Basically how this week has been.
On Monday I got up and started a batch of sourdough bread – I made a new starter and thought I should use it. I chucked my old one a few months ago, in a rash of fridge cleaning out. It was probably 20 years old. I used it a lot more when John was still at home, to make John’s Favorite Sourdough Waffles.
Anyways, the bread was mostly white flour with some wheat germ. I baked it on Monday night after dinner, and it looked and smelled delicious. I cut some on Tuesday morning, and I thought it tasted delicious, too – nice and chewy, like good sourdough should be. I left it out on a bread board with a dome over it all ready to eat, but neither Mark nor Anna had any of it.
Monday I went to work for a half day, then went to the community center to prep brunch.
When I got home Monday we had cheese-slaw dogs for dinner. Around Memorial Day, Mark and I found a couple of lists of best hot dogs. On the Epicurious list I looked at, Hebrew National ranked 1st, but on the Washington Post list Mark cited, Kirkland beef dogs, from Costco, were best. I had to go to Costco for water softener salt so I bought some, and they are pretty good, though not sure if they’re much better than Hebrew National, and certainly not better than 4505 Meats Bacon dogs, but looks like you have to go to San Francisco to eat them now, can’t order online.
The dogs were good but what I really liked was the coleslaw. I used the dressing from this recipe, and the method from my recipe, which I promise to update Real Soon Now™ to reflect this innovation. The pickle relish in the dressing isn’t really detectable as such, and gives it it an ineffable summer flavor.
I ate the coleslaw on a cheese sandwich (on the sourdough bread) Wednesday afternoon for a late lunch, and then finished the last of it on a toasted half of a pretzel bun with a swipe of cheese spread, for a quick bite before the bus on Thursday.
Tuesday after I served the breakfast (wild rice and chicken hot dish, cheesy potatoes, chopped salad, orange wedges, and banana bread) we went to Chicago to see Rosanne Cash & Ry Cooder perform Johnny Cash songs.
It was our last Chicago outing with Anna, and she wanted pasta for dinner. We had a bit of time so I suggested Bar Siena in the West Loop. It looked like she wasn’t going to find anything she wanted to eat on their menu, my choice of restaurant so of course, but Mark steered her onto some pasta with pistachio pesto and shrimp, and she had a scoop of coconut gelato with chocolate chips. Ate every bite of both.
We had terrible seats for Rosanne Cash, rear balcony, second row back, with a bouncy little girl who couldn’t sit down leaning on the railing and blocking our view … but the music was great.
Here’s the setlist:
Understand Your Man
Guess Things Happen That Way
Hey Porter
Pickin’ Time
Tennessee Flat Top Box
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
Hardin Wouldn’t Run
Home of the Blues
Get Rhythm
I Walk the Line
I Still Miss Someone
Give My Love to Rose
Long Black Veil
Big River
Encore:
Ring of Fire
I Am a Pilgrim
She called the version of Ring of Fire Grateful Dead style – long and free form jamming. And it came right after Big River, that the Dead do.
It was a less-than 24-hour trip, including dinner.
Home by noon on Wednesday, checked the kitties, then I biked to work in the rain to pack booth stuff for conference. Came back home to meet with the designer & a project manager about finishes for the garage, then made fudge nut brownies and took them to photography book group.
Came home and started packing, and folded laundry, planning to finish Thursday morning, when I took a walk, and moved Anna over to her AFS liaison. I said goodbye, shook her hand, congratulated her on completing her exchange year, said I thought she’d gotten to do everything she wanted, and she actually smiled and said thank you. I went home, ate that pretzel bun & coleslaw, packed fruit and did last kitty checks, then walked part way and got on the city bus to campus. Where I collected that second suitcase and got on the bus with my two suitcases and went back to Chicago.
Dinner with John and Megan at Giant: really good but a little spendy. We had onion rings, and then three dishes – ribeye with sticky rice, peanut, and chili sauce; broccoli with chickpeas, honey, and mint; saffron tagliatelle dungeness crab and chili butter.
Bus, bus, taxi, L, walking, Uber, Lyft, Lyft, flight, taxi – and I was in our hotel in Washington DC for ALA at 9:00 AM Friday. Whew.
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