A break in the heat

At the beginning of this week, most mornings when I first waked up, I didn’t feel quite right. Headachey, stuffed up.

I’ve been asking Mark, “The virus, summer cold, the heat?” and he always answers, “The heat”.

We’ve been in the midst of real “hotter than July” – highs in the 90s everyday, and humidity, same. There have been a couple of big thunderstorm downpours, like Tuesday when there was a rainbow, and then Thursday late afternoon/evening – that time the basement leaked a bit, unlike Tuesday when it stayed dry. So, there’ve been a couple mornings when it’s been a bit cooler, but still really humid.

Like Thursday when I went out for an early walk, and it was in the high 70s/low 80s by the time I got back, but I was uncomfortably sweaty after 2 blocks.

Thursday morning was OK, but the rest of the day was problematic. I had overlapping late afternoon meetings, because one was not in my calendar until 10 minutes before it started. I think I responded to a Doodle poll to pick dates that this group would meet all summer, but then never got those dates into my calendar. I had to leave early to go to the other one, which had gotten scheduled conflicting because I had not blocked the time. Feeling unprepared in both meetings. Sigh. And then the rains came, and I never got out of the house again, except by car.

But after, Friday and Saturday were gorgeous, and Sunday morning I came downstairs and turned off the AC, and because one of my weather things said 64°, even though the thermometer over the kitchen sink that reads the outside (in a warm spot, above the driveway, where it’s especially hot in late afternoon) said 69°, and the other weather app said 68°. Still, much, much cooler.

Friday we ate dinner out on the back deck.

We had brats leftover from 4th of July for dinner on Wednesday, and I was planning to make the zucchini pie recipe that came in my CSA newsletter, but it was still so hot, I opted to cook everything stovetop & microwave, and made calabacitas instead. A recipe I learned from the Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook. This time I used yellow squash, frozen corn, onions, peppadews, and the last of the poblano-onion rajas also frozen and made with CSA produce last summer, strips of almost caramelized onions and roasted poblanos. In one of my cookbooks Rick Bayless calls them essential rajas, and I always think of that when I make them.

I enjoyed my beer Friday night, but I felt sluggish and out of sorts on Saturday.

I felt like the most creative thing I accomplished on Saturday was to replace the fabric ties on this mask with elastic loops, for easier donning & doffing although these homemade masks that us civilians are wearing are primarily to protect others from us, rather to protect us from others, so this sequence for health professionals is for us, not so much. The main advantage is to have a mask that’s easy to put on and take off, so we will put it on before going into enclosed spaces.

I did make this pretty jar of relish using the first of the CSA cucumber onslaught – there were four big cucumbers in this week’s box.

Speaking of this week’s CSA box, that sunflower came in it too. Megan posted a pic of her & John’s CSA loot (BTW, the fireworks over Chi overleaf pic is also courtesy of Megan), and I thought I should do the same, but lighting and timing conspired against me – when I got home with the box on Thursday it was getting dark and about to rain so no good for pictures; I had driven rather than biking to get the box, because it looked like the downpour was imminent. I went back to work for an hour and then we had leftover greens & cheese pie and a nice composed salad with this cooked shallot & garlic dressing, farmers market tomatoes, and avocado, on top of red Bibb lettuce, cucumber, and basil leaves from CSA. UN-photographed, as many things I’ve been cooking recently have been.

I did take some pictures of some of the stuff from the box on Saturday morning, along with bluberry-banana muffins I made on Friday night.

The other thing that’s been driving me crazy is the kitchen sink faucet. It needs a new aerator. First I had the aerator screwed in with a defective washer so it dripped and splattered. I figured out a way to put the Britta filter pitcher on top of the Tupperware I keep the sponges in when filling it, so that the top didn’t get dripped on too much, but eventually you couldn’t wash dishes without entirely wetting your front. So I took the aerator out and biked to Howe Bros. plumbing next to Willy Street, to see if they had a new one. They had to order it, so now I’m using the faucet aerator-less, which is also hazardous – if you turn the water on too hard, you and half the kitchen will be sprayed. Problems of privilege, but annoying nonetheless.

Despite feeling kinda off all day, dinner Saturday was good, though UN-photographed. I made cherry tomato pasta from the Six Seasons cookbook, the darling of my CSA last summer, and goat cheese, cherry, and torn croutons salad, from A Homemade Life, also a darling, perhaps too precious cookbook by Molly Wizenberg, that I now own two copies of, because I couldn’t find mine last winter, and bought a replacement. After which of of course my original copy turned up buried in a stack of cooking magazines on the bookshelf. Using up a little hunk of my own sourdough, and some of the $13-for-Pete’s-sake bag of cherries I bought at the co-op in the dodge & weave style of pandemic shopping. That is, I was trying to avoid another shopper who was lost in thought near the cherries I just grabbed a bag quick without noticing the price.

[portfolio_slideshow pagerpos=disabled]

Sunday I finally did photograph breakfast.