Pie, Potato Salad and a Mountain

OK, so I arrive home this afternoon to a wonderfully clean apartment - thank you Moonsong - and a pie sitting on my table in the dining area. I think it is a gift from Moonsong and it is not! Markie had delivered it this afternoon. Sometime between Moonsong cleaning and the building management coming in to change the light bulb in the closet. Heck, it was like Grand Central Station. Now mind you, the pie is but 3" across.
This picture gives you perspective of the pie to the table. I had to laugh as I had just tossed the lilies this very morning. They lasted over a week to give beauty to the apartment. I have a few things to get at the market tomorrow and I think I shall include flowers. Today, on the day to work I paused at QFC near the office and got Curtis a chocolate/chocolate cake for his delayed birthday celebration. I also provided Taco Bell to all the staff. Now wait, it is his FAVORITE place to go for lunch and he always - and I mean ALWAYS - gets the same order - a chicken quesadilla and a grilled steak burrito with no fiesta sauce or baja sauce but add sour cream and a Dr. Pepper. I also treated the other 10 staff. I did go for the chipolte taco salad. So let's bring this posting back to me! I made a potato salad for the 4th of July that was stunning. It really was. I took 4 lbs. of Yukon Gold potatoes and peeled them and sliced them into cubes and put them in a heck of a lot of water covering them and then douched them with salt. Boiled them until fork tender, about 20 minutes quite frankly. Drained and then placed them on a cookie sheet and massaged in a mustard and pickle juice mixture and oh did my finger burn. What I do for friends. Put the cookie sheet in the fridge.

Minced a cup of celery (yes, I bought the Organic crap and had to wash it to within an inch of its' life to get it clean) and then sliced up just shy of 2 cups of cucumber chips. Both of those and the cup of mayo and cup of sour cream got blended with salt and pepper to taste plus added some vinegar (used a sushi kind since no white on hand) and added some pickle juice and a tablespoon of ground mustard. Let all that meld in the bowl for like an hour.

Cooked up 6 eggs. Took them in cold water and brought to a boil and then covered and let stand 15 minutes = perfect! Cooled them in a lot of cold water and shelled them and put in a bowl in the fridge until 2 hours before I left. About 1pm I blended the potatoes into the mixture and put back in the fridge. At 3:30pm I cut up the eggs and added them. Kept putting everything back in the fridge to keep cool. They both seemed to enjoy it and we had a grand night of food, friendship and fireworks. It was a good time to be sure. So this last photo is one that just has me laughing. When Markie and I took this apt. back in 2006, one of the selling features was a "view of Mt. Rainer" and over the years it is getting less and less. Today, if you look closely in the picture above you see a "chunk of Rainer." No more wedge, the trees are growing! And so goes another day at the casa...stay cool out there!