Friday, May 25, 2012
Off and On: Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Off and On: Happy Memorial Day Weekend!: This week has been at least interesting if not completely fruitful. I had my interview with the cruise agency for the dream job doing trav...
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
This week has been at least interesting if not completely fruitful. I had my interview with the cruise agency for the dream job doing travel research on Monday; got an e-mail Wednesday saying they'd decided to go with someone else. It was a disappointment, but not the last stand by any means.
Today I had an excellent interview for a marketing assistant position at a major hair product company. It's a lot of customer service stuff up front, but they're looking to grow the person they hire into the company and keep them on long term if not permanent. 40 hours a week guaranteed and overtime any time I want it, plus no weekends and I can pick what hours I want to work. Awesome! It also appears that I am their only candidate so I should hear something Wednesday. (The girl I would be working for wasn't sure if her boss would want a second interview; he'd been off for jury duty since Monday.)
And get this, she said she didn't have any problem giving me projects that would let me hone my writing skills and plump up my resume! Sweet. The only drawback so far is the drive but if I can pick my own hours I can potentially miss traffic both ways. My rep at the temp agency just called to check and see how things went and said she'd call me back once she'd touched base with my interviewer about my prospects. Squee!
Last weekend's adventure was the trial and error method of making lye soap with goat's milk and oatmeal. The recipe was probably fine, but it's impossible to find palm kernel oil so we substituted palm oil instead. Note to anyone undertaking soap making; don't substitute. It's an exact science that can go horribly wrong at worst, or in our case, make overly oily soap. It's not bad soap, but it's not what we were going for either.
The last minute secondary project was making homemade goat cheese because we had nearly a full gallon of goat's milk left from the Amish family goat farm. There are Amish in Texas! Who knew? In any event, making chevre (fancy French word for "zere ees too much goat meelk in ze fridge") is amazingly easy; though I will follow Tish's advice and do it with coffee filters next time. Brilliant!
Essentially, all you do is take about half a gallon of goat's milk and heat it in a medium sauce pan to a low boil. Turn off heat, squeeze between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of lemon juice into mixture and watch it form into itty bitty curds (chunky milk lumps). If it doesn't do this, very gradually add more lemon. Strain curds and whey over a deep bowl using either the coffee filter method or cheesecloth placed in a strainer. After straining (should take around 1 hour left to its own devices; I helped it along by squeezing so it took less time) it should have about the texture and moisture of ricotta. Add salt, garlic, and whatever herbs float your boat. Munch with crackers, toast, or Chee-tos. Yum! Plus, if you garden like we do, the whey can go into the compost along with the bits deemed unusable from the herb garden (rosemary sticks, basil stems, etc.).
Tomorrow is going to be dedicated to picking blackberries, mulberries, plums, and other wild edibles off of Celeste and Kitty's land. Sunday will be doing yardwork in return for my brothers' 62" hdtv, and Monday is more yardwork both at our house and at the folks'. Unless the landfill is closed and I have to find somewhere else to throw the garbage. I don't want to be sitting on the Group W bench.
Today I had an excellent interview for a marketing assistant position at a major hair product company. It's a lot of customer service stuff up front, but they're looking to grow the person they hire into the company and keep them on long term if not permanent. 40 hours a week guaranteed and overtime any time I want it, plus no weekends and I can pick what hours I want to work. Awesome! It also appears that I am their only candidate so I should hear something Wednesday. (The girl I would be working for wasn't sure if her boss would want a second interview; he'd been off for jury duty since Monday.)
And get this, she said she didn't have any problem giving me projects that would let me hone my writing skills and plump up my resume! Sweet. The only drawback so far is the drive but if I can pick my own hours I can potentially miss traffic both ways. My rep at the temp agency just called to check and see how things went and said she'd call me back once she'd touched base with my interviewer about my prospects. Squee!
Last weekend's adventure was the trial and error method of making lye soap with goat's milk and oatmeal. The recipe was probably fine, but it's impossible to find palm kernel oil so we substituted palm oil instead. Note to anyone undertaking soap making; don't substitute. It's an exact science that can go horribly wrong at worst, or in our case, make overly oily soap. It's not bad soap, but it's not what we were going for either.
The last minute secondary project was making homemade goat cheese because we had nearly a full gallon of goat's milk left from the Amish family goat farm. There are Amish in Texas! Who knew? In any event, making chevre (fancy French word for "zere ees too much goat meelk in ze fridge") is amazingly easy; though I will follow Tish's advice and do it with coffee filters next time. Brilliant!
Essentially, all you do is take about half a gallon of goat's milk and heat it in a medium sauce pan to a low boil. Turn off heat, squeeze between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of lemon juice into mixture and watch it form into itty bitty curds (chunky milk lumps). If it doesn't do this, very gradually add more lemon. Strain curds and whey over a deep bowl using either the coffee filter method or cheesecloth placed in a strainer. After straining (should take around 1 hour left to its own devices; I helped it along by squeezing so it took less time) it should have about the texture and moisture of ricotta. Add salt, garlic, and whatever herbs float your boat. Munch with crackers, toast, or Chee-tos. Yum! Plus, if you garden like we do, the whey can go into the compost along with the bits deemed unusable from the herb garden (rosemary sticks, basil stems, etc.).
Tomorrow is going to be dedicated to picking blackberries, mulberries, plums, and other wild edibles off of Celeste and Kitty's land. Sunday will be doing yardwork in return for my brothers' 62" hdtv, and Monday is more yardwork both at our house and at the folks'. Unless the landfill is closed and I have to find somewhere else to throw the garbage. I don't want to be sitting on the Group W bench.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Holy Crap, it's Been Awhile
Wow, I didn't realize it'd been that long since posting. Sometimes life gets in the way and in this case it was as big as an elephant's butt blocking the living room entryway.
To summarize, Mike and I no longer live in New Orleans. We really didn't want to move back to Texas, but there is absolutely no work to be had down there. Both of us loved that city and continue to miss it, but Fort Worth is apparently where we need to be. There have been ups and downs since returning, but things have turned out for the best. We have a lovely three bedroom house we're renting (which will be a blog all its own once I've cleaned enough to take suitable pictures) and a backyard more than big enough to accommodate our gardening obsession and eventual chicken hut.
My sweetie is working his little booty off at Bell Helicopter being his usual badass self, but I am currently between jobs. Anybody hiring? Bueller? Bueller? Sigh. Well, something will come along. In the meantime, I'm putting in applications every day and am going to dedicate time to my writing. And why the heck do I smell boiled cabbage all of a sudden? Weird.
To summarize, Mike and I no longer live in New Orleans. We really didn't want to move back to Texas, but there is absolutely no work to be had down there. Both of us loved that city and continue to miss it, but Fort Worth is apparently where we need to be. There have been ups and downs since returning, but things have turned out for the best. We have a lovely three bedroom house we're renting (which will be a blog all its own once I've cleaned enough to take suitable pictures) and a backyard more than big enough to accommodate our gardening obsession and eventual chicken hut.
My sweetie is working his little booty off at Bell Helicopter being his usual badass self, but I am currently between jobs. Anybody hiring? Bueller? Bueller? Sigh. Well, something will come along. In the meantime, I'm putting in applications every day and am going to dedicate time to my writing. And why the heck do I smell boiled cabbage all of a sudden? Weird.
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