So, like I said, Friday was my last day in the office, but I am still a UW employee until sometime in August, using up banked leave. And I will be going back Wednesday to finish cleaning out papers in my office – two file cabinet drawers and my bulletin board left to do – and bring what I think is going to be one or two boxes of stuff, my chair, and a monitor, home.
Which means this past weekend, and actually today, Monday July 3, and tomorrow, July 4th, is my first weekend of retirement, and a long one, yay!
Saturday I had a busy morning planned, but skated on some of it. Since I missed the strawberry U-picks at my CSA, I ordered a flat of strawberries from another local farm that they picked for me! and brought to the Farmers Market on the Square (DCFM) for me take home. My plan was to drive to the Square about 7:00am, get the berries and bring them home, then bike back for a shift of giving out bookmarks for the DCFM Cookbook, followed by picking up a Madison Farmers Unite order, with more strawberries, and a yoga class, my first in-person since pandemic, and I already missed the first one last week due to the library conference, and will miss the next one July 8 due to the cookbook book launch.
It started raining on me while I carried the strawberries to the car and as I walked in my door with them my phone rang and it was the DCFM Cookbook publicity person saying bookmark handing out might be cancelled.
As soon as I looked at the flat of strawberries I could see the advantage U-pick; they’re super fresh. The strawberries they picked for me were really good, but you could tell they’d been picked a few days before and stored. A lot of them had soft spots. So I started measuring and rinsing the berries, and hulled a generous quart, the amount for a double batch of jam. Just as I was finishing that, my phone rang again and the bookmark handing out was on. So I added the sugar to the measured berries and stuck the pot in the fridge and put all the rest down the basement where it was cool, and took off. By car because it was still raining, with my grocery bags and yoga stuff.
At the square, we had a few actual books too so people could see it to help them decide if they wanted to order one, and pick up their pre-orders. It was fun, and kind of busy despite the rain. Saw quite a few people I knew. But afterward my knee hurt from standing and I just felt kind crummy – maybe I was hungover from the night before’s old fashioned & a beer at the Old Fashioned. I picked my Farmers Unite order then decided to blow off yoga and go run my other errands, the co-op & Costco. And then go home, eat strawberries and cereal for breakfast, and make jam.
Rinsed strawberries
Strawberry jam boiling
First two jars of 2023 jam – besides these two jars there’re three plastic pints in the freezer
Somehow even with all the stops in the AM, I made a couple of miscalculations in my grocery purchasing. I got 2 tubes of ground turkey at Farmers Unite and no eggs, and Mark wanted a couple of gallon jugs of distilled water for the cat fountain, and that’s easier at Metcalfe’s. So at about 2:00 in between the 2nd & 3rd jam batches I decided to run the rest of the errands. And it started to rain again, so I did errands part 2 by car too. Easier to get the water by car anyways, I guess.
For dinner we had calabacitas quiche. I updated my recipe from 2008, and it might become a CSA original one of these weeks. Like this coming week. My farmer sent me the preliminary list for this week already so they can have an easier day on the 4th – that they deserve! – and there’s 2 1/2 pounds of zucchini & summer squash on it again.
Calabacitas quiche under construction. See featured image for cooked view
Sunday morning I made a savory Dutch baby with dill and goat cheese, topped with dressed arugula, based on this NYT recipe. I used chive-horseradish havarti and Gruyere, and topped it with dressed cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. It was good – maybe a little heavy, and I might’ve overcooked it a touch. I made half a batch in an 8-inch skillet and browned the two tablespoons of butter called for a 10-inch skillet – so it was pretty buttery, too. I think I will reduce the flour to egg ratio if I make it again.
Dill Dutch baby
Dill Dutch baby, sliced. You can see it’s a bit crusty
We ate it with potatoes and toast and bacon. This is probably the best shot.
Focusing on the cucumber tomato topping.
We A-B’d the last of last year’s strawberry jam – there was about enough for one PBJ, or more relevant, a slice of toast – with this year’s and declared it just as good. So I guess despite me feeling kind of off Saturday, the jam is right on.
Later I made Yossi Arefi’s cinnamon-sugar donut cake from the Snacking Cakes book, and we ate it with strawberries & cherries and ice cream and a night of PBS British detectives, and one episode of the Bear, where Marcus goes to Denmark for a baking stage.
It really does taste like a cinnamon-sugar cake donut – it’s just the texture that’s not the same. It’s softer and no crust like a fried donut has
Which brings us to Monday when the day’s activities are the contractors coming back for start of the screen porch job, book sale sorting, maybe going for a swim, some cooking things planning for the 4th … but I’m saving these stories for the next post.