We have a pick up compost service and I’m supposed to leave the bucket out for them by 8:00AM on Sundays (I think they do restaurant and commercial customers during the week, so do individual homes on Sundays). On October 2 I forgot to leave the bucket out, then on October 9 they skipped us. They take some stuff that I can’t put into the back yard compost pile because it would attract the raccoons, like egg shells and meat scraps and breads.
This year for Rosh Hashanah, the last weekend of September, when my knee was pretty bad, I wanted to make a honey cake, and was briefly seduced by this version from Nigella with dates & apples in it, but it makes kind of a lot and calls for an orange that I didn’t have, and going to the store to get one seemed like too much. So I made Mollie Katzen’s Jewish New Year Honeycake, that I’ve made many times before. I have the recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook, but I guess it also got compiled into something called Mollie Katzen’s Desserts, “A collection of 50 hand-lettered dessert recipes in a box from the author of the MOOSEWOOD COOKBOOK, in a compact easel format”–Provided by publisher, that seems to be in special collections at Library of Congress, and I thought might be available online in the Internet Archive, but it’s just this short preview.
Here’s the orginal:
Anyways, it was a plain loaf cake, and there was a last hunk that got pretty dried out, so I tossed it into the pick-up compost bucket that’s right outside the back door. On Thursday (when I started writing this post) morning when I went out to get the paper, some critter – I suspect racoons – had dumped the compost bucket and removed only the honeycake and evidently, judging from the location of the crumbs, consumed it in the driveway.
Anyways, all’s well that ends well, I guess – Saturday something tipped the bucket again, and also popped the lid off the backyard bin, too. But I re-bagged the pick up compost and screwed the lid on, and they picked us up on Sunday. And I made sure to lock the lid on the backyard one too. So all the compost around here abouts is now secure.
Now it’s Monday. Last week my bum knee’s was felling good; I almost forgot about it a few times, especially Friday when I went to the pool. But I might’ve overdone a bit on Saturday – went to the Farmer’s Market, then Costco, and carried two 50# bags of water softener salt and got my flu and 5th vax shots, and went to the co-op, then went downtown to see the leavings at the Library Friends book sale. On Sunday and even this morning it really hurt. Plus I felt kinda punk on Sunday, I think from the shots. So I took it easy Sunday, only a couple block walk to take a pic of some leaves – see overleaf – and drove to the Madison Symphony.
Oh, yea, and also Saturday I did a lot of cooking trying to double task dinner and CSA recipes for this week. I made pepperonata and crostini, and this roasted squash and black bean and roasted garlic and pumpkin seed dip that was in the CSA newsletter last week (curated by the other recipe writer) because I had this grand vision of featuring a charcuterie board with the dip and crostini and salami and cheese – but it got too dark to shoot it all, so I settled for just the crostini.
And I made this cauliflower roasted with chermoula, and I had to shoot that in the morning. The cat got an extra yogurt smeared plate (that’s in one of the other pics).
And for Sunday brunch I made this squash and coconut greens galette with whole wheat crust. It was good Sunday morning but I had a slice at room temperature for lunch Monday and I think it was even better. I think I’ll take the last with me to the pantry tomorrow morning. I think Mark’s not so keen on the whole wheat crust.
And you know what – shooting the moon on the iPhone never works.
Susan and I went to a combined Democratic Party benefit tonight, and it was rather alarmingly under-attended. I guess its time to get in PJs, take my blood pressure and head upstairs. I think I might be near the end of this blood pressure tracking chore – about a week ago – the day I took the moon pic actually – they said it’s inching down and medication is not indicated at the moment. “Chat in two weeks” Whew.