I think I spend too much time thinking about kitchens.

So Monday was fun. Dad left after visiting for the weekend, leaving behind a goodly portion of his weekly vat-o'-chili that he'll live off of for the next week. So we ate chili for dinner, and watched Whip It, that cute little movie about roller derby. It was Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, and it starred Ellen Page, and it was super cute and reminded me a ton of rugby. Awesome. It reminded me a bit of Stick It, too, which is a similarly fun movie about badass ladies. Way to go, badass ladies. I love you so.

And then on Tuesday I made followup calls to all the places I applied (because, you know, it's been a week) but I will be calling them all back again TOMORROW because I need to reiterate that I am looking for a KITCHEN job and so my application should not be shuffled into the large pile of wait staff applications that they don't intend to look at because they're not actively hiring.

Dinner was chicken-mushroom Marsala, with Blair's pear pie with nut crumble topping for dessert. It was all phenomenal. Tory in particular adored the chicken, which was, admittedly, awesome. Good old pan-fried chicken is just SO GOOD. The pie was also a smashing success, but hazelnuts around here are STILL impossible to find because of the E. Coli recall, so I used pecans instead. They were good. Hazelnuts would've been better.

And today I babysat for the entire day, except for a two-hour break in the middle where I went to the farmers' market and bought delicious seedless mandarins. Things we accomplished while babysitting today:

- baths
- a bike ride (his first on a two-wheeler since getting his training wheels off, which he totally didn't tell me until I was watching him whiz along expertly)
- duck-watching
- so much cooking

Jessie, you couldn't possibly have had time to cook today, you exclaim, for surely your charge of small children kept you occupied! Ah, but no, you see, because this family has the most irresistible kitchen, and I was there during lunch and dinner. So lunch was udon noodles with egg and scallions (very tasty) and apples caramelized in butter and lemon, which was utterly delicious. And at dinner, the mother of the family handed me two zucchini and said, "Get them to eat these" so I made zucchini fritters, although the frying might have negated some of the nutritional aspects of the zucchini somewhat. The rest of dinner was just a grocery-store rotisserie chicken and some salad. The fritters were well received, eventually by the father of the family when they came home to leftovers, so I'm happy with it all.

Tomorrow I make macarons, for realsies. The egg whites are finally aged enough. I'm playing with flavor ideas in my head. Raspberry-mascarpone? Saffron-cardamom? Lavender? Chocolate? Nutmeg-maple? Earl grey and honey? Tangerine? Caramel? Tiramisu? Oooh, tiramisu.