Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

School of Quill Pen Santero 1830–1850 Saint Michael (San Miguel), c. 1840 Water based paints on gesso on pine panel, 13 7/8 x 11 1/4 in. (35.2 x 28.6 cm), BF622

Our last day in Philadelphia, we went to the new Barnes Museum. I know there is a faction who believe that the collection should never have been wrested from Dr. Barnes cold dead hands – there’s even a documentary about it – but honestly, Barnes was such a control freak. He  wanted to utterly control the way people experienced his collection, and I, anyway, don’t think he thought art was fun; he thought it was educational only. Plus, it’s kind of crazy to try to control people like that, right? You make the art – or the website, or the meal – and you put it out there for people to experience in their own way. It was pretty fatiguing to walk through the roughly 20 rooms of the museum, with the art packed floor to ceiling, interspersed with metalware – hinges and other hardware mostly – echoing the shapes in the paintings. The thing that surprised me the most was how many New Mexican retablos Barnes had acquired (like the one above). I knew about the Renoirs and Cezannes and Modiglianis and Matisse and Van Gogh, and the decorative arts and African masks – but I hadn’t known before going there that Barnes had also raided New Mexico. There’s pueblo pottery and rugs and at least one concha belt in the collection, too – you get 45 items if you search the collection on New Mexico, and the disclaimer says that not all the items are searchable as yet.

After the Barnes, we went to DiBruno’s deli for lunch, kind of the Philadelphia equivalent of Zabar’s; more Italian, less Jewish, but still a big city deli. The Chestnut St. one that we went to had a grocery store on the first floor and restaurant upstairs. I’d shop there if I lived in downtown Philly, and in fact I have ordered online from DiBruno’s a few times. One of the Yelp reviews said, “I don’t really know how to cook, but I buy everything at DiBruno’s and my parties are fabulous.” I had an escarole and white bean salad, topped with more prosciutto than I wanted, and Mark & Toni had crab cakes. We split a giant cone of really good fries, tossed with Parmesan and parsley, served with ketchup & 1,000 island for dipping. Note to self – if we ever go back there, the sandwich selection – and salad for that matter – is lots bigger at the deli counter on the first floor. So order downstairs and take food upstairs to eat.

While we were at DiBruno’s Mark ordered a cab to get us at the hotel (just a few blocks away), a van, so we could pick up Joe, and head to the airport. From there it was just typical air travel, although somehow I got randomly selected for pre-check, and didn’t have to remove my shoes or take my laptop out of my bag. I guess to make up for leaving, when my lucky wheatie penny collection set the x-ray off, and one of the TSA guys had to rip my bag apart. We got back to Madison around 9:00 PM. It was cold, but the flights were all on time, and smooth landings, and the car started, even after being in the below zero parking lot for three nights. So what more could we ask for? And we already knew that the public schools were closed all day Tuesday – so no school for our exchange student – and the University was closed in the morning, so I planned to work at home.

We got up and shoveled the driveway and the cleaners arrived so I took off to go grocery shopping while they worked. I don’t think I was as productive as I usually am for a work-at-home day, but I did manage to get a few things done. I made split pea soup, with parsnips and carrots, and orange-oatmeal muffins, and a salad, for dinner. The ingredients for everything that we ate except some leaf lettuce had been in the house before I went shopping. I tried to go to a yoga class at Jules’ new studio, but she had to cancel due to paint fumes.  I thought maybe their heat was out, since Jules was at the counter with her hat on, letting us hopefuls showing up for class know that there was no class, and assigning an extra free class to our online accounts.

Wednesday was a regular in the office day. Around 3:00 pm, as I was walking back into my building with a cup of coffee, I was wishing I didn’t have to do anything. That’s the problem with conferences – you are traveling and eating out and seeing friends, but you are in meetings and presentations, and working through an entire weekend – no down time at all. Came home and made quesadillas with the last of the sweet potatoes from my CSA winter box, and a can of black beans from mark’s pantry, and mozzarella cheese with the mold trimmed off, leftover from our Xmas Eve pizza. We ate the quesadillas with the last carton of corn from the freezer, cooked with bacon.

Bacon corn center stage, black bean sweet potato quesadillas behind.

Thursday was search committee interviews all day and dinner at Sardine. I did the eat off the edges of the menu in a French-style bistro trick – I had the Piccolo fritto – that I’d probably call fritto misto or vegetable tempura, really – assorted vegetable battered and fried, and a salad to follow. Relief after all the times of feeling too full in Philadelphia.

Friday was another “normal” work day, got a lecture recorded and some professional association, post-conference work done. Came home and ate leftovers for dinner, and went to see Inside Llwelyn Davis. Which I liked a lot, though it did once more point out my and Mark’s pretty totally different outlook on music.

Llewyn & Van Ronk compared, from Slate article

Started on Wednesday, finished on Sunday morning – truly a long and wacky week

So let’s see – got here on Thursday night around 9:00 – the plane landed around 7:45 but it took kind of a while to get into the city and checked in to the room.

We’ve been spoiled by staying at boutique hotels like Kimptons. This is an Embassy Suites – huge cavernous space with a private bedroom for me & Mark, living room with pullout couch for Toni. But drafty and with a really loud heater fan – that kept the living room area a good temp, and the bedroom freezing, OR the bedroom liveable, and the rest too hot. Sigh. Breakfast nook, kitchen alcove with microwave, bar sink, mini fridge. Two TVs. Free breakfast in the attached TGI Fridays. Yum.

That first night I went down to TGI and had their spinach flatbread and a beer.

Friday morning I got up and used my free breakfast ticket on black coffee – that wasn’t very good, it was the kind tha brews by the cup, so essentially fancy instant coffee. Say what you will about Starbucks, their Via instant is the only drinkable instant coffee I’ve ever tasted. Orange juice that I took a sip of and put down, a hard orange that I still have not eaten yet, and grabbed a little strawberry yogurt. That I ate with half a scone and the better coffee at the ALISE conference where I had to present as part of a panel.

Headed over to the main conference and got registered and went to OCLC symposium – lunch provided. I had some salad and a few bites of a pistachio mousse, that seemed to be vaguely pistachio flavored whipped cream, maybe a little white chocolate in there. On everyone else’s advice I had some peach cobbler. That was good, but mainly sitting with Martin & Suzanne, my pals from the SI Libraries, was better than the food.

I went over to Reading Market and grabbed a roll, then went back to the room to eat & collapse on the couch.

Back to the convention center to cruise through the exhibit hall grand opening & pick up a bit more free food – crostini with olive tapenade & tiny dab of goat cheese piped on top, little taco cornet, roasted veggies on a stick with reduced balsamic. Sounds better than it actually tasted.

Then met my friend David, who left Madison to become the librarian at Longwood Gardens, for drinks at his much more elegant hotel, the Hyatt at Bellvue. The bar there’s called XIX, because it’s on the 19th floor, inside of one of the lunettes.

Davey went off to dinner at Vedge, and I went back to the hotel to meet up with Toni & Mark, who had arrived from Madison by then. We ended up going for wood-fired pizza, so a late dinner I was not expecting to eat, but not too heavy. One slice of rosemary & fresh mozzarella pizza, a little Caesar salad, and one slice of sausage & fennel pie.

Pizzaria Vetri pizza – that’s a discarded anchovy from the salad on the side.

Saturday started with an 8:30 meeting – we stopped at a Starbucks and I got an Oatmeal and a latte – so milk in the coffee, but not on the cereal. Had a little salad and part of a cookie at the market, so was pretty hungry by dinner time. We went to Spice 28, an Asian fusion place. Turned out to be restaurant week here in Philly, so they had a 4-course, prix-fixe, $35 menu. Which was a bit too much food, but we all decided to indulge. I had coconut soup – lots of nice veggies in a coconut broth – Indian pancake – like the pancakes you get with moo-shoo, but with a really nice curry sauce – and Drunken noodles. Some kind of frozen mango mousse for dessert. I didn’t finish anything, but I was still full in the morning.

With very few pictures.

Monday we had leftover lasagna, with salad & garlic toast on the no knead bread I made Saturday. I tried to go easy on the lasagna and eat a lot of salad, but Rach came back with Trader Joe’s chocolate and I had to have some. She quoted one her grandmas “Darling, you need the sugar to seal yer stomach” – spoken in good east coast old lady Jewish accent. I was also chasing the garlic taste out of my mouth.

On Tuesday I cooked the cover of a recent Bon Appetit. Kale (recipe calls for mustard greens which I like, but the co-op didn’t have any) & spicy ground pork over rice noodles. Used ground pork from the pig we bought from Waisman’s in November, and homemade chicken broth. We also had a big salad with reduced cidar & shallot dressing, using the reduced cidar that I’ve had in the fridge since like October. Really nice to have all that lettuce in the middle of the winter – thank you California. Rach wondered if we should wash it all, but in the end we ate all but a handful, that I put in my lunch next day.

Wednesday, we kind of had leftovers again – the last of the greens gratin I’d made for new years brunch, that’s a Laurie Colwin recipe that I’ve adapted. This time I used kale and collards as well as the spinach. A big pot of rice – I wanted to make brown, but all I had was a mixed rice blend, with wild rice and white rice and red rice and a little brown – so we had that. And leftover U.S. Senate navy bean soup (I used the Joy of Cooking recipe; a little different, but still thickened with potato) heated up to go over it all as sauce. Mark & Toni needed to be fed fast so they could go off and see Princess Bride on the big screen at Sundance, part of their classic movie series. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Princess Bride on the big screen, only on the little screen, on VHS and DVD and cable. And it is a great movie, but I just didn’t want to spend $10 to see it, again.

Thursday I made this Food52 celeriac and potato gratin (with less cheese and half & half, and less of it, instead of heavy cream). With sausages, bratwurst, on the side, so basically bangers & mash. And coleslaw that I’d made the night before, left the cabbage wilting while I was watching TV, and sorta forgot that I had to toss it with the dressing, and really didn’t want to at 11:00PM, but it was OK, went faster than I thought it would.  It came out maybe a touch too sweet but that’s OK, too. Looks like I made the gratin last winter, in early February instead of mid-January. Not terribly photogenic, but super tasty.

Potato celeriac gratin

By Friday there was nothing much left for dinners except dribs and drabs of leftovers, leftover leftover lasagna, one brat, a small square of gratin. I wasn’t very hungry when I got home from work, anyhow – what I would’ve really liked is a sophisticated cocktail, and salty bar snacks, like olives and peanuts. There’s kind of a dearth of places to get something like that in college-town Madison, and with a non-drinking sweetheart, no one to go with. So I had some clementines, and a handful of nuts – Toni grabbed a few, too – and we went to see Her at Sundance. After, Toni & Mark went to the wood-fired pizza place across the way from the theater, but I didn’t even feel like sitting with them for a glass of wine. I came home and had a microwave s’more and hot tea with half & half and brown sugar. And went back and got them, when they texted they were finished eating.  I was feeling like my tastes and Mark’s were completely outta whack for the night, at least on preferred selections for dinner and a movie (I wanted to see Inside Llewyn Davis). But actually, in the end it all worked out oddly perfectly.

Mandarin orange segments

Saturday morning it was too cold to walk, so Rach and I did some stretches, and then had poached eggs on toast with bacon and kale, a healthy breakfast to send her off for a day in airports and planes.

Saturday breakfast

I’m not sure, but think I like the vortex better. When it’s this little bit warmer, but damp, the cold seems more penetrating. Today we are having freezing fog.

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And now, for the walk home, it is black dark at 4:36 PM, with a mix of rain & snow.