It’s been a fun week of cooking.  First of all, I made one of my special lunches for my pal Liz and her mom, Liza.  I started with a roasted yam soup, which I didn’t really like, but they both said they did.  We then had chicken salad, made with toasted almond slices and seedless green grapes.  For dessert I made meringue, and topped it with raspberries in syrup and whipped cream.

Today I’m heading down to Osoyoos with a cooler full of food for lunch and dinner.  I tried a new bakery, called Woodfire Bakery, and we’ll eat and review their stuff today.  Being German, we’re nuts for those large pretzels, which are coated in coarse salt.  I bought some of those, as well as a beautiful-looking ‘Munich rye’, so we’ll give it a try.

I’ve been making Bacardi Rum Cake for about 35 years now, and have grown tired of using the standard yellow cake mix.  So, yesterday I made a traditional pound cake (one pound of butter) and forced a mickey of rum into it.  We’ll also try that today and I’ll let you know if that works as a substitute for the packaged mixes.

My brother Freddie, his wife Wendy, as well as mom, Gerry and I will be having a small Mother’s Day celebration.  Nicky seemed relieved when I asked him if he minded that I wouldn’t be here.  Not that he wouldn’t want to do something, but at that age kids are always glad to be left alone.

Unfortunately, I can’t leave Nicky alone right now, as I want him to get busy and find a summer job.  He’s very persnickety about the types of jobs he’ll apply for, and so far only applied at the City and the Regional District, as they pay decently.  To my surprise, he was called in for a job interview with the Regional District.

I have to admit, I pretty much thought it would be a slam-dunk for him to get it.  His friend, Jordan, had the job before him, and Nicky had cleverly mentioned in his cover letter that he was Jordan’s friend.  He therefore whistled as he drove off to the interview.

An hour after arriving home, however, he received a call saying he didn’t get the job.  He was crushed, and has remained in the basement ever since.  This was over one week ago, and I’m asking him daily, “So, how’s the job hunt going?”  He either replies with, “Fine” or “Obviously, as I’m just sitting here, it’s not going well.”

Sigh.  So what better way to take one’s mind off small annoyances than cooking?  I’ve made a pan of cabbage rolls for our dinner in Osoyoos, and have made some devilled eggs to accompany the lunch.  I call it “Freddie’s lunch.”  He and his wife have eaten like this for forty years.  It involves cheese and cold cuts, bread and some eggs.  For fun, I threw in a pack of those nice Campari tomatoes.

For my own Mom’s Day celebration, I spent a few hours over the past days purchasing seeds and bedding plants, and puttering around inside my sanity-restoring greenhouse.  I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to enter a tiny, perfect little cocoon, all nice and warm and filled with colour.  Now that’s what I call the perfect way to find Zen.