Here we are in the grinding down part of the winter and in the middle of a Wisconsin cold snap.
I’m waiting for my second vaccine shot next week, and the impeachment of the orange insurrectionist starts today.
Waiting I think is the key feeling, and lonely and stuck. I miss my kids, I miss live music, I miss simply going out of the house with no destination, which is precluded by the cold even more than pandemic right now. Though we are still taking our usual long walks in the below-zero, Mark even more than me.
On Friday for dinner we had soup – sweet potato & celeriac, the last of my CSA storage share inspired by Clotilde; I used nutmeg instead of ginger. And sandwiches, grilled cheese and grilled ham & cheese. I made a coleslaw variant that came out really well, see: Yet another coleslaw.
This is Sunday and I’m trying to remember the rest of the week. On Monday I made pasta with some garlic scape & basil pesto from the freezer, and I used the last couple of tomatoes from the fruit bowl to make a quick tomato sauce that went on top. And a glug of heavy cream in the pesto.
Tuesday I made some quick stir fry noodles to go with the last of the coconut vegetables, from Budget Bytes. In my organization of information class, seems like every year a student does Budget Bytes for the analyze the categories on a website assignment. Anyways, the noodles were supposed to have scallions, and even though we had stopped at Whole Foods on our morning walk and grabbed bananas and lemons and limes and strawberries and lettuce, I didn’t think to get any scallions. Whole Foods was crowded in that uncomfortable pandemic way, people just standing in the aisle, or blocking the lettuce, and lots staff shopping for someone else, and I just wanted the hell out as soon as I was in. I used freeze dried chives that had been lurking in the basement fridge. And here’s why I don’t take pictures of dinner in the winter when it’s too dark.
Wednesday we had the last of the turkey enchiladas, along with some nachos made from the last of the corn tortillas (Costco bag, took awhile to use), fried, and some roasted vegetable salsa from the freezer where it’s been since I made it during tomato season in the summer. The enchiladas are a Splendid Table recipe that I got by email back in the ’90s that still can be found online. I fried the tortillas for the nachos but I never fry them for the enchiladas.
Thursday I was going to make the soup that we had Friday, but I worked late and ran out of time so we had leftovers then went out and shoveled snow. Thursday was the day that started freezing rain that changed into snow, and I never went out except for the snow shoveling.
Friday I was determined to not get stuck inside like Thursday so I walked first thing.
Saturday morning I made apricot white chocolate scones. I was trying to decide the easiest way to melt white chocolate to drizzle on top and decided I could lay these disks on top of the hot-out-of-the-oven scones and let them melt in place.
Saturday night I made porkchops with cherry pepper sauce. I’d had the recipe open in a tab in my phone web browser for months. We had them with the suggested buttered spaghetti and garlic toast. And salad. The chops were huge – from the pig I went in on with friends last summer – and Monday I pulled the meat off the bones and simmered what was left, and we’ll have baked beans with pork cooked in the broth, and I think pork stir fry noodles, or maybe fried rice, with the meat.
No pics, but it was a nice meaty Saturday dinner. Even better, I facetimed with John while I was cooking the chops and he was prepping chicken wings to go with the Superbowl. I put my phone on the tripod, he had his on his kitchen counter someplace, and we could hear each other clattering pans and I could hear the drip of the tap their landlord says they have to keep open in winter to keep it from freezing. It was almost like hanging out. Almost.
Sunday instead of big brunch and dessert in front of TV, we had a smaller breakfast, oatmeal and scones, and then snacks in front of the Superbowl.
I still despise Tom Brady, Turmp toady, but I kinda liked the Weeknd. And the guys with the underpants on their heads.
Started on Sunday, added to on Monday, finished on Tuesday. What was that about stuck?