Quick. There’s 7.5 hours left to catch up…

* Spinach linguine bought from the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market last weekend tossed with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and two kinds of cheeses (Romano & Parmesan)

* Antipasto platter with giant Greek beans, marinated artichokes, green and black olives

* Grand Central sourdough bread

* Red wine

I had meant to make lima bean soup last night and post about it here, but, yeah, that didn’t happen. Don’t fear though — it will next week. So will some fish of some sort. And perhaps even more as my 2008 goal is at least 3 posts per week.

This leads me to today’s mini-post — a new afghan project. I have been known to get all crafty on occasion, especially in the Winter. For Christmas this year, one of my presents from jwa was a book on squares. 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans: Crochet Squares to Mix and Match and after some practice, I’ve decided the waterlily square is within my limited crochet skills.

Now, I just need like 100 more of these…

Hey Food Network — I’d totally watch this show.

Oh! I know — Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Walken and for some reason I want to throw Christopher Kimball into the mix. Now, that would be an awesome cooking show. Three’s Company…for Dinner.

Im Cooked is a really cool idea. I need to spend some time watching more of the clips there. Hello, sweet-sweet-week-off-between-jobs. I have plans for you!

We went to Sub Rosa for dinner last night and had a good meal — wine, salads, pasta, a pizza for jwa and some pistachio gelato. Hey! It was for charity!

One of the things that I am most excited about though (and have been putting enough effort into to not have time to post about the almond cake), is that we’ve found a photographer! Hooray! Christina Gilchrist will be shooting our wedding next Spring and we are so happy to have found her. So, if you are in the Oregon/Washington area and are looking for a nice and very talented wedding photographer — there you go.

We also spoke with Angela Snyder, Gayle Aman and Urban Photography. We really liked Angela (she was the clear second choice) and actually, Gayle was great too. Jodi at Urban Photography was nice as well, but a bit more expensive for what you actually received in the packages, imho.

Nye Beach, Newport, Oregon

No new post — was at the coast until last night. When we got home, I had other things I needed to do

Hopefully, there will be my almond cake tomorrow! But, we did find a great place to stay: Above the Schoolhouse Lodging.

Rooftop garden at the Hotel Elliott, Astoria, OR

Things to do this week:
1. Write up post for WCC16 about chicken-plum pie from new Shakespeare cookbook
2. Vacuum
3. Finalize dinner plan for Saturday night when jwa’s parents are over for dinner (thinking rosemary, red wine & garlic marinated and grilled lamb tenderloin over lentils and carrots with sauteed green & yellow squash and Parmesan flatbread — or something like that…)
4. Mop kitchen and back porch
5. Plant the last of the dahlia bulbs
6. Post about grapefruit-rosemary-vodka cocktail
7. Post about lemon-rosemary chicken over crispy white beans
8. Put up a picture of the new fence (okay, I can do that right now!)

Oh, can you tell I have a lot of harvest-able rosemary at the moment?

So, my original plan was to go to bed early last night and post something this morning. Perhaps the chicken and plum tart from my new Shakespeare-inspired Cookbook that I got in Ashland a couple of weeks ago. Or maybe the lavender and rosemary crusted chicken.

But here’s what happened instead.

10PM — I turn the light out and try to sleep while jwa decides to do his vocal impressions of Jack Black, Dio, Meatloaf and Dave Grohl while singing along to the entire Pick of Destiny soundtrack.

11PM — jwa discovers computer stuff at work is broken and he needs to go in and see what’s wrong…

11:30PM — Spencer is upset that jwa is gone — continually mrows and vocalizes his displeasure. Chelsea, oblivious, snores away.

12:00 AM — I go downstairs and end up watching Law & Order.

1:30 AM — I go back to bed and read a bit. Turn out the light for the 2nd time around 2:00.

2:30 AM — jwa calls, he’s going to be a while longer.

3:00 AM — I think I fall asleep, as does Spencer, who finally gives up his protest and decides to take a nap. Chelsea still snoring.

4:00 AM-ish — jwa gets home. Then promptly starts snoring. Thankfully, I fall back asleep too.

6:45 AM — Alarm goes off. I hate the alarm clock with the heat of a thousand suns. I make coffee and decide I’d rather stare at the wall and try to will time to turn backwards, than try to decide what recipe to post about.

8:00 AM — jwa gives me a ride to work so I can leave 30 minutes later than usual. I feel a little guilty for him getting out of bed after only four hours of sleep, but then I remember he gets to come home and go back to bed and I feel okay with it.

10:00 AM — I can’t believe I have 6.5 more hours at work until I can go home and sleep.

Anyway, that’s why there’s not a new food post today…

Okay but there really will be a lavender shortbread post either tomorrow or Saturday. Spaghetti and meatballs will be next week, as will a recipe for cauliflower & manchego puree.

Image from the book, Simple Stunning Weddings.

So, we are currently trying to decide on a location. We are casting a wide net — Ashland. Astoria. Yachats. Dayton. The Long Beach area of Washington. So far we have scoped out Red Ridge Farms, Heceta Head Lighthouse and The Peerless Hotel.

Next we’ll be heading up to Astoria to check out Hotel Elliott and the Rosebriar Inn. Then it’s a bit farther north to see The Shelburne Inn and their restaurant. Hopefully, we’ll have a place decided on by the end of next month.

The plan is this — when we’re done looking at these six possible locations, we’ll each sit down with a piece of paper and rank the places. Then we’ll exchange lists and hopefully be pretty close on our number one or number two choices. At least, in theory, that’s the way it’ll work.

I’ve also started dress shopping, which is an odd experience. You stand there in your underwear in the dressing room with a mask over your face (so you don’t get makeup on the dress) and the store person puts the dress down over your head and sort of gets you into it. (You can remove the mask after the dress is on). Then you try to visualize the dress as if it fit correctly. I’ve been to Tres Fabu, which I liked and plan to go back to this week to try on some more dresses and I’ve been to Bella Bridal, which I also liked a lot (she was very nice but the store seemed to have fewer dresses). I’m going to be in Camas this weekend, so I’m going to take a look at the NW Bridal Outlet too as long as I’m in the relative vicinity.

I am also trying to get a few books on the subject and stick to only a few. It seems like the wedding industry is so crazy and inflated that I am trying to not feed into the whole industry frenzy and silliness. Anyway, I really like:

Simple Stunning Weddings
A gorgeous book. I love the format in that it focuses on a number of venue types (wineries, restaurants, the beach, an inn, a traditional hotel, a museum/gallery) and gives examples on how to make the most of each type of location. Really great pictures too.

Intimate Weddings: Planning a Small Wedding That Fits Your Budget and Style
A nice book for people not having a 300 guest wedding. It gives examples of real weddings with 30, 20, 10 guests. Four guests, even. I mean there’s nothing wrong with a huge, lavish wedding but there’s nothing wrong with an intimate, 16 person wedding either. It’s nice that there’s a wedding book that acknowledges that fact.

Wedding Papercrafts: Create Your Own Invitations, Decorations and Favors to Personalize Your Wedding
Yeah, I’m going to get all crafty and make Save the Date magnets and cards and invitations and stuff. This book has some good ideas.

Oh and Offbeat Bride is a great site. (The first time I typed that it was “Offbeat Brie” which was very amusing. To me, at least).

Let’s see, what else? Catering will be dependent on location as will the color scheme, I suppose. Food, of course, will be very, very important.

***
Oh and I had a very bizarre dream last night that there were occultists trying to put a demony curse on me and my neighbors Paula Deen and Alton Brown, in addition to being cooks, were also specialists in deflecting the Dark Arts. I was sneaking over to their houses under the cover of night to get their help with my paranormal problems. Kind of a Food Network/Charmed/Buffy all-in-one theme. Very, very weird. When I woke up, it took me about 30 seconds to remember that Paula and Alton were not actually my neighbors. And then I was kind of bummed.

***
Thursday should be spaghetti & meatballs and Friday, SHF30: Lavender Shortbread.

Reasons why I haven’t posted yet this week:

1. jwa gave me an evil cold with a stuffy/runny nose that started last weekend
2. I haven’t cooked much this week because I can’t taste anything (see #1)

I am, however, on the road to recovery and should be posting regularly again next week. In addition, jwa and I are officially engaged. Hooray!

We are starting to look at locations (coast, wine country, ?)/caterers/etc…) but I will try to limit my wedding planning posts to a minimum and keep Je Mange la Ville about recipes/food as much as humanly possible. I am a girl, though, so just deal with the occasional squee!!! about flowers and invitation paper crafts.