Going Into the Weekend...

...there are a number of food chores for me the next couple of days.

Gina and I sat down today and brainstormed on an idea for a Pillsbury Bake-Off entry. I am not a frequent baker of sweets, and can use her input. She's a better baker than I. By this afternoon, we had a plan of attack in place and the outline of a recipe. Picked up some items we needed from Albertson's this evening. We are going to do the first trial run of it sometime Sunday, I think. I had already outlined an idea, last night, that is an adaptation of something I already know how to make, but I don't think I'm going to make it this weekend. We have until April. We're working on a third idea, but its not much more than that just yet. I don't know that I want to send in too many different recipes. It might be better to concentrate on just three or four, and make sure they are as good as possible.

I need to make the kecap manis tomorrow. When I first started cooking SE Asian food, I was unable to find any Indonesian sweet soy sauce, even living in the Inland Empire of Southern California. I suppose if I'd looked harder in the greater Los Angeles area, I would have found some, but it seemed like a lot of work. And I had found a couple of recipes for it. I've been making it for years now. The recipe has evolved, as I season mine - the commercial varieties I've seen lately are all unseasoned, take shortcuts, and lack the depth and body of flavor of the homemade stuff. Gina loves it! So its a must do.

And then there's the healthy poultry entry to make for the first of the Taste of Home contests. That is going to be dinner one of the next two nights. Picked up the stuff I need for that tonight at Winco.

Oh...and I grabbed a bunch of lemons. I am going to try and sweet talk Gina into making some of her delightful Amish Spiced Lemonade...its heavenly and so refreshing.

My Georgian coworker will be on shift Monday when I go back, so I want to make a second batch of khachapuri this weekend and bring her one to try. Coworkers will be guinea pigs for a lot of contests this year...lol.

About time for bed. G'night, everyone.