Election Day was last Tuesday, and it was so busy that I worked from 6:00 to 4:00 instead of the 6:00 to 1:30 that I was scheduled for. And for the rest of the week it seemed like everyone I talked to was tired, but sort of happy. We elected a liberal supreme court justice here in Wisconsin despite Elon Musk flooding money into the Trump-endorsed opponent’s race. But you’d have to have been living under a rock to not hear that by now so there’s not much point in me telling you.
Despite the WI supreme court win, I can’t say that I feel all that great recently. I can try to ignore the headlines all I want but they’re still overall awful. And I feel old & creaky. And too fat. And worried about not being able to do things I’ve always been able to do. When I took Jasper to the library Wednesday and tried to sit on a low cushion at the story time, the librarian – who had been one of my students – suggested another chair for me because I was awkward going down. But I’ve been trying to do more yoga, I think that helps. And I did get us rock star parking right outside the library, and figured out the pay-by-text system. As long as my credit card doesn’t get stolen I think that all went OK.
But, maybe I’m not all washed up yet. I did OK at the polls this year. Got the place up and running and workers assigned jobs and answered lots of voters’ questions. Before election day I worked a bunch of busy in person absentees shifts as well, and managed those.
I took these sugar cookie bars with strawberry frosting to the polls. They were good but I had to make them twice. I pulled the first batch out of the oven too soon and it was way too doughy. The picture is try #2, the good ones.
The film fest started Thursday and we didn’t like the opening movie, Friendship, about male friendship, too much. The humor was a little too cringey, and they tried to make a bunch of situations funny that weren’t (to me anyhow), the guys hanging out and actually doing and saying things to each other that were pretty horrible. Surprisingly, the Guardian liked it. Friday we went to see movie #2 and liked it a lot better. For Worse, by Amy Landecker. I got a little dozy during the set up part, where we’re meeting the people in her acting class, but when they get to the wedding which is most of the movie, it started getting funnier. Bradly Whitford is good as the father of the bride, and the wedding’s being hosted at his ex-wife’s house, that used to be his house, where the ex-wife lives with her new husband who was their marriage counselor. A modern comedy of manners.
Saturday was busy. Susan and I went to the gym, then Mark and I went to a memorial for a librarian colleague, a guy I did not know terribly well, but who had taken several of my students for practicums. I knew his wife better, she was friends with my former boss, and taught some for the iSchool, and the main thing I always thought about the two of them is how much happier she looked after they got together. After the memorial, I volunteered at the film fest, and then went to a close by bar and ate a salad and had a beer. Mark came to meet me and we headed to our last movie of the fest, The Threesome, another rom com, and also well written and funny.
I left my water bottle in a cup holder at the theater, so after breakfast on Sunday I got out my bike for the first time this year and first time post-broken-wrist and biked over to see if I could get the water bottle back. It was probably farther than I should’ve gone for a first ride and my wrist was twinging by the time I got home but it was a successful trip. Nice ride on a sunny day, water bottle retrieved, and I even stopped at the coop got Mark’s yogurts that everyone was out of when I shopped on Saturday.
After the bike ride, I finally got around to washing my hair; I’d been ignoring it for 2 weeks and just pulling it back and wearing a hat. So I should feel good about that too.
I did try to take more pictures of food this week, so here’s a bunch of those.
Last two Sunday brunches.
March 30th brunch. Roasted fingerling potatoes and scrambled eggs with cheese & scallions. Somehow I put just the right amount of milk in the eggs and they were nice and fluffy. Bacon and toast were added later.
April 6th brunch. Pizza eggs with cherry tomatoes, Penzey’s pizza seasoning, and mozzarella and provolone cheeses. Sausage patties and toast
I made a big batch of my Better-than-Stella’s cherry muffins on Friday and here’s the one I ate Sunday morning.
For our Sunday snack, I thawed out a half angel food cake I made back in the winter sometime, and made strawberry pie filling from frozen strawberries (recipe testing for a friend’s birthday cake I’m making next week) and whipped cream to go on top of it, and then at the last minute I also made some mocha pudding. I made some coffee syrup for coffee milk that Mark saw in the Washington Post, and have been looking for ways to use it. It’s really sweet, but it was good in the pudding. I reduced the sugar and the cocoa added enough bitterness to tone down the syrup.
Cook’s dividend, scraping up the last bites of pudding in the pot.
And dribbling down the front of my sweatshirt. I got a clean one to wear the rest of the night
On Wednesday I took a zoom cake class taught by Bronwen Wyatt, aka Bayou Saint Cake. She’s a good teacher, very calm and answers all your questions. We made caramel upside down cakes. Mine was cherry. One of the Bronwen’s tricks was to put a little vinegar into the caramel to add a little acidity to pep up the cooked fruit – that one worked. One of the other tricks was instead of brushing down the sides of your caramel pan with a wet pastry brush to wash away sugar crystals (something that I’ve never actually bothered with), Brownen recommends covering the pot briefly to steam the sides instead. That one didn’t work for me, my caramel totally crystallized before it had any color. I think I was using too low a heat, and covered the pot for too long, introducing way too much water hence crystals. I made it over and caught up. And the cake was delicious. I had it for breakfast Thursday. I like how tidy a caramel upside down cake is, less drippy syrup than butter and brown sugar versions.
The kitchen was a mess all during class, though. When Jasper woke up after nap he wanted dinosaur pancakes, and the class was at 5:00 so right after Emma came and got him, so all the dishes from the pancakes were still in the sink. And I also had some pizza dough rising. And George the boy cat decided it would be fun to dip his paws in the flour canister then run around the kitchen with floury feet.
No kid pictures to close, but you get Friday breakfast instead. Monday night I’m making pork chops and roasted vegetables for dinner so maybe there’ll be some good pics of that.
Re-heated chocolate chip scone, boiled egg that was softer than I intended which made it extra delicious, local farmers market egg, and a little fruit salad, canned pineapple, apple, and raisons
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