's over, it's done. And I get to coast for a couple of weeks until the next burst of activity.

Which means, I should be able to work on some of the things I want to work on, instead of the things I need to work on. I still have an outstanding Christmas IOU to my honey for some house socks and I'm down to where he actually needs to try it on so I know how much further to go. And then I have an IOU that's more than 10 years past due. Can I? Will I? I'd like to. We'll just have to see.

This weekend was mostly spent working, but I did manage to do something new to me: I made Salted Caramels. I was fascinated at how it seemed that the sugar mixture went from this cloudy white grainy fluid, to a clear smooth bubbly syrup, and then in a blink of an eye went from pale golden to a true caramel color. Be sure to use the larger pot when you are boiling the sugar as the introduction of the cream/butter mixture to the hot syrup causes foaming that could be quite hurtful. If you think you want to "salt" the tops, do it shortly after you pour the caramel into the pan or it won't integrate into the top. I brought most of them in to work today - they don't need to be in easy reach of my hands at home - and the tin is very nearly empty.

And last week, in the middle of all the hullabaloo, my honey and I went to Sur La Table and took a class on basic knife skills. The instructor, Nikki, was a hoot and a half, knowledgeable and willing to share her enthusiasm with us. We learned the easy way to dice an onion, how to segment a citrus fruit, and how to make a garlic paste, as well as some of the usual julie-ann (like the green bean!) matchstick and dice cuts. We also splurged (another Christmas IOU) on a set of awesome knives - Wuesthof - Classics. We're both infatuated with them and keep trying to figure out a way to get more veggies into dinner - just so we can use the knives. I broke down some stew beef into user friendly bite size pieces and it was a dream. And those caramels - don't even think about using one of your p-o-c knives to cut them down to bite size pieces.  One more thing off my wish list....