The hazards of grocery shopping

Sunday at the co-op, I got whacked in the eye by a falling carton of sour cream. The top carton of a stack of two. I was trying to get it down from a high shelf in the cooler, without stepping on the edge of the cooler opening like I usually do. Don’t know why I was shy about it. Somehow I thought I could pull the bottom carton forward and the top would fall, and I would catch it before I got hit. Didn’t work nearly as well as I thought it would. I think it kinda bent my glasses, and my nose is a little sore on that side, but I’ve been meaning to go get the glasses adjusted anyhow. This is my new pair, plastic on top, metal on the bottom, that has the little nose pads that the people at Warby Parker recommended to keep my glasses up on my narrow nose. I think the right one needs to get bent back into position.

PS, on Monday I went and got my glasses adjusted and they’re all fine now. Even my nose isn’t sore anymore. 

I think I have a bunch of stuff I’ve been forgetting to tell you.

We’ve taken two trips to Chicago since I last wrote. A week ago Sunday we went down for a symphony concert and before the concert met John and Megan for lunch at Handlebar. It was kind of a light concert for the last Sunday in May.

I only took one picture on this trip, coming in a minute. Not my food at Handlebar, but we sat outside, where it’s a lot quieter than inside, and I had a sandwich with smoked mushrooms and a hunk of grilled pineapple in it. And hibiscus tea. It was all good.

This is the one photo I took, a sign advertising Lurie Children’s Hospital, with a white doctor and a Black kid. It bothers me. It seems like Lurie Hospital does not know about the golliwog. I mean I expect they were going for a picture of a cute kid, but to me it does not look like that. But it seems to be just me; I don’t see anything in Chicago news or reddit threads or anyone complaining about the signs. 

We also went to Chicago last Friday, the first Friday in June. We had lunch at Gotham and I had a non-cardiologist approved BEC, on a whole wheat bagel, but I don’t suppose that helped much. AND I ate the pickle – another no-no.

The closing symphony of the season was with Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Maren Alsop conducting. It was a great show and quite full for a Friday matinee. We were a lot closer than we’d been when we saw them last January, but I couldn’t see Wynton at all. He was in the back with the other trumpets. And I didn’t realize it at the time, but the encore we got, the June 5 show, was by the (recently) late Sonny Rollins.

On the way home, I took pictures of rays of sun filtering down over Hwy 14.

Last week was also different because I had Jasper Tuesday and Thursday, after nursery school, instead of Wednesday. Emma’s parents were out of town, so not only did I have him two days, I had the awesome responsibility of picking him up on the last day of school.

On Tuesday, I didn’t take any pictures, but on Thursday both Emma and I did, and school gave us the beginning of the year photo back, too. 

My pictures from when we got home. I packed a picnic and went with the bike trailer to get Jasper, but he didn’t want to go to the park, so we moved our picnic to the porch. Later we went to the pool and got ice cream on the way home. 

Saturday was Cows on the Concourse.

Also on Saturday we had two graduation parties, high school for the 18-year-old middle kid of some friends’ family, and one for a 40-something friend who gave up on librarianship and went and got a masters in social work. The vegan pumpkin muffins were one of the things I made for the 40-something’s graduation party. For the party they were minis that I glazed with dots of the same lemon glaze that’s on the vegan lemon pistachio loaf (that I still need to bake again, in a smaller pan and see if it has a prettier profile). I had extra batter and made a few regular size muffins and that’s what Jasper is eating above. I made another batch of the muffins today, since I still had some pumpkin. They’re almost as good – I added some dried fruit, King Arthur fruitcake blend, and some of the fruits in it are sweetened, so and I think it made them a tiny bit too sweet. I bet Jasper still likes them, although I had just baked the first batch Thursday morning before I went to get him at school, so they were fresh and perfect.

Here’s the rhubarb cream cake from the 40-something’s party. We left it in the fridge and went to the 18-year-old’s party, dropped off the envelope with cash and a bouquet of flowers, then came home and collected the cake and cupcakes, and went to party #2. I also made hummus and muhamarra, with purchased mini naan and cucumbers for dipping.

  

Since I didn’t have Jasper Wednesday, I went to the Wednesday farmers market solo by bike. They gave me flowers for biking to the market, since it was Bikeweek.

Besides the vegan muffins, that I promise to write up BTW, they are based on Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Post Punk Kitchen, recipe, I’ve also been messing around with rhubarb. I keep seeing little videos, like this one, of a German rhubarb cake or torte, that has a crust, a rhubarb filling, and meringue on top. I think it’s called Rhabarber Baiser Kuchen. I haven’t found a recipe as yet, at least one that I can translate easily, only videos. Although I’m pretty sure I could fake it. Some of the cakes have hazelnuts. Most of videos show sprinkling bread crumbs or a mix of breadcrumbs and ground nuts, e.g hazelnuts, on the bottom of the crust so the rhubarb doesn’t make the crust too soggy. The rhubarb filling is just chopped rhubarb and sugar and cornstarch – no egg or custard.

I tried these little tarts, after translating from German, and I liked the method and the crust. You grease and flour the wells of a muffin tin, mix the crust, divvy it into 12 portions, and press it into the tin. Then add the filling, bake, top with meringue swirls, and bake the meringue. In addition to rhubarb the filling has a sour cream and egg custard custard that I think got too rubbery after the tarts cooled, even though I did reduce the cornstarch slightly. And the meringue weeps after the first day because it is not sealed to the crust.

I think next I will try the crust from the tart recipe and still deciding on the filling. Rhubarb puree (I have some that’s really thick) with a cooked custard on top, and then streusel on top of that? Or maybe try to make a real Rhabarber Baiser Kuchen. I’ll let you know what works.

In other news, we got new blinds. They’re no where near as heavy duty as the old green honeycomb blinds that I put up years ago, but the cats had so chewed the cords of the old blind you couldn’t easily raise and lower them. These have no cords, so a little safer. And they go up and down.

Now it’s hot and humid, probably another reason why the meringue wept, see overleaf for cats hanging out in air conditioning, instead of the porch.