Right in the thick of it

I know I’ve complained about this time of year before (like in 2023 and 2024 and I’m using one of those forsythia in the snow pics as my iPhone wallpaper now), when all my volunteer and side gigs get super busy.

This year I’m not even working, no student advising, but it’s just another bit of bafflement – since I retired I have no idea how the hell I did all this stuff and worked 40+ hours per week too.

There are the occasional lulls in all of it, though, like right now I’m at one of the Madison Public Library branches in between 2 ballot couriering shifts, typing on a Windows public access computer and using Chrome, not my usual set up that involves a Mac and Firefox. Kinda fun to prove to myself I can adapt, though. I think I didn’t get my phone plugged in all the way last night because all of sudden it was down to 24% at about 3:30. It’s been happening occasionally since we moved to the back bedroom and re-inherited the sled bed and got Mark the matching nightstands he felt he needed. It’s a stretch to get my phone plugged in, and a few times I haven’t gotten the plug all the way in, so I end up with an almost dead phone the next day. Anyways, that’s why I’m trying to do some blog writing on this public computer, instead of my phone.

Looking at my older posts makes me really feel derelict about food pictures. I just haven’t been documenting my cooking as well as I used to. I think I’ll blame my broken wrist that made it harder to hold the phone to take pictures, and also this feeling I usually get during cookie season that why should I take pictures when they’ll just look the same as older ones of the same thing? But actually that’s more likely to happen with the cookies than other types of cooking, so I should get to it.

Trying to be better – Here’s the lazy dinner we had Friday night, after I worked 9:00-4:00 at the early voting. It’s a pasta bake I made a bit ago and froze the leftovers. In the theme of not documenting my cooking enough, I knew that I had made the pasta bake to use up sauced pasta that I had made but couldn’t remember what at first. Once we’d eaten it, it came back to me. It was pasta a la vodka, that I made from a Serious Eats recipe using my good frozen tomatoes, when we got back from Denver back in February. One of the nights we were in Denver the kids, well, Ethan really, made us pasta a la vodka, using this fancy jarred sauce that they buy from Whole Foods. You heat it up and add the cream. I saw the sauce there, and it’s actually cheaper than Rao’s but decided I’d rather try making it myself. Although, I stupidly didn’t check to see if I had any vodka, I just bought a $19 bottle of it at Woodman’s and got home to find I had an opened bottle with only a tiny bit out of slightly better quality already. I just assumed I wouldn’t have any because I don’t really like vodka, I prefer gin. I’m either going to have to make A LOT of pasta a la vodka, or find somebody who likes it to take it off my hands.  

So what have I been cooking? Let’s see, I last posted on the 19th and that post has some cooking class pics and other experiments. Since then, we had people over for brunch and I made huevos rancheros and assorted sweet rolls, that used up the cooking class chocolate and almond fillings, and I made more cinnamon date filling because I had some Costco dates getting a little sugared off the way they do, that’s the last phase before ferment. Here’s the recipe for the ranchero sauce; I made a huge batch last summer and froze it. It’s in my recipe-a-month category on my new & improved recipes, where there are exactly 4 recipes for April, May, and July of last year, so obviously a goal that I can still strive to achieve. I’m glad I looked at the category, though, because I am reminded that I can use the leftover ranchero sauce for enchiladas. 

Last week Jasper and the Lusis & Brick side of the family went skiing in Utah. Jasper’s looking forward to getting out in skis, next year I think

Speaking of going out, Mark & I went out for dinner on the Friday Jasper was away. Cadre, walkable from our house. We’ve had some good meals with their chef, Evan Dannell, like last fall when we went out to Seven Acre Dairy for one of their Fall dinners, and it was Door County apples and local wines and pork. Chef Evan made a salad with apples and brown butter vinaigrette that was just delicious. At Cadre, I really liked the beets and the wine I got, but other dishes not as much. Potatoes and bouillabaisse. And our waitress should of been at the diner – she was snapping her gum (that I think she was chewing because she’d maybe sneaked out for a smoke), and she brought Mark the wrong tea. He asked for Earl Grey with milk and it was something herbal, like hibiscus, that slightly curdled the milk.

 

After all the fun of skiing I wasn’t sure how Wednesday with boring old Oma would go, but we had a good time.

And here’s what made the slide at the playground the dino slide.

On Thursday 3/27, my brother’s birthday and opening day, I started seeing pictures in my Instagram from the Patti Smith tribute that had been at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night. One of Michael Dorf’s “Music of …” concerts where the money goes to school music programs.

I think my favorite is this video by Lynn Goldsmith, Patti walking into rehearsal where Alison Mosshart and Johnny Depp are practicing Dancing Barefoot. But there are tons of pics and video of it.

Today, the last Saturday in March, I made chocolate chip scones.

OK, I guess I am off to make enchiladas with that ranchero sauce.