On Thursday I got my CSA box and it was loaded with cucumbers, 4 big ones. That night we had sandwiches. I’d made some malted wheat bread, and there was still some sourdough. We had the first really good tomato from Black Earth Valley; they went to the Westside Saturday market July 9, and so did we because the Art Fair was on the Square. Mark had a BLT on sourdough, and I had my first Diane’s Dad’s summer sandwich, on malted wheat, with Skippy crunchy, cucumbers from CSA, that good tomato from Black Earth Valley, sweet onions also from CSA, and Tillamook cheddar. Yum.
I didn’t take any pics of the summer sandwich but here’s a PBJ I had a few days later, on the same bread
But what I’ve really been looking forward to with the cucumbers is pickle relish, eaten on a hot dog with horseradish and a squishy bun.
I made the relish on Sunday afternoon, and Monday night we had the hot dogs.
On Friday we went to the Terrace for a friend’s retirement party, then to Dottie’s for burgers and split a fries and an onion rings. No pics of the burgers but I took one of the stained glass windows. I think these were originally made for the Madison Art Center, by an artist named Dennis Pearson, who now makes big resin animals. Jeff Stanley, who owned Dottie’s must’ve bought the glass panels. I also think I once applied for a job as an artist’s assistant for Dennis Pearson. It must’ve been around 1980 or so. I didn’t get the job and he couldn’t believe how many applicants he got. I remember I went to interview at his house out on the southwest side between Seminole Highway and the Beltline, like Doncaster Dr. or somewheres like that. At that point of my life in Madison, I’d lived on the eastside and downtown, so it was new territory to me.
Stained glass windows at Dotties’s
On Saturday we went to the Farmers Market and bought ridiculous amounts of blueberries, one pint from the first vendor that we saw, then another from an organic vendor who came next, then two from Jen Ehr, because we liked theirs the week before, then two pints at Flyte before we saw that they had 5-pound boxes so we got one of those, too. We tasted them all when we got home to decide which ones to freeze and which ones to eat. Now there’s a gallon bag in the freezer about half full, plus 3 quart bags, and I made a pie Sunday – see overleaf. I’m just trying to avoid the disappointment of last summer – I never bought a mass quantity of blueberries to freeze because I thought I still had enough from the year before. Then I made these bars in September (see post) that were disappointing and used up my blueberry stash.
Also Saturday I went to the hospice care thrift shop to see if I could find a dead old lady dress suitable for Ethan’s formal wedding coming up, and actually came home with two, and a serving dish and a pie plate, all for about $30. Susan came along on the expedition, then we re-met at La Fete de Marquette, for Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. Good to be out and seeing people. The mom of one of Johns friends in high school that I think I maybe met twice during John’s high school years, recognized me as John Lusis’ mom, so that was kind of gratifying that I’m not so aged that she didn’t recognize me, fifteen+ years later.
Sunday Al & Emma came for brunch, and we had chard quiche – sounds like charred when you say it – and bacon and fruit salad and peach streusel muffins.
Almost deep dish chard quiche. I want to try this recipe that’s deep dish for real, sometime when I’m feeding a larger crowd.
Another thing I’ve been trying to perfect is roasted smashed potatoes. The first time I made them, I started off roasting the potatoes, then smashed them in the pan when they got done enough – and that’s a bit of a hot oil splatter risk. More recently, I’ve been using versions of this Nigella recipe where you steam the potatoes, let them dry out (this is the genius tip), and smash them on a plate, or I like using a cutting board. Then you heat the oil in the baking tray or dish and add them. The second time I did them this way they seemed a little bland so this time I added garlic and plenty of salt and they were pretty near perfect.
smashed but not baked yet
All that we left on Sunday and I finished off those last bits while cleaning up.
We started talking about BMI and Covid risk, and Emma said she was BMI 22 before pregnancy. I said the only time I got mine done, when I was about 45, I think that’s about what I was too, but that was 20 years and 25 pounds ago. I looked myself up in my diet and exercise app, and what I remember that Dr. telling me – that my normal weights were about 115-137, seem to agree, and that I’m really not doing so bad – 5 pounds and 1 point of BMI to lose to get out of the “overweight” category.
