Or, the weekend, from the normal annoying-ness of middle class life, to more inspirational activities.
Friday was evidently my day to blow things up. I was working at home because my last three (out of 24) student advising appointments were by phone.
First I blew up a website by installing conflicting plugins. Then I blew up a Pyrex baking pan, by putting it on the oven floor, and heating it and dumping in water to create steam for the rosemary focaccia I was baking. I turned my spritz bottle into a yoga mat cleaning solution spray and have yet to acquire a new unflavored bottle for bread baking. As I was cleaning up the glass I recalled that recipes generally specify a metal pan for the steam.
Saturday started off well enough. I made a loaf of this King Arthur Flour recipe of the year for 2018 banana bread, and it turned out quite tasty. I used half white and half whole wheat flour and toasted pecans and chocolate chips mixed in. Next I want to try it all whole wheat.
Emma’s mom Linda came over and we went to the Madison March for our Lives. There were some good speakers: one of the high school student march organizers, Stephanie Trask, and a social studies teacher from Memorial High School, and a resource teacher from Black Hawk Middle School, one of the poorer schools in Madison where 70% of the students are categorized as low-income, who pointed out that it’s not just mass shootings – he sees kids whose lives are affected by gun violence every day, and Senator Tammy Baldwin. We got cold and came home after listening to a kid sing, and before the last speaker, Representative Mark Pocan.
Linda had an impressively engineered sandwich board sign – I should’ve taken a picture – it said “Wisconsin grandma and I vote” on the front and “Parkland in November I have your back” on the back. Mine was more of a cardboard and tape affair:
And someone took a really great pic of my friend Aimee with her sign:
The news said there were 2500 people. Pretty good for the first Saturday of spring break for both UW-Madison and the Madison Schools. 800,000 in DC. Almost a million, and I think that’s where some of the spring breakers went.
After marching, I came back home, ate more banana bread and some cheese toast (I had a grilled cheese with ski queen, that Norwegian caramel cheese, at Little Goat a few weeks back, and I’ve been putting it on everything since. Thin slices on toast with a hard boiled egg – yum.) I did a little getting tax stuff together, then Mark and I went for a walk and got a cup of coffee. The tax preparer had already closed at 1:00, and getting the taxes done still requires a trip out there, because I don’t have all the documents in electrinic form to go in their security online dropbox. I don’t think I can get there now till Thursday.
I had a haircut at 4:15, and then went to the co-op for groceries. I noticed something about broccoli crowns on the register when I checked out and thought that’s funny, I thought I got a regular bunch of broccoli. It wasn’t until I got home that I saw I’d been charged $6.59 for that bunch of broccoli, that should have been under $2.50 – the broccoli crowns were $4.99/lb. but regular broccoli was on sale for $1.79/lb. that day. So do I drive 10 miles with the register tape and burn all that gas for my refund? Or do I just suck it up? I did the latter.
I made that expensive broccoli into a chicken divan casserole, from a Cook’s Illustrated Cover & Bake book. It was tasty but not ready until like 8:00 PM. And additional annoying-ness – I broke my fancy butter dish while I was scooping out the butter for the roux.
Al and Emma got it for me – it’s from a local ceramicist, so I have to either special order it from her (I tried sending her a request on her website) or find it on Etsy, or a local dealer. The Co-op is supposed to be her dealer but I don’t recall seeing her stuff there.
Then Sunday we got up and went to Chicago, to see a Russian pianist play a recital at 3:00, at Chicago Symphony Hall. We walked to the West Loop for dinner at a place called Bar Siena that we had passed on the way to Little Goat multiple times. We had potato skins and a chopped salad and pizza. I think I am going to have to start developing my definitive recipe for chopped salad.
But I want to keep thinking about the march for a while longer.
Madison March for our Lives, 3/24/2018