Where I left off was Tuesday after the vegans – It was my first day back at work after Bootcamp. Catch up in the AM, then a planning retreat for a campus organization of which I am part in the PM. The lunch was boxed from Panera – I thought I was going to be getting a chicken Caesar salad wrap – but it turned out to be a sandwich on some bread that had that texture my mom always called “cottony” – why she eschewed most fast food; couldn’t face “those buns”. The chicken was the kind that comes precooked in little plastic bags containing God knows what seasoning and preserving fluids – I took it off the sandwich and had a soggy mayo-lettuce-tomato-Parmesan-cheese sandwich of which I ate about 1/3, biting as close as possible to the crustiest parts of the bread. There was a little bag of chips and a cookie in the box too. The cookie was a not too terrible butter cookie, so I ate about 3/4 of that.
I was supposed to have dinner with a friend, but she forgot, so I came home and made kidney bean and corn enchiladas – my standard recipe, based on this Martha (I use flour tortillas, warmed in the micro, don’t add extra water to the sauce, and use my own home made chicken or veggie broth) – and they looked a lot like the below black bean ones from almost the exact same date, August 14, last year, but of course, no pix.
Black Bean Enchiladas
Wednesday we went for burgers at Dottie’s, with Ethan and Abby; Thursday we ate some leftovers and went to see a movie (Remember the Titans, selected by crowd sourcing) on the new jumbotron scoreboard at Camp Randall.
Friday I came home and cooked for two hours and produced Thai chicken curry, that we ate at almost 8:00, a banana cake, and … oh … damn, can’t even remember what the other thing was – it was to save some vegetable or other that was languishing in the fridge, that’s for sure. Oh that’s right – Cafe Flora mushroom pate! To use up the leftover mushrooms from the vegans.
Saturday we went to Chris’s party out in the country, and I made focaccia sandwiches, 2 13 x 9 focaccias, split, one filled with goat cheese, pesto and tomatoes, and the other with the above mushroom pate and mayonnaise and lettuce.
Sunday I went and biked four hours at Ride the Drive. We grilled for dinner, brats and a nice little potato salad and grilled corn, then watched the vampires and Newsroom. I still can’t believe they killed off Eric.
Now it’s Monday of my stay at home, vacation/slash work at home week. So far, I folded the two baskets of laundry I’ve been storing in the basement for two weeks – had to go down and fish out underwear every morning because none in my dresser; washed a bedspread; have tomatoes and vegetables roasting for the roasted vegetable tomato sauce I’ve discovered and like so well; and made veggie broth with all the dregs of the veggie bin – corn cobs, pepper insides, carrot peels and the last couple of CA organic carrots – the local ones will be here soon, parsley stems, and, after taking enough leaves to put into the roasted vegetable sauce, the fresh thyme I bought for the Cafe Flora mushroom pate, and the fresh oregano I got in my CSA box. I made some corn muffins with kernels cut off the cobs we grilled last night.
So altogether doing a great job not working, but there’s no avoiding it now. If I get the rest of my students’ final papers read today, I can save posting the final grades for tomorrow. Everything’s due at midnight on Wednesday… I think … better go look that up right now.
