It's the last weekend before Ash Wednesday, the one and only time during the year I make jambalaya.
It's not that I dislike it; quite the contrary, in spite of an intimidatingly long ingredient list (the spice list has seven ingredients, the rest of the dish another thirteen) it is both easy to make and very, very tasty.
The heat signature isn't like spicy Mexican food. A bit less sharp on initial taste, the heat nonetheless builds as you eat. That bite comes primarily from pepper: black, white and a measly 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne spread over six generous servings.
Still, it was enough to make my nose run and my ears drain.
Best of all, there are containers snugged away for lunches Monday and Tuesday.
It's been a strange weekend. I took Friday off, intending to go test drive a car, then do a whole lot of sewing. Instead, I lazed around home, took a long nap and swallowed a couple of tylenol every four hours. Thursday, I'd spent most of the workday simply longing for home, tired, achy, miserable. It took until Saturday afternoon before I felt better.
Around three p.m. I finally wandered into the studio to do my "20 minutes" for the February sewing challenge. I'd not been up to working on anything Thursday or Friday; I had some ground to make up. As it happened, I didn't shut everything down until over seven hours later (less about forty minutes to make and eat dinner).
At long last, all seven charity quilts are bound. I've moved on to making the little stuffed owls that will go along with them. The pattern itself is simple, but the wings and feet are padded, which means it takes a bit to get them ready. As of this afternoon (another four hours or so in the studio), the wings and feet are assembled and need only a little bit of machine quilting to suggest feathers and veins.
With a bit of persistence, I should have them all assembled and ready to stuff before the work week is done. Then they can be set aside until the 20th, which is a Craft Day with a friend (I've learned the hard way not to expect to get anything substantive done on these craft days - mindlessly stuffing fiberfill up an owl's behind sounds just about right for a task for the 20th).
The plan then is to move to a long overdue machine quilting project for a friend. The backing I initially picked up for it turned out to be rather odd - considerably more loosely woven than it should be. I need to find a nice substitute, and I can layer things up this coming weekend.
Never did make it to the test drive. Both tax refunds came Friday/Saturday, so I'm set to go. Just not in the mood (and I get crabby when I'm sick, so it's just as well the salesperson - who has already rubbed me the wrong way several times - didn't have to deal with me.
It doesn't sound like much, but except for being under the weather, it was a lovely weekend.
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