This and That

I've actually been chilly today! After one of the hottest summers on record in Utah's Wasatch Front, we're actually getting some cooler days. Today may be only 69 degrees, tomorrow 72 or so and low 8os the rest of the week. I didn't even use my car air conditioner Sunday morning driving to work. I'm enjoying it, but am thinking of dressing a bit warmer. My Aunt wore a sweatshirt golfing last week!

The past 3 Saturdays, I've been acting Chef for our Saturday Chef Event at our Sam's Club. We normally have a wonderful chef named Harry, but he had to go back to Indonesia when his father passed away. The first Saturday was pretty scary, but my supervisors helped out a lot, doing much of the prep work, so all I had to do was cook the pork ribs. The next week, I was more comfortable cooking salmon, which I've done a lot of, so I did my own prep work. In this recipe, I breaded the salmon with a mixture of chopped almonds and seafood seasonings. The pasta dish that went with it was a Bertoli frozen dish that only needed heating. The last Saturday was pretty challenging. I cooked pork loin with mesquite seasoning, and a pasta dish from scratch. The pasta dish is great, with asparagus, onions, garlic, olive oil, parsley and parmesan cheese. Most of the cooking is done in the store proper, just the prep work is done in the kitchen. I was so worried about cooking pasta in the area we have to use. Fortunately, I had co-workers who helped, cooking pasta ahead of when I'd need it. There's 2 of us working the event, one cooking, one serving and both setting up and cleaning up. This Saturday, my server had the extra work of putting olive tappenade on crackers as well as serving the pork and pasta dishes. Of course, we were busy too. I was so delighted to see Harry this recent Saturday that I just had to give him a big hug.

The past several Mondays, my Aunt and I have been working on cleaning up the basement. I must say, it looks much better. There's still work to be done, organising, etc. but at least there are actually places with empty floor space. We threw away and gave away stuff. Of course, we still have lots of stuff anyway, but most of what we have is still usable and hopefully, some of it will actually be used eventually. But that's for another day.