yayy <3 <3 <3

normally, i come home and i enjoy it for the most part. while i usually get little work done, it almost always involves several really great conversations with my father. and who doesnt love great conversation? but while all other subsequent weekends or days were fairly good, this weekend has just been the best! there are a couple factors that play into this. friday night, the dylan concert was kickass. no one mentioned curfew and it was nice to feel the satisfaction of coming home late in this house. yesterday was filled with thanksgiving preperations. i woke up around 12:00 and hit the grocery store. when i got home around 1:00 (you know how long it takes me in there!), i began chopping.

you guys, i had NO idea how complicated this dish was. let me just run you through it (skip this paragraph if you don't care). First, I had to slice (lengthwise) 2 eggplant, 2 zucchini, 2 bell peppers, and 2 tomatoes. I had to fry/brown those individually and let them sit on papertowels for a little so they were not full of oil. Then I had to pour boiling water on 3 tomatoes, let thim sit so the skin loosened up, and then peel them, chop them, and put them aside. I also had to peel and chop shallots, garlic, and olives (didn't peel those). Then I had to make a vegetable broth with the cubes (boil water, drop in cubes, and wait). Once the broth was made I began browing and then cooking the risotto (a process which is much harder and more annoying than cooking iranian rice). When the risotto was done, I mixed it with the chopped olives, fresh basil, and the chopped tomatoes. Then I lined the bottom of each of the pie dishes (2) with the fried vegetables that were draining on paper towels, then piled on a thick layer of the rice mixture, and then topped with puff pastry (which I had never worked with before, but was very straight-forward and easy, much easier than filo dough which breaks and makes you want to die). It baked up real nice and that was the end of that.

This morning was excellent because I woke up around 11 and realized I hadn't started my laundry yet and paniced and ran to the laundry room, only to find that my mother had already completed and folded my laundry for me. And at that moment, i LOVED being home for the weekend. It's excellent.