Day 70. Pie Day.

Dinner tonight?  Shepherd's Pie and Pumpkin Pie.

Saute the onions, carrots, and celery.

Add the turkey and spices.

Simmer with chicken stock and tomato paste, add peas and corn.

Boil the potatoes.

Mash with milk, egg yolk, and butter.

Assemble, and you've got shepherd's pie!

For the pumpkin pie, grind the gingersnaps with more ginger, butter and sugar.

Press into a pie tin.

Simmer the pumpkin with half-and-half, sugar, eggs and nutmeg. 

Pour and bake!

 My family better be VERY grateful that they are getting gourmet meals every night, because when I can finally eat, the only one I am going to be cooking for is ME ME ME!

I finished my inchies piece...

It's going to look very nice with all nine pieces hung up together.

Day 69 - manicotti night!

Okay, now I'm in an impatiently positive mood.  The fistula is looking dryer and dryer...but I am getting hungrier and hungrier!!!  Tonight I made sausage and cheese manicotti - with hand made manicotti shells!

Brown the sausages and onion.

Simmer with white wine. 

Add crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, and spices.  Simmer for one hour.

Combine ricotta cheese, spices, parmesan, and provolone cheeses,

I made the manicotti shells on the crepe-maker - they smelled delicious and came out so authentic! 

Coat the pan with half the sauce.  Fill each manicotti with the cheese mixture.

Cover with the remaining sauce and extra parmesan cheese.

YUM!!!!!

 I also experimented a bit with gouache just for fun - I'm not the best at watercolors, but it's a good way for me to challenge myself and experiment with something different.

 I have a set of 9 miniature square canvases - I am going to paint each one a solid color and put four inchies each on it.  I think it will be a very nice way to display them.

I can't' believe that it's almost June...will I be eating this summer?  Will I get off of TPN in time for college in the fall?  Only time will tell.  I just have to trust that God DOES have a plan for me, this IS a road I am meant to follow, and things WILL happen as they are supposed to.  (Right?)

Day 68.

My drainage has decreased to very little again, so here I go, getting all optimistic once again, daydreaming of what food used to taste like.

This is the latest on my veggie still-life.

 Since it was Shabbat, I decided to make a challah.

I prayed with my family to heal this fistula.  Hopefully God will hear me.

 To go with the Coq Au Vin, I made pasta...from scratch!  It was so much fun and so easy too!

First, you run the pasta dough through to knead the dough.

 Then you change the attachment to a pasta-making attachment...

 Real fresh pasta!!!

 Then, I reduced the coq au vin sauce by 1/3, which took about 2 hours.

 Fresh challah, pasta, and chicken - now that's a meal!  Of course, I watched from afar as my family enjoyed it...

 My piece for the day:  a little whimsical daydream.

Day 66 and 67.

The days are feeling monotonous.  I feel so helpless.  There is only so much I can do to heal these fistulas and start eating again.  Just pray and let the time pass, hoping it's as painless as possible.  I want to savor my days again in every possible way.  I just want to have Chinese take-out!!!

I did a bit more on my still life.

This is a miniature canvas I did for fun out of paper and a bit of ribbon.

I also started this piece out of collage paper.

I found so much leftover pumpkin in my pantry that I decided to make pumpkin hummus!

 For dinner I started to make Coq Au Vin - but I didn't realize it will be a two day ordeal!  So this is Day One:

Boil and peel the pearl onions.

Season the chicken thighs and dredge in flour.

Saute the onions and turkey bacon

Add in the mushrooms. 

Pour in two whole bottles of wine!

Brown the chicken,

Add in chicken stock, celery, carrots, onions, thyme, ,and tomato paste.  Cover and refrigerate overnight...

I think tomorrow I am going to get out my pasta machine for the first time and make some pasta to go with it, since the dish is traditionally served with egg noodles.

Day 65.

I did this piece in about 40 minutes out of collage paper - I really like how it turned out.  It sort of has a Spanish flair.

These are my inchies for today.

 My newest cooking goody is the new Breville pie maker.  I am so excited - I can make miniature quiches and everything!

 My first project was very basic  - I used the berry pie filling that they sell at Williams-Sonoma.

Roll out the pastry dough.

Press the pie-rounds into the pie-maker.

Pour in the filling.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.  (More like 8.  I sort of burned mine a little bit!)

I also made miniature black and white cookies...

...and miniature banana-nut muffins.