Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

I was going to go for a little bike ride after work – but the wind was cold and sharp and it looked like rain, so I decided against it.

Years ago, I did an April is the cruellest month supper – and it was a warm day, almost too hot for the pork and potatoes I served.

I had another of the Passover chicken and avocado sandwiches on wheat toast with Siracha mayonnaise that I also had yesterday for dinner. The Passover chicken is scallopini – small pieces of boneless breast that I pounded and then dredged in matzoh meal and fried in olive oil. I froze some and left  some out, thinking I’d make a kind of chicken Parmesan – but I might have to have another sandwich tomorrow. Especially because I’m working the polls, 1:00 PM to close. I might be able to eat a hot breakfast at home – I have an early meeting, after which I can come back, eat, and work a bit before going to my assigned polling place. Which is the same one where I vote, so I can walk there. Means a cold, packed, supper, though. Hmm, wonder if I should make some cookies or bars to take.

I think it will be Marion Cunningham’s oatmeal cookies.

Oatmeal cookies – these are actually vegan cookies, from a School Woods event for a local vegan group in 2009, but the Cunningham ones will look similar

And now it’s really raining – glad I’m inside.

We went to see the Decemberists on the Friday night of our last Chicago cultural weekend; 3/27, my brother’s birthday.

It was my call – I wanted to see them. I like the Decemberists because they’ve played with the other artists who I really follow – Peter Buck and Robyn Hitchcock, primarily. And, although I think he comes to it by way of reading and being an English & creative writing major, Colin Meloy has that folk rock musicologist outlook on music that I like – he can write songs that sound like traditional folk songs by way of rock & pop. They didn’t do any on Friday, but it also means he chooses interesting covers.

The show was at the Chicago Theater, which was a pleasant upgrade from the Riviera, where we saw the Punch Brothers in February. One of the crumbling movie palaces in Chicago, that now mostly have live music, the Riviera, the Uptown (closed, but I saw the Grateful Dead there in 1978), and the Aragon Ballroom, in a three block radius, and the Vic, a little further south, and a little less crumbled.

The Chicago Theater seemed spotless in comparison. We were in the 2nd balcony. There was a young couple next to us, and during the opening act (Alvvays, from Toronto – I liked their guitar player and chick singer a lot; their drummer was a smasher), the woman warned me that they’d probably be kind of loud, and I should just let her know if they bothered us. I said I’d probably do a set list in my phone (below) for the Decemberists, so I’d be lighting up, and she said that’d be OK. Later, at the break, I think because I’m old, she asked if I’d been listening to the Decemberists for a long time. I said not that long – I mean, they’ve been playing for like 10 years, and I didn’t really listen to them until 2009 or so – and I got into them because Peter Buck is on the King is Dead. To which she said get outta town – she had no idea – even though she pretty much knew every word to every song, and sang along loudly. Which I might’ve hated on, but Meloy asked us all not to.  She knew the words to the two (out of three) from the King is Dead that Buck plays on, what I always call arms of the angels, but is really Calamity Song, and Down by the Water. And Decemberists’re pals with Robyn Hitchcock, and Gillian Welch, too.

Anyways, at the end of the long Crane Wife  song cycle, I kind of looked back at them and they were making out, so I thought, OK, I’ll look away. But when we sat back down, she turned to me, and said excitedly, “He just proposed to me!” and showed me the ring in the box. I shook hands with both of them and said congratulations. We discussed whether she should wear the ring on her right or left hand.

I liked their backdrop, although it made me nostalgic for the days when I thought I’d be making that kind of stuff for bands. When I had a guitar player boyfriend, and I painted all the guys in the band’s guitar cases, and sewed them shirts, and patched their jeans. The backdrop was a quilt, with holes cut into it so things could show through, worlds, birds, and heroic females, like the cover of the new album.

Decemberists at the Chicago Theater, 3/27/2015

Here’s the set list:

The singer addresses his audience
Calvary captain
Down by the water
Oh hank –> arms of the Angels; really Calamity Song
Till the water’s all long gone
Philomena
Hazards of love – wanting comes in waves; really The Wrong Year
Make you better
The crane wife 3
I called it – Dirty jam –> pirates shipwreck
The Island: Come and See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning/I will dress your eyelids
Los Angeles, I’m Yours
Carolina Low
The wanting comes in waves – repaid
Rake’s progress
16 military wives
A Beginning Song – I called get yourself to rights

Encore
What a gift – 12/17/12
The Mariner’s Revenge Song – with kids and a whale who all danced across the stage

I guess the Minus 5 opened for the Decemberists this tour out in Portland – and WTF, how did I miss this, the Minus 5 were here in Madison at the beginning of the month, playing in a basement (uploaded by Steve Manley of B-Side). I guess by the time I got the email from Yep Roc, the show here had already happened, and the one with Tweedy in Chicago sold in 5 seconds. But I’m really sorry I missed them – after all, those guys are as old as me, Scott McCaughey & Peter Buck are anyways, so I wouldn’t of felt so old.

I wanted to go to Brobagel, on North Ave., because it’s one of the Jacobs Bros. Bagels brothers and they were my favorite Chicago bagel when I lived here 20 years ago.

We rode up there on the red & blue lines, a surprisingly easy trip, even with Shamrock Shufflers going home from the race. When we got there, though, turned out that Brobagel has no seating. Yelp didn’t explicitly tell me that, and I just assumed from people’s reviews of all the bagel sandwiches, that there was some place to sit and eat them. We just decided to get our bagels to go, and go back home to eat. I got the commuter special – any kind of bagel with cream cheese, and a 16 oz. coffee – I had walnut raison. Mark got the Brobagel Club. After ordering, so too late (and not really what I wanted at the moment) I saw a poster promoting their Siracha cream cheese on garlic bagels. Something to try next time.

We also allowed ourselves to succumb to the Stan’s Donuts, also right under the L – you could smell it as soon as you stepped off the train onto the platform. I got a pistachio-lemon cake donut, which was really sweet and dense, and Mark got a regular raised glazed, which was less of both.

Once we’d made our carryout decision, as we were going into the L stop, I saw a bunch of people carrying into the coffee place, La Colombe. So also too late.

I forgot to take pictures until we were down to leftovers. We’re going to see the new Cinderella (real people movie, like we said when my kids were little, as opposed to animated) up on Michigan Ave. – maybe we’ll have to stop afterward and get carryout for dinner, too.

Museum campus sign – even though it says Green, we were waiting for the Red – it’s Green thataway

Brobagel poster for Siracha cream cheese & garlic bagels

Half Stan’s donut & Bro bagel leftovers

Yesterday was kind of hosed – it started with 4 advising appointments back to back, the first in-person, so I had to be in the office by 8:00 AM, the rest by phone.

Then I dashed off to a meeting at 11:00 – deadly stuff, HR policies – but they gave us lunch.

I had just enough time to go to Starbuck’s for a coffee – I found myself craving one of their flat whites for the extra richness of the 96% fat free whole milk. It was good, but not as good as when I make one of my stove top espresso maker lattes with good Organic Valley whole milk. But it was free! When I tried to pay, my Starbucks app had logged me out, and while I was fumbling around getting logged back in, the kid at the register said, “It’s OK, I’ve got it”. I thanked him, but not too loudly, since I didn’t want to get him in trouble.

I took my free coffee and marched up Bascom Hill to Bascom Hall, where my next meeting was, where there’s a nice vestibule area, with tall counters, where you can plug in your laptop. This second meeting was pretty deadly too, governance and budget issues, spawned by our evil governor. The 2015 – 17 WI biennial budget not only proposes huge cuts to the University, it also repeals Chapter 36 of the state statutes,  which is where tenure for faculty, shared governance – our procedures for involving everyone, faculty, staff, and students, in running the University, the definition of the University itself – is all spelled out.

Got out of the second meeting, strolled back down the hill to get my bike, and made the mistake of going into my office and trying to clean up email. That took about an hour, and made me late enough going home that I scrapped my dinner plans. I was going to make BBQ ribs & tofu, and greens with peanut sauce. I got a small rack of ribs – about 8 bones, in my last pig purchase. Instead, we went to the wood-fired pizza place at the “nice” shopping mall. Which was good, we split a salad and 2 pizzas, three ways. One of the pies had salami, artichokes, and fresh mozzarella, and one sausage and fresh mozzarella – the fresh cheese made bottom crust a bit soggy, but they were still good. I had a small glass of slightly fizzy red wine, Gragnano frizzante – that was good, too. And, this dinner option had the added advantage of being next to the grocery store so I could pick up a bag of food for Megan’s cats.

Espresso pot with cat for scale

On Saturday, I put pork chops rubbed with rosemary and garlic, and carrots rubbed with chile spice into the oven to roast on timer, and we went to see a pretty hilarious movie, What we do in the shadows. I made a pot of soft polenta, and and covered it and left it on the stove – turned off.

It was a nice day so we walked to the movie, and walked home, and it was an early show, so we were tucking into dinner around 6:30.

On Sunday, spring ahead morning, I got up and made cherry muffins.

On Monday I made another baked-on-timer dinner – beans baked with the last half pork chop, bacon, and molasses – kind of my honey baked bean recipe, but with molasses instead. I think the pork was even better cooked in the beans than on Saturday as chops. The polenta got gooey, though, instead of frying. It looks almost like scrambled eggs (which are appropriate next to baked beans as any Brit who knows what goes into a proper fry up will tell you). Note to self – polenta made to be soft polenta doesn’t fry – it just melts.

There were only 5 cherry muffins left by Tuesday, so I made maple walnut muffins, to make a baker’s dozen to take to work.

I’ve been reading up on the Food 52 piglet gate coverage. In which Adam Roberts got called sexist for his comic book review, and the author who lost, Mimi Thorisson, posted a response on her blog, and then Roberts got defensive, and one of the Food 52 editors poured oil upon the flames …. I agree with Pete Wells, Tim of Lottie & Doof seems to have summed it all up the best. We’re all pretty boring, and white. A lot of food writing is taking place in a closed, insular space, where everyone knows each other too well to give real criticism.

I mean, I read Martha, but those lifestyle books that mostly say, “my life is better than yours” creep me out. Kinfolk, anyone? I think Food & Wine tends to have the most of those type of articles out of the mags I subscribe to. Like these Midwestern recipes from last August, although they’re more of a hipster bent than beautiful people.

Lots of Peanuts Grownup Voice mwah-mwah-mwah talk about food writing lately. And suddenly, some clear English: http://t.co/soNQhlrDJL

— Pete Wells (@pete_wells) March 6, 2015