Friday, funday

When I make these dinners, I go through each recipe and figure out what I can make ahead, and how far ahead. I generally try to do a couple of things each evening during the week, so that I can have a less hectic day on Saturday (or at least give myself time for the inevitable emergencies).

For Friday, I plan on making the parmesan crisps and candied walnuts. I have found another blog of someone cooking there way through TFL - called The French Laundry @ Home - and she has scared me about the parm crisps and my likelihood of doing it right. I'm feeling pretty good at this point, since i'm actually AHEAD of my prep schedule (having pushed the roasted tomatoes up a day).

But then a crazy work thing happens, I don't get home until 9:30pm, and after an incredibly stressful 14 hour day (that caused me to miss a work happy hour, blasphemy for an associate), I just can't bring myself to make a parm crisp. And I had this (prescient) feeling that the candied walnuts were going to take a lot longer than I planned on being up, so that was not a good thing to start.

So, yeah... this is why I build in extra time on Saturdays. And the reason why the anal planners of the world, with their checklists and lists and alternate lists, really have a leg up on everyone :)