A SKAMy Summer: The Recap.

And just like that, its fall. The flurry of activity it took to get here, and now we all just sink back into budgets and rain and statistics.

Although today the blue skies and fluffy clouds are trying to convince me it is warm outside, when in fact, today feels like the first clear sky cold crisp day of fall.

A Recap. This summer we currated and produced a festival with 16 performance companies. Rob and I's basement was a revolving door of friends come to stay as artists for Theatre SKAM. That was an overwhelmingly wonderful experience. Before I even had the time to count the money or play the bills from Bike Ride, Marcel was on his way home from our basement to Toronto and Jay was moving in to start rehearsals for Smalltown: A Pickup Musical.

SKAM got a truck. Then SKAM built that truck into a stage and 10 people performed a beautiful little play on the back of it.

We toured that play around parks for four days and then ran it for two weeks over at the Victoria High School, right beside The Belfry Theatre. And we partied.

We partied before the show opened.

We partied because the show opened.

Saskatoon Berry Pie

Rob and I threw a party at our house to wind down the run.

And then we partied when it closed. And the next day everyone went home and it was all over. It felt like summer ended right then and there. Another week went by and SKAM's summer staff went back to school. I took a week off to recover and here we are in a quiet office with the heaters on post CRD Operations Grant trying to sort out the mess that was left behind in the whirlwind.

It doesn't normally look like this, but there is some major storage reconfiguration going on back there.

Please don't call Work Safe. 

Panoramic.

Now if you excuse me, if you need me, I will be under the pile of paper work on my desk.

(I apologize for a lame post that says much of everything I've said before)

But now that life feels routine again, I promise to be back more often

(yeah, yeah.)

A Busy Meal Plan

Whew! What a busy weekend, and the week ahead looks just as busy. I'm so happy to be meal planning again so I at least know ahead of time that I will try my best to eat well every day, even if it's on the go.

#MondayMealPlan

Monday - Vegan Field Roast Hot Dogs, Zucchini Fritters and leftover potatoes - The hot dogs were leftovers from Bike Ride and gourmet vegan hot dogs without soy from Seattle. You can find them here: Fieldroast Frankfurter. I've linked to the Zucchini Fritter recipe in What's Cooking?

Tuesday - Mom's Stew - It isn't really the right weather for stew, but I've been wanting to use up the peas we harvested last week. Also, we have been getting local meat from this great program called The Local Food Box. We payed in advance for meat for the span of time between mid June to mid September and every other Wednesday we are able to pick up a bag of meat from a community centre near by. The meat is always chicken, pork or lamb. The cuts are always a surprise. I don't eat beef anymore and Rob really enjoys lamb... so, this one will be lamb stew. I have no idea if I will like it or how my body will react, but here goes nothing. Mom is going to come over tomorrow night and teach me how to make it.

Wednesday - Pork Kebobs on Garlic Scapes with Spaghetti Squash - I saw this on the internet just a few days before we went to one of our local food markets. The garlic scapes were out in abundance and I knew I had to try it. Amazing. It's a bit of work because it works best if you pre skewer the meat. This time I bought pre skewered, pre seasoned meat from the market and I will just steam the Spaghetti squash and eat it with Earth Balance and salt, easy weekday meal.

Thursday - Leftovers - First preview of Theatre SKAM's Smalltown: A Pickup Musical is this night. I may be lucky if I get time for supper. Rob's in charge. Also... Have you figured out what's happening on that truck yet?

Friday - Chicken Sausage and Perogies - The Chicken Sausage is also from the local food box and so far all of the other kinds of sausage have been a huge hit. I found locally made dairy free perogies at the market today too! I will try to highlight the local meat as I use it over at What's Cooking? This is also a preview day with SKAM and Smalltown: A Pickup Musical, so we will see how getting to dinner goes, at least this one is nice and easy.

Saturday - Red Barn Fajitas - The other day we checked out the smaller version of The Red Barn Market  that is close to our house. It's teeny and doesn't have the selection that The Root Cellar has, but it has a great deli and we spied a chicken fajita mix that I can't wait to try. Since we will still be in previews over the weekend and I don't know what my schedule will look like, this looks like an easy solution.

And the Figs, Oh My God, the Figs. We canned another 5 dozen tonight, preserved in honey and made into jam. I will post the jam recipe soon!

What will you eat this week?

wash. rinse. repeat.

One thing I seem to be routinely learning at my new job is that unlike Stage Management, the production never ends. Metaphorically and figuratively. Once a production is over, the company keeps chugging along right into the next one. This winter I learnt this in terms of my lists. As an SM, the lists have to get done, and all things on that list have a deadline; opening night. The office list has deadlines, but those deadlines just push all the other things on the list that keep the company running further down the list. It doesn't make them go away, instead the list just gets longer.

As we started to switch into high gear this summer planning our annual outdoor theatre festival and the world premiere of an original SKAM production, staged on the back of a flat deck pick up truck, I began to learn another hard new reality. When I was Stage Managing, I embraced that busy flurry of Production week, knowing that into the run I would sleep and socialize and at the end of it I would likely have a week off between it and the next job. Closing night, I could hand in my keys, make sure my prompt book was well maintained and hand it all off, content to sleep the next day away.

This is very very different. That flurry of activity happens in the weeks leading up to rehearsals. And it's the sort of flurry that you don't even know if you've done everything right until someone tells you you haven't. And then once you are safely into rehearsals it feels relatively calm, and just when you think you can relax, bam! Its over, and that means, things need to get paid, things need to be accounted for, reports need to be written! Before you can even adjust to finishing this project up you are into preparation for the next.

There is no resting up for the next job. There is no next job. This is my job.

Gahhh! I have earned so much respect for administrators every where this year. I notice GM's now, and Operations Managers and Producing Managers. I know what a controller is. My book keeper (and incredible mentor) is becoming my best friend... No, really. She emailed today to make sure my root canal went ok.

Someone ought to run back to 1998 and let me (and Mr. Mutch) know that somehow, I grew up and someone trusted me with an annual budget. That I know what a fiscal year is, and I know how to solve temporary cash flow problems. And that I've even voluntarily signed up for a class called Accounting for Arts and Cultural Managers. Now to find the time to study...

P.s. I cannot recommend the Dill Pickle soup strong enough. Even Amber gave it an A+ ;)

A Mushy Meal Plan

Oh dear blog world.
I haven't forgotten about you over here in cyberspace. I've just been too caught up in staring at a computer screen most days and never moving from my desk... straight into the frantic no sleep world of producing a Theatre Festival with 17 different performing companies over two weekends.

But more on that I promise.

I've put myself on a bit of a schedule around here.
Made some lists.
I hope that will keep my blogging on a better track.

I plan to start each week (usually Monday, but here we are at Tuesday and I will push on), with the meal plan for the week. I've revamped the tumblr link where all of my food related things go, so that if there is something you see here that you like, you can go over there and find the recipe. Just click on What's Cooking? up top or follow me on tumblr: The Proof is in the Pudding.

This week, the meal plan is a bit bizarre looking, because after weeks of suffering through a flurry of activity with no time to see a dentist, I put off yet another cavity to the point of abscess. I was in to see the dentist briefly before the madness started and was able to get on antibiotics until I could get it assessed for a root canal (ugh). The antibiotics sucked and before I had the time to even go for my root canal consult I had two different types to keep them effective in my system. This last week I was on antibiotic number three and so happy the appointment was just around the corner. With every new antibiotic my stomach had to re adjust and I was stuck with two or three days of full on nauseous. That coupled with mouth pain all over (its like all the other bad teeth know when you've seen a dentist, my wisdom teeth were on the move and the wear on the right side of my mouth has produced two new cavities), I haven't been eating very well in general. Rob grimaced the other day when I put three cans of different shaped zoodles (princess, scooby doo and alpagheti) in the grocery basket.

So in preparation this weeks meal plan is a variation of soup, leftover soup and easing into mashed potatoes and rice. With a side of jello and pudding. Did you know you can't make instant pudding with almond milk? I don't know the particulars behind this, but it is on google, we discovered after the fact. You just wind up with a lovely chocolate soup instead.

Turns out, after weeks of panicking, 2 mg of ativan, a lit bit of freezing and Rob taking the day off to sit patiently in the room with me yesterday, I feel fine already! In fact the new cavities on the other side of my mouth are taking way more precedent all of a sudden... only a couple of more weeks until those are fixed too. So happy to finally be on dental benefits after all of these years.

So, soup it is anyway... I just get to also have the grilled (soy) cheese sandwiches I snuck in for Rob's benefit as well.

Sunday- leftovers (from a great zucchini pasta salad that I will hopefully post in the future)

Monday- Celery and Celery Root Soup that I go on and on about regularly, now I've finally posted the recipe. We had it with amazing potato and rosemary bread from Fairway Market

Tuesday - Leftover Celery Root Soup

Wednesday - Dill Pickle Soup and Grilled Cheese

Thursday - Left over Dill Pickle Soup

Friday- Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy in the slowcooker

Saturday - Barbecued Chicken in oyster sauce and rice

I'm so happy after all this chaos to have time in my kitchen again!

Meal Planning

A recurring conversation I seem to have with my closest friends lately have involved food and organization. I guess as we get older, we are starting to be a lot more aware of the link between what we eat and how we feel, and the link between how we feel and what we get done, or feel like getting done.

Also, the majority of us are now transitioning from cooking for ourselves to get by -- to cooking for our families, whether that means our families of two or four, just adults, or kids and adult, on busy schedules or on relaxed schedules. It really changes the necessities of planning, no matter what shape and size that planning is.

Rob and I have a meal plan. Its fairly new, but we have really adjusted into sliding it into our rhythm. Friday night or Saturday morning while doing the supper or brunch dishes, we clean out the fridge, take stock of what's left and plan the week. We used to do this on Sunday afternoons, but we often have dinner at Rob's parents' house Sunday evening and that leaves us grocery shopping at 9 PM on a Sunday and the selection is pretty bleak. It also allows for us to go to the winter bi weekly market on Saturday mornings (every Saturday in the summer! So soon!) and get our produce and even some of our meat locally. The most useful thing that has come out of this planning hasn't necessarily been the meals themselves... but the way that this forces us to take stock of the week to come. Is Rob away any of the nights? Do we have plans to go out? Do I have to work late? Can we invite anyone over for dinner that we haven't seen in a while? Is anyone coming to stay with us?

The times that Rob will be away for big amounts of time I can hear myself groaning and thinking to hell with a meal plan, its only just for me! But I've discovered, these are the days I need the plan the most! Otherwise I slide into making a bun with soy cheese melted on it (oh yeah, we (really just I) are trying our best to go dairy free, more about that at a different time). And then I lose all of of my energy. And then I don't go to bed on time. And then I stare off into space at work. Its a slippery slope.

But if I get home on a night Rob's gone and see that, oh yeah, I'm having Pho soup tonight, and not only am I having Pho soup, since I knew that last night, the chicken is thawed in the fridge and the broth is slowly getting too old to eat... I can't ignore that if I don't have the Pho soup, I will be wasting food!

And then I am forced to eat well.

So, I thought since this is a recurring theme in conversation lately, and with lots of lovely ladies that I know read this blog, that I would share my meal plans and recipes with you. In case you needed (or wanted) some inspiration.

Meal Plan - Week of March 10

Sunday - Leftovers
Taco Pie and Enchiladas (the enchiladas were awful and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone)
Skillet Taco Pie

Monday - Pho Soup
Chicken Pho

Tuesday - Chicken Stir Fry
Our neighbourhood grocery store pre packages leftover produce and cuts of chicken or beef for the handiest fresh stir fry supper ever!

Wednesday - Leftovers or Pasta

Thursday - Burritos
This is Rob's specialty and you will see them surface every time I give Rob a night to cook or we have tortillas leftover.

Friday - Dinner and Movie!

Saturday - Creamy Turkey and Broccoli Gnocchi
This one is new to us and from my new cookbook app -- The Photo Cookbook -- I love this app because it lays the whole recipe out in pictures and I can decide if I want to bother just by looking at the pictures. It also gives you an ingredient by ingredient breakdown if you need it, when it asks for something silly like, wholegrain mustard.

Screenshot

If it turns out really good I'll post the whole recipe.

Also! Stay tuned later tonight for a Swap into Spring entry. I wore my new favorite dress out on Saturday and can't wait to show it off.