Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

Our first night we had sammiches for supper – bread and Nueske’s smoked turkey from the fancy grocery store in Fish Creek, tomatoes & cucumbers from my CSA box, brought from home – then we watched Gosford Park on VHS tape.

Thursday morning we weren’t sure of the weather, so we went out seeking coffee and wifi. We stopped at the library to find out its hours, because I tried calling the night before, only to find that they don’t have an answering machine – but we’ve since made such good use of the place, my irritation over that lameness of theirs has passed. There were lots of cars when we arrived, around 9:20, and sure enough, they were open 9 – 1:00. So we went in, got some work done, and checked the weather. I even used my SCLS card to get a library card, and we checked out a stack of DVDs to augment the cabin video library. We went and got coffee at Red Cup, and bread at the new bread place attached. We took everything home and since it had turned into a sunny day, we set out on bikes. We hoped to visit the farmers market; somehow I thought the hours were noon to five but in fact it was 10:00 – 2:00. There was nothing on sale except for a lady from Illinois with earrings, and at first we thought we’d missed out. The earring lady assured us that there’s just nothing ready yet, vegetable-wise. There were still two feet of snow on the ground here in May.

So we biked to School House Beach, the smooth rock beach, and then the grocery store, to get what we couldn’t get at the market, and treated ourselves to Albatross chili cheese fries and a shake.

chili cheese fries at Albatross

We took the scenic route home, past the Washington Hotel – closed but accepted offer  – and had an all bread dinner – pizza on the flat bread we got from the bread place, and zucchini butter on the ciabatta.

Zucchini butter

We watched a P.D. James/BBC Inspector Dalgleish, one of our checked out DVDs from the library. It was pretty grim, so to counteract it, we watched episode 1, season 3 of Downton Abbey, also from the library – the one where Mary and Matthew get married.

Friday morning it was pouring. I came down and made coffee and we just stayed in bed reading and drinking coffee and listening to the rain until almost 10:00. Then we headed out to Red Cup, and had just discovered that they do have wifi this year (well sort of, more on that in a minute) when the power went out. So we just kind of hung out and read and waited for the electricity to come back, killing time till the library opened at 1:00.

We got sandwiches at the Danish Mill, and then headed to the library. We worked until about 3:30 – our last chance because they’re closed now until after Labor Day. Then we did a little car touristing – visited the TWO lavender farms on the Island. We’re betting that the one with the really nice rent-able ballroom that can seat 200 will survive longer.

My sammich at Danish Mill

Mark’s – umbrella on the side

On Terese’s advice – via the log book – we decided to have dinner at Sailor’s Pub. We got there a little after 7:00 and had to wait a bit for a table, sitting at the bar. We watched one of the waitresses trying to make a mojito – offering lots of suggestions. She had to do it over, but the 2nd time the customer liked it just fine. We both got the special – perch and crab cake, with baked potatoes, and we decided to pay the extra for salads. Mark got a Caesar, and I got the house. They had a sweet wasabi sauce as well as tarter for the fish. It was all really good – and we brought home a to-go box of fish for a fish sandwich later. (We made fish tacos – see the next post). We were home in time for 2 episodes of Downtown Abbey.

There was enough cell connection to send this shot to Rach.

On Saturday morning it was raining again. We hung around the house, and I made a peach and cherry jam cake, with the two Door County peaches I bought in Madison and brought back here, and the Seaquist cherry jam we bought here at the little grocery on the Island.

Peach & cherry jam cake

We thought about biking, but decided to drive to Red Cup, and a good thing too – it got rainier and rainier. We put gas in the car, and then got coffee, and again just hung out. We decided to stop into the book store next door. That’s when Mark discovered that the wifi we were picking up at Red Cup is actually from the book store. A little bit just seeps over to the coffee place. The book store lady was having trouble ringing up a sale, and Mark gave her some advice on how to make her connection overide the freeloaders over at Red Cup

We did a little more car touristing – drove down a bunch of roads that dead ended at the lake, looked at fancy houses, and figured out where Gibson’s is, and the Sunset Resort, that serves breakfast.

The plan for tonight is pasta for dinner and movie night – we are eschewing Fish Boil. I made some salsa with canned jalapeños, fresh tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, that came in kind of a funny packaged bunch at the little grocery store – washed and made into a bundle of sprigs in a meat tray with saran over all.

Pasta pesto with garlic bread & salad

Bought and home made salsa

Sunday, our last full day, is supposed to be sunny and nice. I’m hoping to bike out for breakfast and then take the ferry to Rock Island.

So my master plan of last weekend, cooking all the vegetables I could, seems to have worked.

Mark and Rach and I had tomato gratin and eggs and fruit on Sunday morning; I did make the Smitten Kitchen one – but I used leftover garlic toast and much less Parmesan, instead of cubing and frying fresh bread. We were still so full from breakfast that all us girls ate for dinner was nibbles of the ice cream sammiches on Sunday after Magic in the Moonlight. Which we agreed was pretty to watch, and Colin Firth was himself, but the movie just wasn’t that good. the characters were just too slight. You weren’t at all convinced that it was the best thing for this smart, 53-year-old man to fall in love with this 25-year old wisp. Tim Robey in the Telegraph nails it, “The film’s hardly a chore to watch, and it looks like a million of 1928’s dollars. It just has its heart in the wrong place.” Rach and I ate leftover squash casserole, and leftover corn, and leftover roasted green beans for lunch on Monday .

Monday night I was in the Twins to give a talk, so I took leftover pasta for dinner. After pie at Norske Nook, and putting the finishing touches on my slides. I had sour cream raison meringue, because if I made that kind of pie myself, I’d have to eat it all myself – no one else in the family would help. But I should’ve had peach melba.

Tuesday I gave the talk and drove back. There was a sound like running water in my hotel room, almost like white noise, but just enough NOT like white noise to make it hard to fall back asleep after I woke up every 2-3 hours like I do. So I skipped the end of the conference, and left at 2:30, so I’d be able to do the driving earlier in the day, but even so I had to stop and eat a Taco John’s Santa Fe chicken burrito, halfway, at Orange Moose – so it would keep me awake with its disgustingness. Which all meant I didn’t eat any leftovers on Tuesday.

Wednesday was all leftovers all the time. Corn cut off the cob and mixed with the last spoonful of creamy Italian, and the last three cheery tomatoes, and that crusty part of the last slice of tomato corn pie was lunch, then the last of the pasta, and collards with bacon for dinner.

Tomorrow we’ll have new food – mostly. I hear I’m getting cilantro and tomatoes in my CSA box, and I have a nice purple onion from a previous box, and some hot chile’s from Rebekah’s box in the fridge. So I’ll make salsa, and we’ll have tacos with shredded grilled chicken, and corn, and I’m cooking a big pot of beans right now.

I think I’ll have to get into PJs and have a little slice of the ice cream sammiches, and watch the Wire. I am on season five, and I think I am on to the episode where Omar gets it.

Mark’s in Chicago so this is one of my single girl nights.

I had a big salad for dinner and ate while I watched the Wire – that is, I re-watched selections of the season four finale. The selections where I fell asleep last night.

I roasted vegetables for the crazy roasted vegetable sauce. I got given a basil plant last week, so I used it up in the sauce. The neighbors from down the street are coming for dinner Friday and I’m thinking I’ll make pasta with the tomato sauce & meatballs or sausage – they have little kids. I’ll make a big salad. And maybe ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

I got some of the dishes washed and now I’m watching the Wire season 5 first episode. With a cat holding me down.

Lazy.

Wednesday was even more of a single girl night – you can’t see it in the picture, but one of the layers of my Tuesday salad was roasted green beans and corn. On Wednesday, there was a small Tupperware of the green beans and corn leftover, that I ate with a spoon right out of the container. Then I had ice cream.

Or, to put it more politely, the earnest, home cook, social media recipe commenters.

Today for brunch I made this corn and tomato pie, by way of Gourmet, by way of Laurie Colwin & James Beard.

It’s supposed to look like this:

Or this:

But mine looked like this:

Right – soupy. What a bring down for a semi-pro like me.

It’s because I believed the commenters, who were kvetching about soggy bottom crust. I should have believed Gourmet, or if not Gourmet, then definitely Colwin and Beard, who were both absolutely topnotch recipe writers. I searched my cooking magazine collection diligently, looking for the original August 1992 Gourmet, where Colwin’s recipe was published, and couldn’t find it. The August 2009 re-issue, which is what I used, says “What’s integral here is a very thin biscuit crust instead of one made of pastry dough.” I should have realized that is code for the filling will bake down into the biscuit crust, in a way that it would not do with pastry. Lead astray by the commenters, I put a layer of cheese in the bottom of the pie, like I would do for a pastry-lined quiche crust, to protect it from the wet filling – and I am just sure that’s why my pie came out soupy.

I’m also pretty sure, strongly suspect, that in her original recipe, Colwin included instructions for the home cook to layer the ingredients in the shell in the order given, which is tomatoes, corn, and cheese ON THE TOP. But the only way to find out is to go to a library, and get the original 1992 magazine in print, and check. I might just have to try that … but, the campus library that has the old hardcopy Gourmets is getting re-carpeted this summer, so I’d have to get the volume I need paged up. Oh, my, how quaint and pre-digital.

PS. so the pie firmed up considerably as it cooled, and Mark and I had it for dinner on Thursday, with collards with bacon. He doesn’t really like leftovers and he doesn’t really like greens, so even though I was trying to compensate with the addition of bacon, he got the look on his face that he gets when I announce it’s leftovers or too much vegetables, for dinner. Personally, I thought the pie tasted better leftover than it had for Sunday brunch – the corn and tomatoes and crust had made friends.

I have too big of a class for summer school – 35 – and Monday the new distance students in-residence orientation Bootcamp begins. So I haven’t really had any vacation yet, aside for going to the Prairie Home Companion 40th celebration – which was really fun, but I think was kind of more of a mini-break than a real vacation. We are going to Washington Island in Door County from August 27 to September 1, but before that I have to get through:

1. Bootcamp;
2. Reading 35 papers and grading the 35 students;
3. Giving a talk in Minneapolis;
4. Writing two syllabi, that are due the same day as the talk;
5. Getting three online courses set up;
6. Attending the faculty retreat ….

Hmm sounding kind of whiny there.
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Well, I just made it through the first day of Bootcamp, and turns out that today, August 4th, is John Venn’s 180th birthday. At least, according to the Google Doodle. That seems like a good omen – my course for the upcoming semester with these new students is online searching. Well, one of my courses. The other is web design, and I’ll have another 6 students in internships.

There’s this cool stained glass window that commemorates Venn, at Gonville & Caius College, his college at Cambrdge. Most of the pictures are pretty bad, though – there’s text, and panes for another mathematician, Ronald Aylmer Fisher, who did squares – but I can’t find any shots where you can really see everything.

This is about the best pic I could find, can’t read the words, but Venn circles above, and Fisher squares below.