When I left off I was writing about Mark’s birthday, on the day after, September 26th. And on the 27th, we were at the symphony, and at intermission I tried to look at my blog, and got a site suspended message.
When I got home from the concert, I had the first of what was to be 4 support calls with my hosting service (Bluehost) before the problem was finally resolved. Yesterday. October 7. They had done a server migration and eventually some of my multiple Word Press sites were working, but frustratingly, not this one, the one I regard as my main website.
I just kept getting that site suspended page. When I talked to support they kept saying server migration, wait 24 hours. I negotiated a month free during one of the calls, a fee reduction for being down for so long. I mean, it’s only like $8, but it’s the principle of the thing. Finally, I got my request escalated on Saturday afternoon, and a live tech called me back Monday afternoon. I got to watch a woodpecker on a tree by the Goodman community Center parking lot, and by the time I got home after pantry meal prep, my site was back.
What’ve I been doing during all this time? Well, I cooked stuff with peaches & plums.
Way back before my site went down, for Mark’s birthday, I didn’t make dinner; we went to this place called Pig in A Fur Coat, where I let chef Dan make Mark’s dinner. And I found out that they’ve opened a new deli, Alimentari around the corner from the restaurant in the strip mall, where the landromat used to be. We had a crazy expensive, and delicious hunk of beef. Before the beef, we started with frites cooked in beef fat, with aioli, followed by a pheasant stuffed pasta. And we indulged in dessert, the sfinge, Pig in A Fur Coat’s version of zeppole, little donuts with chocolate sauce. I tried to take pictures but they’re awful and dark.
On the Tuesday before Mark’s birthday, we cooked the pantry meal and the menu was:
- Pear cake with plum rhubarb sauce
- Scrambled eggs with cheese – using cartons of pasteurized egg that showed up in the pantry, and if anyone was wondering, they do not turn green like kept warm scrambled fresh eggs are wont to do
- Sautéed red frying peppers and green poblano peppers and onions
- Pulled pork with beans, retrieved from the freezer
- Roasted potatoes – a mix of regular potatoes, chopped, and the marble-sized ones mostly whole
- Kale gratin, with lots of sliced garlic in the sauce and herbed crumbs on top.
On Saturday 9/28, we went to Chicago to see CSO play Beethoven. John & Megan had been in Madison on Friday for a (unusually scheduled) wedding on Friday evening, but they went to Milwaukee with some other friends Saturday afternoon/evening so I didn’t really miss out on any time I could’ve spent with them.
And now it’s been so long I also cooked the pantry meal this week – why I was watching that woodpecker in the Goodman lot on Monday afternoon, during my support call. Much shorter menu this week, although I’m hopeful that the wonderfulness of potatoes cooked in cream made up for the bevity of the menu:
- Tow big pans of creamy potato-pepper gratin (kind of like this), one with some hot poblanos, one all sweet peppers
- Pork Patties
- Mashed winter squash with butter and brown sugar
- Blueberry crisp
We had a retirement party for Mark and we ate:
On the Friday before the party, I survived my colonoscopy and no new polyps even though I waited 7 years since the last one instead of the 5 they wanted me to. Frustratingly, even with the clean diagnosis they prescribed me another one in 5 years. I’m not doing that.
After the colonoscopy, we came home and had egg & bacon sangwiches on biscuits for breakfast, and Mark took me grocery shopping for the party.
Oh yea, and somewheres in there – Wednesday night (Oct. 2), maybe? I made the most comforting chicken rice soup – good for my low-fiber, pre-colonoscopy diet. I had baked some chicken breasts on a bed of CSA celery so we’d have lean protein in the house for Rachael’s visit, and made a very celery heavy broth that was the basis for the soup. Then added short grain white rice, shredded chicken, carrot, onion, and green pepper, and parsley at the last minute. The best. I ate the last of it for lunch yesterday.
On Sunday, I went to the Tipi Produce (my CSA) gleaning day and got one big bag each of purple and green kale, 4 poblanos, and two pumpkins.
And at some point before I had to go on the low fiber, pre-colonoscopy diet, I ate the last slice of pizza.