When the Parents are Away...

...the daughters have some nice quiet time together.


Sister Time!

Kate and I have had a fun weekend hanging out together. Both my parents went to visit their respective parents (Mom with Becky in tow--check out her cool picture on Facebook!), leaving us to hold down the fort. 

Mostly we were incredibly silly while watching "us" movies: First The Merchant of Venice (the "me" movie), with me interpreting and Kate asking lots of intelligent "why"s; then Cabaret (the "Kate" movie), which I saw for the first time and really enjoyed. There was so much in it, and I always appreciate stories with lots of issues and ideas well-packed into them. Very ahead-of-its-time. I do have to admit that it was nice to have a Nazi movie that ended before any of the main characters died or got carted off--though since I didn't know that, I spent most of the movie nervously waiting for something to go horribly wrong. 

I have to say, though:

     Cliff:  Screw Maximilian!
     Sally:  I do!
     Cliff:  ...
     Sally:  ...
     Cliff:  So do I.

Usually when the very thing I expect to happen in a plot does happen, I'm disappointed or worse. This time, however, I was delighted to hear that the movie/play was not too old for the response I anticipated to actually come out.


Cooking Creatively

Since Mom was away for most of the week, I got to do a bit of cooking...and when I cook without a plan, things tend to get...interesting. 

For example, I decided to make a quiche, so I looked up a recipe for a "Mexican" quiche in a cook book. First I had to cut about half the things that went in the egg mixture, because they were meats, things that didn't sound like they'd taste good without meat, or things one of our eaters didn't like. So I pretty much just said to heck with it and put in whatever sounded good to me--onions, mushrooms, some red peppers mom had started using earlier in the week, feta cheese, and extra spinach for Kate (and because I like it). The feta was a flop, as it seems to lose its flavor when I cook with it. 

I got a bit fancy with the spices when I mixed the eggs to include a little more of the black pepper Dad likes and a lot of the cumin that I learned to love with my eggs in Morocco. And then, when I poured the egg into the pie shell full of beautifully layered filings...it barely covered them. The recipe called for three eggs. I'd thought it a bit low, but this was ridiculous! I ended up using a total of eight to cover the fillings.

The quiche turned out beautifully and tasted excellent. Even Kate, who doesn't generally like quiche, at most of a slice--which, yes, I'll admit, was a bit thicker than Mom's quiches generally are. 

Kate and I consulted yesterday on what we ought to make for tonight, when our parents would be home. We agreed on stir fry--easy, pretty healthy, and we had a mysterious container full of pasta to throw in. It ended up being more of a pasta primavera (or so Mom says, since I honestly don't know what a primavera is), with carrots and broccoli (those went in first to soften up), onions, mushrooms, some capers, and the last of the red peppers with the olive oil they'd been in. After Kate took her portion I added some leftover chicken for us meat-eaters. It was very good and I'll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.


And now, to wrap up, I have a question for all two of you reading this.

I need to take a break from The Count of Monte Cristo (1/3 of the way) to read some currently popular books so that I have intelligent, timely things to say at job interviews. I have a few books in mind, but do any of you have suggestions?