With apologies to Dave Edmunds. [and this was only started when it was almost Saturday night; finished on Sunday]
I guess, since I haven’t written since Wednesday, and even then was writing about Sunday – we are due for a wrap-up.
Wednesday was Mark’s birthday. We took him out for dinner at Pig in a Fur Coat. Really nice meal. The chef says his aim is to serve really good food in a non-pretentious environment – and that’s just what he does. The menu is little, middle, big, plates, and the server said they’re all designed for sharing. It was me, Mark, and our AFS student, who had just spent an hour and a half running at cross country practice – so hungry. From the small plates column, we ordered duck fat fries. From the middle, a tomato and burrata salad and pappardelle with oxtail. From the big plates, we got Waygu beef (Wagyu Beef/ bone marrow/ zucchini/ potato/ green bean/onion/ heirloom cherry tomato) and porchetta (Porchetta/potato/ spring onion/ chorizo pesto/ almonds). And because it was a birthday, we even got dessert – sfingi – little Italian donuts with chocolate sauce. We sat at a long communal table that was just a little too high for sharing – made you feel like a kid – it was like chest high, even on Mark. I told the chef on our way out. “We really enjoyed our meals,but the tables are too high”. The people at the other end were all women artists, some visiting, some Madisonians; one of them was Laurie Beth Clark.
Thursday was almost a normal work day. I had an online meeting to rank LITA programs – I’m chairing the committee. Anyways, somehow I forgot how to do a group call in Skype, and ended up shunting everyone over to Adobe Connect. I came home a little bit early, because I had class at 8:00, and wanted a break between, and to get my CSA box. Which included:
Superior white potatoes, 3.5 lb.
Pak choy, 1 head – I think I’ll have to make fried rice …
Slicing tomatoes, 3 lb – they’re cascades – some of them – made into tomato tart Sunday. They’re a really good small round firm tomato that Tipi grows that are meaty and dry enough to cook with, but juicy enough for slicing and sandwiches.
Red bell peppers, 1 or 2
Broccoli – 1 stalk
Cauliflower – a pretty nice big head – gonna make that kind of mac & cheese with cauliflower in it, I think
Yellow onions, 2
Chili peppers: 2 poblanos and 1 Anaheim – that I roasted, along with a yellow bell still left from last week, and the big fat red one from above. I am stil debating whether to make steak fajitas of potato-poblano gratin. The fajitas are winning because I don’t have to buy anything.
Cilantro
a half pint of raspberries – that we ate at one sitting, our Thursday dinner of sandwiches before Mark & Toni headed off to see Ira Flato, and I stayed home for class.
Friday I had a haircut, worked at home after that, and then went to campus for a luncheon/academic staff governance/orientation. For our pre-symphony dinner we had Monday night’s BBQ tempeh made into quesadillas with roasted peppers and cheddar cheese. And brown rice with green beans and leftover pinto beans, cooked in a carton of chicken broth retrieved from the freezer – a small salvo into the defrosting frenzy of the next day.
Saturday I defrosted the freezer and made some pretty good progress in writing the paper for the class I am taking (teaching two, taking one this semester – aaargh) that is, the paper I am ignoring right now. We also biked to the farmers’ market – one of those markets when later in the day I didn’t have $5 in cash to buy bagels, which means I spent $50+ at the market. I had to add up but I eventually got it to come out right; I didn’t drop a $10 or a $20 bill, or leave it in amongst someone’s vegetable display. I made the squash casserole I always make in September, with a herb (rosemary) and roasted red pepper sauce, with no wine this year. And layered it up with a sliced and roasted delicata squash and the bulb of a butternut, and the Gruyere called for in the original recipe, which is a Deborah Madison – from The Greens Cookbook, p. 214, but “No eBook available” Google book says. There’s a little dab of the sauce left – I think I’ll have to make pizza. We went to the WPR radio play, Forbidden Planet Decoded, and came home and watched Saturday Night Live. The best skit was the quiz show, new featured cast member, or Arcade Fire?
I went for a walk on Sunday morning, and, because I had to get my good shoes out of the closet, I assume it’s the first time I’ve walked since we got back from Canada – what’s up with that? Although it’s also because last weekend and week prior were so wicked busy. I made tomato tart and sausage and potatoes for breakfast – we also had raspberries & little plums from the market and Toni brought back a whole loaf of the cinnamon bread I made for her to take to the cross country team sleepover, so we had that, too.
Now I’m going to make this a two pie day – time to make Mark’s belated birthday apple pie. And roast carrots and beets. [well only did the carrots – but beets keep a long time, right?]
