Having it all

Or doing a bunch of stuff half-ass-ed, more like.

On Saturday morning, having it all meant biking off to the Westside Farmers Market when it was grey and windy and cold; I felt gypped because all the weather apps said the strong winds would not start until after we got back, but they started early. At least we only got rained on a little. I think Mark would’ve preferred doing the walk through market, a bit later, after my yoga class on the zoom, when it was a little warmer. Still, we got back in time for me to do yoga, sorta. I had time to mix up and shape a batch of scones, and the recipe instructed to chill them for 30 minutes before baking, so I joined the online yoga class about 5 minutes late, and participated while the scones chilled. I was going to leave yoga a bit early anyways, to go to an online training for early voting workers, that I have 3 shifts doing starting Wednesday. The info about the training was a bit garbled and I didn’t get the zoom link until about 9:30 for an 11:00 class. Anyways, did that and the scones baked, and they came out OK. I think I still like my regular recipe that has honey in it a bit better, I just like honey with pumpkin, but these were good. Further discussion of pumpkin scones in this 9-year-old blog post.

After that, nothing left to do but work, so I did some of that.

Of course it got warmer and the sun came out. I went for a little walk, but more half-assed-ness, not very far. We had roasted chicken for dinner, and needing something to put into the pan with the herb-stuffed bird, I used about half a can of beer. So I got to finish the beer, which was fine, and I poured myself a full one to go with dinner. And had a whiskey & soda after. So, weekend drinking, but alone, and not super enjoyable. I slept pretty well, though.

And, as promised here’s some catch up of ignored food pics, going all the way back to a week ago Sunday brunch, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, toast with pumpkin butter, potatoes. I burned the bacon, but we ate most of it anyways.

And then … did I go an entire week with no pics of food at all? Seems like. A lot of leftovers were involved in dinners last week. It’s so uninspiring to be cooking for the two of and risking leftovers every time. I think not being able to share food with people easily could be the worst part of the pandemic for me.

Monday we ate fresh baked squash and leftover coleslaw and leftover stir-fried broccoli with tofu.

Tuesday was the Jeff Tweedy streaming, squash galette & salad dinner on the couch.

Wednesday I didn’t enter dinner into my diet & exercise app, and I can’t remember what it was. I know I made a batch of these brownies to take to Heike the next morning for belated birthday. I put all the pumpkin batter on the bottom, and the chocolate on top, and they did not swirl as prettily as they should have, even though I made them in the same pan as the pic from 2012. They tasted OK. Maybe we had vegetable soup and leftover pizza? It’s good soup – we just had it again tonight, with chicken sandwiches and carrot sticks. An adaptation of a Moosewood Cookbook recipe, Gypsy Soup, so I guess an unfortunate name, but it was the ’70s. I’m kind glad Mollie Katzen did not rename it in later editions of the book. Anyways, this version had hunks of kabocha squash, and garbanzo beans. I still have about a cup & a half of garbanzos to use up – difficult since I live with a hummus-hater, and there’s already a carton of hummus from spring in the freezer. Maybe that’s where the garbanzos need to go, too.

Thursday we had baked ham sandwiches and then I went to introduce Nikki Giovanni on the zoom for the Wisconsin Book Fest. Thursday was a long day. Besides the intro, we had an online information session for prospective iSchool students, that was also a high production number. I was glad when it was all over.

Friday our cleaners came, and we went and did our usual County Park walk, starting a bit late because I had class until 3:00. I set up in the basement to be socially distanced for that half hour overlap with the cleaners.  When we got home it was the last leftover extravaganza – squash galette and pizza and salad.

Saturday I made roast chicken, one of Matt Smith’s 5-pound birds, delivered to the cooler on my front porch on Thursday, and scalloped potatoes with soem of the leftover ham, and roasted vegetables, broccoli, peppers, and carrots from CSA.

Sunday morning I went to walk on the farm, Tipi’s answer to how to have their normal gleaning day & pumpkin during pandemic, and a bad pumpkin year for them. They offered this kind of smaller event, a self-guided farm walk.

I took lots of pictures of cabbages.

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We didn’t have brunch because I was off at the farm. I made baked apple sauce donuts (I just bought a donut pan from King Arthur Baking), and took some of them and some of the scones to give to the Pincus/Kazmar family. yay! I got to give food away!

Instead we had breakfast for dinner, an omelette with green paper, onion, and ham –  think that’s a Denver omelette – and leftover scalloped potatoes, and toast. And applesauce as an extra side – I thawed out the last carton of last year’s to make the donuts.

And now it’s a new week, all sorts of more leftovers to sort, and new dishes to make to generate more leftovers  … I’ll try to take more pictures.