Another week in quarantine

And it’s an undocumented week. I last wrote on Thursday when I was still grading, which I did finish on Sunday and then only had to upload the grades Monday morning.

I went for a Covid test on Friday morning, and got the negative results on Saturday, although the University Health Services warns that I might get a false negative up to 2 weeks out from a suspected exposure, which for me is not there yet, since the possible exposure is working the polls on August 11. So to be extra sure I guess I should go back and get tested again on August 25th, and of course as I write this I’m getting a bad headache and thinking I should go again.

For dinner last Friday, we tried out Smitten Kitchen’s zucchini grilled cheese, that she says should be called zucchini panini to avoid scaring off potential eaters who might think the zucchini is being subbed in for the bread or the cheese or something equally overly healthful and not tasty. These sandwiches were tasty – and I had a beer with mine. After dinner we watched the Joe Wright/Kiera Knightly/Matthew MacFadyen Pride & Prejudice.

Saturday morning it was kind of rainy. I did a virtual yoga class, and then we biked to the westside Farmers Market on the late side. I made some cinnamon scones when we got home. I spent the afternoon grading but I sneaked out for a bike ride late in the day, and we had kimchi hot dogs for dinner, well I had a kimchi dog, that I’ve been looking forward to all summer, ever since I made the kimchi in June, and Mark had an Italian sausage. My dog had the kimchi that I made, sweet relish that I made, and mayonnaise. We had succotash to go with, and I think we finished my birthday cake for dessert.

Sunday morning we did Mark’s long walk, and then went over Al & Emma’s for a belated birthday brunch for me. We sat outside on their deck with Al & Emma, and Emma’s parents, and yellow jackets. But it was nice and we’re doing turn about next weekend. Emma is 30 years old tomorrow, and has plans with friends – sounds like they’re going to try to do a movie in the backyard – so next weekend we’ll have the same group, Al & Emma, Emma’s parents, me & Mark, over for dinner in the backyard Saturday. Pandemic socializing.

Before our walk I made this kind of blueberry crisp thing, with buttered & cinnamom-sugared toast cubes for the topping instead of streusel, so we could eat it for our Sunday evening dessert + TV. It was kind of a disaster. The handle of the skillet turned out to be slippery and when I took the filling out to add the topping it rotated in my hand and dumped a bunch of blueberry-apple filling on the oven door, hinge & floor. Right where it was difficult to clean up, but I got it done, and I was wanting to run the oven self-clean anyways.

I guess it was a pretty good Sunday, despite the molten dessert filling dumpage. I even had time to make a new mask.

Monday I biked over to the east side co-op first thing to get a few things before work.

I had my home made  wholewheat sourdough toasted with almond butter and home made pickles and melon and coffee and then I worked all day.

And I didn’t take another picture of food until Thursday when I got these melons in my CSA. We ate the more oval one for dinner – the rounder one is still in the fridge.

Since I didn’t photograph anything I’m trying to remember what I cooked. Monday we had the leftover wood-fired pizza from my birthday and succotash for dinner, and I made a tomato & cucumber salad with the last dab of some pesto I’d made the week bfeore, that smelled good but turned a disappointing brown from the pesto. I ran what was left of it down the disposal the next day.

Tuesday I made cherry tomato pasta and a salad with thousand island dressing – my home made relish again in the dressing. The pasta’s this NYT recipe where you put the dry pasta and tomatoes into a shallow pan, pour boiling water over, and it makes its own sauce. It’s really fun. I used spinach this time, but the other time I made it, I used kale, and Mark didn’t even pick it out the way he usually does. There’s also this recipe from Joshua McFaddon’s Six Seasons, where you cook some of the tomatoes and add others later in the cooking so they stay firmer, which is more sophisticated. But they’re both good.

Wednesday we had beans and wieners and the last last of the succotash and carrot sticks with choice of curry or the thousand island dressings – a sort of light supper so we could have banana cake with cream cheese frosting after.

Thursday I thought I’d make the corn risotto from my CSA newsletter (and Food 52) but I felt too tired and hot after going to get the box, so instead I made fresh salsa with tomatoes and cilantro and cucumber straight from the box, and there was also some of an older batch of salsa, blender-ed, like this. And I made quesadillas with the grated zucchini cheese mix left from last Friday’s sandwiches, and what I was calling “use it or lose it” stirfry – all the last veggies from the drawer as the new stuff came in, one small zucchini, a hunk of onion, the bottom of the bucket of frozen blanched spinach that I’d thawed for the pasta Tuesday, a couple of small potatoes. I put it all out with chips and that was dinner.

Friday I made the corn risotto and it was as good as hoped.

And now it’s Saturday afternoon. I did a virtual yoga class, we biked to the Farmers Market at Willow Island – it was OK, but it’s still like the blasted surface of the moon, with vendor booths. We decided that at the Willow Island market, the vendors are being super Covid-careful, but the shoppers are not, while at the westside the vendors are more relaxed and the shoppers are more fearful. Came home, ate, worked a bit. I got these little apples from Henry Morren – they’re the kind that make pink applesauce.