Let me just check my schedule...

yeah, yeah, yeah...Haven't posted for a while. been pretty busy with stuff lately around here, so It's time to play catch-up. It's no secret that I like to have a plan. For what, you might ask? well...I like to have a plan for pretty.much.everything. Some people might find this a little obsessive, crazy even, and I think that I would probably agree with you, but the fact of the matter is this: I get a lot of stuff done for someone that works the amount of hours that I do, not to mention the type of hours I work. While I will agree that it is good to have some measure of spontaneity in your life, it is the fact that a lot of my time is scheduled out that I have the extra time to be spontaneous. Lost? I thought you might be, so I'll give you an example of a typical day in the life of dish.

12:15 am. wake up. get dressed. brush teeth. check phone for messages from bakery accounts to see if I need to make additions to my first mix.

12:30. bowl of cereal. glass of kefir. glass of water.

12:45. smooch my lady. pet the dog. off to work.

1:00 am. get to work. load pastries into proof box. make a cup of green tea. start whole wheat yeasted mix/start white yeasted mix. weigh out specialty ingredients.

1:15 weigh out whole wheat yeasted into tubs/wwy pizzas " "

1:25. weigh out white yeasted into tubs

1:40. mix ciabatta

1:50-2:00 weigh out ciabatta.

2:00 turn white yeasted that needs to be turned/ start dividing pizzas, cia pizzas, etc

2:15 turn on the oven, turn on the internet itunes radio (eclectic, "dynamic range"--check out this station, pretty good tunes on here, it has become the unanimous favsies)

2:30-3:00. continue dividing/forming rest of dough (baguettes, pan loaves, cheese breads, etc.) until marth gets in.

3:15. start baking, starting with baguettes (super hot oven is good for these to produce excellent crust and great oven spring), and sourdoughs.

3:30-5:00. continue baking rest of breads such as pain de campagne, rye, ciabatta, various rolls, burger buns, etc. and ending up with pizzas.

5:00-6:00. either help get pastries finished up or help hassan load the orders for delivery.

6:00-6:30. make recipes for the following day, call south store for my orders. either marth or I will make lunch.

7:00-9:30-10:00. prep for the following day which may or may not include: dicing up cheeses, forming sourdoughs, forming brioche/butter buns, sliders, baguette rolls, cleaning oven/oven doors, smashing olives/walnuts/pecans, making poolish, prepping the pastry cart, putting away deliveries (50 pound bags of flour--we all have huge guns, mind you), making beer bread for lazlos, mixing viennois dough, mixing croissant dough, and of course general cleanup...

10:30ish. arrive home. let buster outside/inside, wrestle, snarfs, etc.

10:35ish. go on walk/run/hike (whatever the weather will permit) w/ gus ,as to release pent up wiggles.

11:00. get back home. change into workout garb, go down to basement and workout/ride trainer (can't wait till the weather gets better so I can go out to wilderness again), to release pent up wiggles.

12:00. snack. shower. check out the internets, run random errands. read and wind down.

1:00-5:30. sweet, sweet naptime.

5:30-6:30. let dog out, start dinner, and try to ungrogify.

6:30-7:30. mames arrives. smooches. dinner.

7:30-8:00. cleanup/ wind down/get ready for bed

8:30-12:15. snooze, the sequel.

so, there you have it. Thorough? You betcha. but, I kind of have to be. schedules help me out a lot. Perhaps I am just a person that needs a little extra guidance. Oh, and before you start thinking that I am totally insane, the weekends aren't like this (at least not as much...)

oh yeah, this blog is about food....

sorry, sometimes I forget. First pic is from a dish that I made in my crock pot. Yes, crock pot. I don't know how people have come to look down on these lovely little devices. sometimes even I don't want to worry about dinner. that's when I rely on crocky. A meatwad, some root veg and a handful of herbs and spices can party in there all day while you do whatever it is you do. This is some round steak, potatoes, carrots, onions, beef stock, tomato paste (from a tube!), and some thyme and rosemary, salt and peps. pretty basic, but magical after eight hours. next dish is turkey burgs with oven fries. then there is grilled salmon with roasted cauliflower w/ cumin seed and ground almonds, and then red-braised pork belly w/ saffron stovies.

thought I would share some bombtastic sides with you peeps:

oven fries (one of my easy faves)

peel (if you want to) and cut desired amount of potatoes into batons

toss with olive oil, salt and peps, and desired spices/herbs. (some things I like to use are: rosemary, thyme, savory, lemon zest, smoked paprika, cumin, steak seasoning, pesto, anchovies, raw bacon, etc.)

roast at 400F, until golden and delicious. about 30 mins. great with steaks, burgers, chickens, alone, or with somebody else...

roasted cauliflower w/ cumin and almonds.

peel away greenage from head of cauliflower. slice vertically into 1/2" pieces, set aside. smash up a good handful of almonds, or put them in a food processor. toss the cauliflower with some olive oil, the almonds, and a couple teaspoons of cumin seed, salt and pepper. lay out on a baking sheet so that they have some room between each other and roast at 400 F until the edges start to brown and they have softened up a bit.

thought I would also share the menu for the week. if you guys don't do this (which you probably don't...I don't run into too many nerds of my stature that do), I'd really recommend making a menu for the week. it really helps cut down your grocery bill and makes sure you don't make a lot of the same things over and over.

mon- caramelized onion, sweet potato, and spinach risotto

tue- ribeyes, w/ risotto cakes, sauteed broccoli

wed- sausage ragu w/ potato rosti

thur- panang curry with potato and peanuts

fri- parsnip and ginger soup with sourdough croutons

sat- ground beef empanada with rice and beans.

DISH recommends:

Kefir. Just started eating/drinking this a couple of weeks ago. It's kind of like liquid yogurt. has a lot of active cultures and is really good for you.

the girl who played with fire. awesome book. Melissa, you were right. it was even better than the first one. Hope that the third one is available soon.

p.s. You think I'm nuts with the facade of organization I'm presenting? you've obviously never met my better half:)....