Triple Chocolate Scones

Triple Chocolate Scones

Triple Chocolate Scones

Apricot scones

Apricot scones

Apricot scones

Pineapple cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches

Pineapple cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches

Chicken sandwiches

Both scones

Tea table

Victoria sponge

Tea table

Victoria sponge

Victoria sponge

I made afternoon tea for 8 ladies on Sunday. We made mild fun of them all weekend, because they wanted their tea at 2:00 in the afternoon instead of the more traditional 4:00 p.m., and triple chocolate scones instead of more traditional, plainer scone flavors, eaten slathered with cream and jam. But they were a congenial group and it was a nice little party.

And who’s to say what’s authentic, anyways – I tried to make the food tasty, more than I worried about authentic.

They ate those all-American, certainly not British triple chocolate scones – I adapted Molly Wizenberg’s recipe. I also made lemon apricot scones, with apricot jam and creme frâiche to go with. Cucumber, pineapple cream cheese, and curried chicken salad sandwiches, each with its own flavor of butter spread thinly on a different bread. The cucumber had a creamed butter with mustard & lemon on white; pineapple cream cheese – pineapple tidbits mixed into cream cheese with toasted almonds – had honey butter, on thin rounds sliced from pretzel rolls; the curried chicken had plain whipped butter on whole wheat. And Victoria sponge, filled with the fresh tasting, uncooked, refrigerator strawberry jam from the farmers’ market. And two kinds of loose tea – Earl Grey and Darjeeling – in teapots, with milk and sugar, and a whole bunch of herbal teas in bags that no one touched.

I took all the pictures with my tiny camera, and I feel a little funny about that – no composing in the viewfinder. I did like some of the macro shots, the scone closeups, though. I am definitely going to relegate the tiny camera to restaurant food while traveling.

I also made a round challah for Rosh Hashanah – or could’ve been shabat, since it was Friday night. On tasting it today, it seems a little dry – I think I overbaked it a bit. Sigh.  But it will be good for grilled cheese sandwiches or French toast – maybe my new favorite grilled cheese – sharp cheddar with American Spoon tomato jam – Hey David – your sister eats cheese sandwiches with jam, too.

I made stir fry beef and separate veggies with tofu, and rice cooked in my own home made veggie broth for supper – that was all good. And I blanched and skinned and bagged and froze 1/3 of my 25-pound CSA box of tomatoes, and right before I went to bed, I put in another 1/3 to slow roast. They came out fine, too – this is an earlier batch, but these looked a lot the same.

So now I guess I’ll just have to try that crust again, I want to make tomato tart with some of that last 1/3 of the tomatoes, and I also have leeks for a leek tart this week. I have brunch tomorrow, but I’m making potato pancakes, not pies, and they’re gonna be potato-carrot, not zucchini. At the farmers’ market this morning, I concluded that zucchini vines must die off from frost sooner than the cucumbers because everyone had cukes, and no one had zucchini. I also just decided, whil riding my bike back from the library, that grated carrot in the cakes would be better than grated butternut squash – because raw grated carrot is a lot tastier than underdone squash.

We ate. Friday night we had a pre-theater supper at Trattoria No. 10 – a reliable old fave. I had the squash ravioli – 4 large ones, and the nice touch was shreds of zucchini and carrot over the top – softened by the heat of the pasta.

Then on to see Merchant of Venice, staged as Mad Men. I liked it – thought it was pretty incredible how Shakespeare’s words were uttered so easily by actors in modern dress, with cell phones and laptops. The couple next to left at intermission, though. Mark bought us CTA cards and we used the sh*t out of public transportation. When we hit Belmont Ave. at 11:30 on a Friday night, walking back to the hotel from the EL, the sidewalks were packed – we knew we were in the big city.

We ate some more. On Saturday morning we went to Bittersweet, a neighborhood bakery recommended by Lottie + Doof. Good bakery, but they don’t have the retail thing down at all – must be making all their $$ on wholesale out the back. As it should be, but still didn’t make it nicer for us front of the store customers. And, come to think of it, I had to look on Yelp to get their open hours – couldn’t find them on their website to save my life – so it all figures.

Sticky bun at Bittersweet

O'Keefe & Steiglitz in 1944

Then we walked to the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and the flower show. Took the EL to the Art Institute. We saw John Marin – most of the large collection of Marin’s paintings the Art Institute has came by way of Alfred Stieglitz. This picture of Steiglitz with O’Keefe was in a display about how they framed Marin’s work; made me miss Mark’s mustache.

I think my favorite thing at the Art Institute was the show by Peter Fischli & David Weiss – photographs of stuff they took out of the refrigerator mostly, and arranged into cities and fantastical machines. Reminded me of Robyn’s vid for Ordinary Millionaire, that stars a vegetable steamer and a tequila bottle.

Then we ate again, at 11 City Diner. Had a little lie down, and then to Hitchcock & Boyd. It was the early show, we were done at 9:00, so we took the EL back to Clark St. and saw the new Jane Eyre, with Alice as Jane.

Inside, two students, passing in the hall, “hi howya doin?” “ok, fine seeya bye”.

Outside 2 older women, even older than me, “complete change, not the man I married” “wooauw” drawn out, twice, “can’t stand to see him going down the tubes” another long “wow”.

I was worried that I brought too much food – besides the sandwich & prunes, I already ate a banana with peanut butter and a plum – but I added it all up on my iPhone calorie counter, and still over 700 calories left for my dinner tonight, not subtracting whatever I might’ve bicycled off, coming to work, and picking up my CSA box. Plenty for a bowl of that spicey squash soup I made last night, so’s we could have it for dinner tonight.

posted from my iPhone – at least until it crashed and I lost the draft and had to re-do

The stomach discomfort is almost as disturbing – but not quite – as the pain I’ve been having in the arch of my left foot. I’m afraid it’s cancer – I had a melanoma on that leg in 2001 – but the pain responds well to Advil, so I think it must be bad shoes and standing. On Friday night I came home a little tipsy from a dinner at Naomi’s (she forgot to give me the tomatoes then, so I got them from her on Sunday), and spent $250 online on two gel mats, one for home and one for work.

Grilled Cheese & Tomato

My plate after I ate my potatoes on Sunday

The first one was last night. It was quite pleasant -  a congenial group – one of my “girls” – a young woman who lived at the co-op dorm where I was the head cook from 1981-1986, when she was 18, and I was 26 – and she brought a long another woman who is wondering if she should keep trying to make it as an artist, maybe get an MFA, or pursue some other graduate degree; a young guy on his own, who turned out to have grown up in Manhattan, across the street from my upstairs renter’s boyfriend; one of my oldest friends; a group of four who’d never been there before – so lots of pleasant conversation.

The menu was:
Pan Bagnat – salad Nicoise in a sandwich – crusty bread stuffed with tuna, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives – with a no-tuna option for vegetarians (that turned out to be pesto, goat cheese & tomato
Salt & vinegar potato salad
Coleslaw
Rhubarb mousse served with butter cookies

There was a little too much food – a lot of sandwich, only a dab of coleslaw, and a vat of mousse leftover. I had some of the sandwiches  for dinner tonight, and mousse earlier today for second breakfast.

Mario Batali Chianti Red Panini Press

This weekend wasn’t too notable in the cooking department – on Friday, I got stuck schlepping kids, so never really made dinner. I was snack person for a librarian’s meeting in the morning, so I had bought sandwich meat and fruit. The kids I was schlepping had subs before I took them to their movie. I came home and I made myself a sandwich (turkey on toasted homemade whole wheat, with horseradish sauce and Durkee Special Sauce, and I made a mint-chocolate-chip ice cream pie for Al, who was in town for the weekend because his sorority-girl girlfriend’s sorority had a formal dance. I made the crust between schleppings then came back and filled it with the ice cream and made the topping. I ate too many oreos, and felt sick.

Saturday morning I got up and went for a nice walk, trying to counteract the oreos, meeting Rach for coffee, then combined cooking for brunch on Sunday with cooking stuff for Al to take back to MN. I made peach coffee cake, using my standard rhubarb recipe; carrot muffins with cream cheese on top – recipe coming soon; mac&cheese; taco meat, and various omelette fillings for the brunch – broccoli, grated cheese, mushroom sauce. We did get a real sit down dinner, tacos, but I bought corn tortillas, and I still have not figured out what really makes them taste good – I think I probably have to fry them – I heated them in the oven.

Tonight – Tuesday – is the 3rd annual (or something like that) edible books festival. I am going to bike home now for my entry, and I’ll post the pictures later tonight. I’ll let you know if I win.

At 10:30 it was time to watch the last Conan. Mark slept through Neil Young’s  Long May You Run, but at least I stayed awake for that, and we both watched the Will Ferrell all-star band do Free Bird. we are still debating who all was in that band, for sure Ben Harper & Beck & Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. And all of Max Weinberg’s band who’ve been with Conan all along. I guess Ferrell’s pregnant lady friend was really his wife, Viveca Paulin. Mark asked if the dorky guy with the hat & glasses was Elvis Costello – I didn’t think so, and evidently this is being debated on the Internet – but since Costello’s not out on tour in the US at the moment, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t him.

For dinner I made a vegetarian Primanti Bros. sandwich with Swiss cheese, mustard and horseradish sauce, on my home made sour dought bread – which turned out to be softer and better for the sandwich than I thought it would be. I’m trying to use up the coleslaw from dinner on Thursday. Enjoyed with a rolling rock, while Caprica got started.