Waaaagh!

Was my ex-wife's birthday today...
saw her for coffee (she was in town)... felt like talking to a ghost in some ways... and for the first time i actually felt uncomfortable telling her things about myself.

I could have cooked her the carrot cake i just made - but i made it for someone else i like a lot more.

Lets see... 2 cups of brown sugar, 5 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour, 1 1/4 cups of butter (thats a LOT of butter), juice of an orange, tsp of baking powder, 3/4 tsp of ground ginger, 12 oz of organic carrots (damn grating that many carrots is annoying), tbsp of cinnamon (fyi - do not eat), 1 cup of almonds destroyed with a hammer, 4 oz of walnut pieces, 4 oz of pecan pieces, dash of nutmeg and cloves... 350 for 55 minutes in a 9x9x2 pan... then 4 oz of marscapone, 8 oz of cream cheese, a cup of powdered sugar, and the juice of 4 squeezed limes - whipped and smeared about on top - then another 2 or 3 oz of pecan bits liberally smashed into the rather substantial depth of icing on top.

Dinner will be a pecan wild rice pilaf with a sweet onion cut into long sections, softened in oil, and scattered across the top of the rice - the entirety then baked... and a 20 oz grassfed no-hormone tenderloin roast from central market, covered in a breaded exterior consisting of dijon, butter, a tangy citrus marmelade, and pecan crumbles - and set off by a sectioned mandarin orange.

There's a baby green salad for the leaf-eater too (because, you know, you kinda haveta offer plants to people when you serve them dinner)

I'm going to screw up the timing on the pilaf - i know this now - because i've never done it before and i'm guessing how long the elements will need to cook. The tenderloin is going 350 for 25 minutes... the rice will take something like 40...

The wine pairing is a 2006 Schug Pinot Noir... with something like tenderloin and with the citrusy nature of the theme, the Pinot Noir seemed right. I'll let her tell me if it was a bad call.

The carrot cake is done already... and damn if it doesnt look good. Not sure when dinner is served... maybe monday... soon i hope, i'm getting hungry.

In other news... hmmm.... i dont have any other news... i seldom do