Cooking/Dinner Party Day

I’m not feeling at ease right now. I’m frustrated by the clinic. They are going to have their accountant do the newsletter, not me. And I’m frustrated by my beloved. She keeps damaging her paws and I’m mystified as to why. And I’m pissed at the appliance repair company who came to fix my stove and fridge.

I called the repair company because my fridge wasn’t working and my stove had one burner, a key large burner at the front of the stove, that wasn’t working. On his first visit, he fixed the fridge, and it was working perfectly. But he had to come back to try to fix the stove with a part he had to get, and he suggested I replace the liner of the freezer door. When he came back for the second visit, the part for the stove didn’t work and he replaced the freezer door liner.

Well … now two burners don’t work on my stove. When he removed the element and tried the part that wouldn’t work, and he put the stove back together, the second burner stopped working. And the new liner sucks. I must remove the buildup of frost every second day. I hate it when things don’t work. 

I’m also tired. All the work for the clinic, the yard work (mostly just watering) and preparing for tonight’s dinner party has me feeling exhausted. I was hard at it from 9:00 to 5:00 yesterday. I baked a tart and almost ruined it. I put the oven up to 410° instead of 375° and almost burned the tart pastry shell that I was blind baking.

And when I panicked, hurrying to get the tart out of the oven, I brushed my leg against the door of the oven and peeled off a large patch of skin. I put the skin back on and kept patting the wound with paper to soak up the blood. I finally went outdoors to put my leg in the sun to help the bleeding to stop. What a day!

I almost burned the tart too because I got distracted by Issa. I was having a lovely visit with her and her mom and her mom’s friend, and then I bolted. Thank God I’d put foil over the edges! I saved it in time.

When I went out to water the edible garden, the Raspberry canes were weighed down with fresh, red, fruity berries. It’s the best harvest ever. So, I picked a bowl full and dotted several of them onto the surface of the peach and almond tart. It adds both vibrant colour and some tartness to a very sweet tart.

I also have one Blueberry bush with gargantuan berries—and a runt bush with no berries. And all the herbs are thriving. Pinecone Park looks pretty good right now.

I’m looking forward to today. The tart is going to make me proud when I serve it. I’m making a salad that I love of daikon, English cucumber, oil, vinegar, and pepper … and dill. And the dill makes it. And that confounds me because I hate dill pickles. Then I’m serving Tuna and Salmon sashimi with wasabi/soy and then Chicken curry. And the tart.