Wow! Busy day today. Mostly because I had a hard time getting started. I had Kat, Dana, and Dana's mother Helen for dinner tonight, which I knew I was going to do, but I got caught up, and then had my time frame moved on me.

I called Miss Kat Thursday to vet my menu. Miss Kat doesn't eat a lot of things, and Dana is very particular. Dana doesn't eat most vegetables, and since I don't eat meat, that doesn't leave a lot more to choose from. We settled on potato soup and salad. Sounds scanty, I know, but I was making a hearty homemade baked potato soup with lots of stuff in it, and baking a pound cake too. I have a family recipe for pound cake that I love, and that is always a hit. Miss Helen loves pound cake, and I had been promising to make her one for a while.

I got up Saturday morning and had to go to the flea market to get my potatoes and a few other things (fruit for next week, etc). But "Mr. Skeffington" was on Turner Classic Movies, one of my favorites - but then I like anything with Bette Davis in it. So I turned it on to watch "while I was eating breakfast" and got caught up in it, and then didn't get to the flea market until almost noon. But I got my stuff.

Next I was going to bake my cake, so I could get the potatoes in the oven. But I was out of shortening. And I piddle-farted around the house doing stuff because I didn't want to go to the store. But I finally went and got the stuff and got the cake in the oven. By now it's like 1:30 or so. After doing my best to make that cake fall, and thankfully failing (had the oven set too high, forgot to measure some of my flour and had to guestimate it - sheesh - you'd think I had never made a cake before!), I got my potatoes in the oven.

Then Miss Kat calls and says they want to come over about 4:30 for an early dinner (!!) so we can go to the auction that night. Well needless to say, I had to kick it in to high gear. I straightened up the house while the potatoes were baking, and did get most of the meal made before they got there, but the kitchen was a disaster. I had been thinking they would come 7-8, you know dinner time, so I didn't have any time to clean up the kitchen after I made the soup, and had to do the garlic bread and salad while they were there. But it worked out. The soup was good, and we did have time to go to the auction, where I picked up a couple of presents.

Miss Kat was all worried about the cat next door. It meows and meows while the neighbors are gone, and she thought it was hungry. It did sound pitiful. When I got home from the auction, I cleaned up the kitchen, and heard more meowing. I looked at the window, and the cat had gotten up on the window-sill and was looking in at me, meowing pitifully. Miss Kat had called back to make me promise that I would check on it and make sure it was OK the next day. Well my conscience hurt me, so at 1:30am, I go next door to make sure it has food. There were four bowls of food on the porch. So I went back inside.

Since it was so late anyway, and my chick peas were done, I decided to make hummus, so I made a big batch of that and cleaned up again before I went to bed. It turned out pretty good, but I ran out of garlic, so I couldn't finish it. Making hummus at home is SO much cheaper than buying it, and now that I make my own peas, the consistency is right, but the flavor is still missing something. There is some mystery ingredient that I don't know about yet. But I'm getting closer.