Things started off smoothly for our quick trip to Denver to see Rowan, although it was a little nerve wracking waiting for the cab to show up at 6:00 AM to get us to the bus to the Milwaukee airport. But everything was on time, cab to bus, bus to airport, plane to Denver, light rail into town, and Uber to Megan & Ethan & Rowan’s house.
When we got there they were in meetings and Rowan was with the nanny, Jade, so we dropped bags and walked to our favorite coffee place for second coffee and something to eat. The only coffee at the Milwaukee airport now is Starbucks but we made do first thing. I had a very cheesy griled cheese and Mark had a turkey melt. We got some cookies & scones to take back. The bakery was tasty but pricey – $27 for half a dozen items while our lunch, 2 sandwiches and 2 fancy espresso coffees, was only about $30. With tip.
We walked back and hung out and played with the baby and eventually had carry out for dinner, some bowls place.
I had the Mother Earth bowl; didn’t know you could build your own. I would’ve done that if I’d known. It was good but seemed oversalted.
In the morning, we walked to the coffee place again and experienced Friday morning, everyone stalking tables and giving the people who had been sitting for 15 minutes and hadn’t even ordered yet the evil eye. We escaped and sat outside. Mark said it was just like eating by the side of the trail on a sunny day cross country skiing and that was about right.
The kids gave us a list and we went grocery shopping at Whole Foods and came back and made dinner. Pasta – buccatini – with vegetarian red sauce and turkey meatballs. I put in too much breadcrumbs I think and the meatballs were more like little breadcrumb puffs then meat. But they were better after they’d been in the sauce.
Saturday morning we decided to try a different, smaller, coffee place that had the potential to be less crowded.
Barista artwork at Dandy Lion coffee
Meanwhile back in Madison, Jasper got a haircut.
Now his bangs stay out of his eyes
Saturday night we went out for dinner, a meal at the Wolf’s Tailor, a prix fixe, 5-course meal with drink pairings, our Christmas gift from the kids. Every course, and the drinks, required multiple minutes of explanation, and it had all the high-end tropes: special serving utensils, foam, tiny food garnished with tweezers, and fish eggs on just about everything.
The starter course – an oyster, rice panna cotta with foam & fish eggs, and a macaroon with chicken liver mousse inside
Menus – In Sheep’s Clothing was the 2nd full course with so many moving parts it required its own menu. It was their piada (sourdough buns) with butter, radish kimchi, a kind of a slaw (Pikliz, my favorite thing really), a kind of cranberry jam – they said it was cranberries prepared like umeboshi plums with honey. There was also a bison tartare, and I only managed one bite of that. It tasted good, but I couldn’t get over the fact that it was raw meat in my mouth.
I went with the zero-proof drink pairings, since it’s still Dryuary for me. I probably should’ve asked for ala carte drinks since, while there was only one that I actively disliked, something fermented with pineapple juice in it – I stopped being able to finish the drinks. The best were a kind of highball made from Seedlip Spice elixer, and another that was a bit like gin, also a Seedlip, and garnished with a cucumber strip pleated onto a metal pick. That I used to pick up the good bites of course 03, the scallop, that had bacon and really good potatoes, and the ubiquitous foam and fish eggs. And oh yea, that was another thing – no forks. You got chopsticks and spoons with every course until the entree quail that came with a knife and fork. The little birdie was good, roasted with 5-spice powder and served with house made gochujang and hoisin sauce. The scallop was better, though.
I feel a little squidgey about a meal for four that cost about what I spend on groceries for a month – or the entire 26-week CSA season last year! But it was fun for a treat. Next time we visit though, I think we should ask them to take us to a place doing high quality bar food. There seem to be plenty of those in Denver.
On Sunday morning we managed a last visit to Honey Hill. The kids drove and we walked and Megan expertly vultured for a table. That we gave to the next set of vultures when we left.
The trip home was not quite as smooth as the one there. When we checked in, we were informed that our flight was two hours delayed for no apparent reason.
The Detroit Lions vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game was on in the bar in the Denver airport, down the very crowded and every trash can stuffed concourse from us. Our flight to Milwaukee continued on to Tampa which explained the occasional cheers I was hearing from down there. The Lions won though so that probably explains why the cheers got more occasional.
The delay wasn’t so bad except it meant we missed the 5:35 bus back to Madison and had to wait for the 8:20. We managed to get a coffee and a hot chocolate before they closed the Starbucks that we had with a Kind bar and a Snickers, before they closed everything else. We still made it home by 10:30 and had a really cheery Uber driver for the very last leg. His license plate was “SOHAPPY”. Rather than being bitchy about the icy streets like everyone else, he was optimistic. He said the Madison streets department screws up on plowing like this every six or seven years, so now they won’t screw up for another six or seven years.
Before we left Mark cleaned up the snow from the screen porch and melted it in his bathtub.
Now that we’re home, the cold snap is officially over.
The curly snow is receding. Monday was just warmish and melty. Tuesday we got freezing rain overnight, and then about an inch of snow later in the day. A year or two ago Mark bought some snow spikes for shoes that actually work, and we used them to walk to get coffee in the morning. They have little nails instead of spikes or springs like the others.
hanging up to dry in the basement
We also worked really hard Tuesday afternoon chipping the ice from our sidewalk and driveway.
Finally, speaking of high quality bar food, or maybe winter comfort food, since we’ve been back I’ve been unearthing things from the freezer for dinner, tho I did go grocery shopping Monday. We had beef stew for dinner that night with the quick sourdough bread where you add yeast, made as fat baguettes, and the last CSA squash mashed with some goat cheese & honey. Tuesday we had ribs and slaw and oven fries. I got a small pack of country ribs the last time we went in on a pig from Curious Farmer and I bought a larger rack of spareribs at the co-op to supplement; Willow Creek. I had half a cabbage in the fridge and one scallion and a few carrots, so that made the slaw. And the last four baking potatoes from CSA made the fries – an old recipe from Clotilde. Tonight we will have deep dish pizza. The crust is rising and I thawed out one of the cartons of the pizza sauce I made on Christmas Eve and the last tube of Italian sausage from Curious Farmer. I only have pics of the leftovers because it gets dark so early still. Maybe the pizza will be more photogenic.
(counter clockwise from the bottom) Fries, pulled pork, slaw
Sliced sourdough