Let’s see … on Sunday I baked cinnamon rolls & pecan sticky buns. And a loaf of long-rise bread that came out spongy, but good.
I mis-timed the bread a little bit – I started it on Saturday around noon, so got up at about 6:30 – waaay too early for a Sunday – to shape the loaf and let it rise, after the recommended 8 – 18 hours of rising. The dough was a little too wet; think that’s why it came out spongy. I set the oven on timer with the cast iron casserole I was going to put the bread in, and went back to bed for a bit. Baked the rolls, started laundry, biked over to Whole Foods for milk, and the green beans called for in this: Vegetable Toad-in-the-Hole. I didn’t have all the herbs – just used thyme that I had in the freezer – and used the garlic butter I made from the sprouty garlic a few weeks back, to cook the vegetables in, instead of slicing and peeling more cloves. And, I didn’t add the extra teaspoon of whole grain mustard – the recipe said 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.
We ate the sweet rolls, and the Toad-in-the-Hole, and strawberries and a banana and a kiwi, and bacon, for breakfast.
Then I worked for a while, did more laundry, and we walked to Sundance to see While We’re Young (this New Yorker review also covers White God, that I saw at the film fest).
On Monday, I took a plastic container of the sweet rolls to work, and had some of each for breakfast.
But before that, I had an 8:00 AM dentist appointment. My dentist, who I’ve been seeing for like 30 years, not counting the 5 years I was in Chicago, is retiring. My mom and my kids all went to her, too. The people at my dentist’s office were all very sweet – they called me a few days before my appointment, to let me know that Dr. Kelly was retiring, and her replacement was going to be able to take more kinds of insurance, including mine. I’d been self-paying for years. Anyways, after I got cleaned, Dr. Kelly came in to check my teeth, then brought in her replacement Dr. Christianson, so I could meet him. She used to take a month off in the spring and go do dental care for kids in Haiti – but I guess she broke her hip last year, and is thinking maybe not this year. And that she can find kids who need dental care, closer than Haiti.
Dr. Kathleen Kelly
Came home after work, and we went to see Rhiannon Giddens. I’ve been kind of obsessed with the Another Day, Another Time concert that T-Bone Burnett put together, after the Inside Llewyn Davis movie. Giddens does what I always liked about the Grateful Dead – researching and interpreting traditional songs. And in fact they do some of the [sorta] same ones, like Sugaree, that’s Jerry Garcia’s version; Giddens does it more like Elizabeth Cotten. All around this world – or Hang me, oh Hang me, as Dave van Ronk called it, is in the Llewyn Davis movie.
Tuesday, Mark got up at 5:00 and went back to Chicago – I just went to work – meetings, both online and face-to-face. I got home at a decent hour, and thought I’d make turkey club sandwiches on that spongy bread. I had to open the online meeting room for some students at 8:00, so I thought I had time to read John’s paper, but I burned the bacon. Well, not really burned, but dark and crunchy. The way Oma liked her bacon. Megan and I ate it in the sandwiches anyway.
The rest of the week was basically the same – off to work, or maybe a walk early – and then staying late. Not much time for cooking, although of course I still ate.
Wednesday I walked first thing – got coffee at Colectivo on Monroe – because I had to drive to work, in order to go out to Sun Prairie for a site visit. Rounds of meetings, although I did sneak out for a walk after the 9:45 to 10:15 meeting – I had a check to deposit, and went up to the square, to the farther away credit union. At 5:30, there was a poster session, for internship students, so I was at that until about 7:00. I bought pad thai on the way home, which I gobbled before opening an online meeting for some students. This group had more technical glitches than usual, and it took almost an hour to get them set, and I need to login and open the room so they can practice more on Sunday afternoon. I made banana muffins, after the practice session, from the Sarabeth’s Bakery book. More buttery than usually do, and sour cream. And the bananas sliced instead of mashed.
Thursday, it was Teaching Academy new fellows induction, and home for class at 7:00. Leftover cold pad thai, and vegetable toad in hole, for supper. The sungold tomatoes in the toad in hole were particularly tasty as a leftover. I wanted to watch Ripper Street on Netflix, but it wouldn’t load. I ate great handfuls of chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, either in frustration or tiredness, and went off to bed feeling a little queasy.
chocolate chips and marshmallows
