Thank you for all of your incredibly sweet comments about the new office. You guys always say the nicest things, honestly. Thank you. I will update yesterday's post with some details about where stuff comes from. And if you were wondering where that room is, it's the one on the other side of the French doors in my craft room. I know, I'm really spoiled. Andy had a huge computer in there for a long time, but my stuff, like yarn and bolts of felt and plastic boxes full of ornament kit supplies and all manner of random unattractive junk, including a broken dresser filled with fabric I didn't even want and other things we didn't know what to do with just kept making their way in there and piling up. It was like a sand dune. We would sort of balance things on top of other things until they slid off. He recently upgraded to a laptop, still uses the desk for his stuff (but doesn't actually have to sit at it to use the computer anymore), got rid of a ton of old stuff that was just taking up space for no reason, and now this is sort of a combo office/Posie storage annex. Greta (new assistant) has gotten all of the ornament kit stuff organized in the big white cabinets and down in the basement, and she is completely taking over the assembly of the ornament kits this year. What I will say about craft stuff is that it just takes up SO much space. But I think we're all really happy with the new office, even Andy (thanks babe!!!). The room hadn't really been overhauled in the past ten years, so it was way past time. I don't think I had any photos of the old version. Every time I went through it (a thousand times a day) I basically shieled my eyes from it, so I doubt I ever would have stopped to take a picture of it because it's hard to take a picture when you're running and have your eyes closed.
I made a good shrimp thing last night, I think. I sauteed two cloves of garlic (minced) in a tablespoon of butter, added the tomatoes from a can of stewed whole tomatoes (not the juice, just the tomatoes), added a teaspoon of sugar and some salt and pepper, and broke the tomatoes up with a spoon. Let them simmer and reduce for about five minutes or so, then added a bunch of peeled and deveined raw shrimp. Let those cook for a few minutes until they were pink. By this time the pasta was almost done (oh yeah — forgot to say, I started some thin spaghetti boiling at some point). I added about a half a cup of heavy cream to the tomatoes, simmered a bit more. Added a big handful of chopped fresh basil and parsely from the garden, and then spooned it all over the thin spaghetti. Anyway, it's not the prettiest picture of it, but I have to say that although I don't normally wing it when I am making dinner, this time it actually worked and was really good.
Just remembered about the vanilla cake recipe. Okay. Tomorrow.
