Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

We had a roast chicken a few days ago, then adrian_turtle used some of the leftovers to make a salad with greens, pieces of chicken, and grapes. cattitude just turned the remaining leftover chicken into matzo ball soup.

There will be homemade chocolate cake later, because Adrian wanted to check whether the springform pan would hold cake batter. We eat well around here.

I woke up at about 7:30 a.m., had a cup of black tea, showered, and went to my doctor’s office for a fasting blood, which I wanted to do before I see her in a couple of weeks. There was a little bit of annoying delay: Mt Auburn Hospital is being moved to a different MyChart system, and some balls are being dropped. Specifically, the order for my lab work wasn’t on the new system, so they had to copy it from the old system, which is in read-only mode for a few weeks, after which it won’t be available even to medical staff. Carmen said her office is going to be sending an email to all patients, advising us to follow up on existing referrals and orders for lab work before the end of the month. I hope that doesn’t miss too many people, but I made a point of telling Adrian about it.

Once they had my test tube of blood, I stopped at a couple of stores on the same block as my doctor’s office, to buy (frozen) ground lamb and some more cannabis edibles. Then I treated myself to an apple, grape, and brie crepe for breakfast, which I ate at an outdoor table. After eating the crepe, I went to CVS and got a flu vaccine, then took the subway home. I am feeling very accomplished, and a bit tired.

The flu and covid tests I mentioned in my previous post arrived yesterday.

The weather is delightful right now--sunny and about 22 C/72 F--so I went to Central Square after lunch, for the Monday farmers' market and to buy ice cream.

At the farmers market, I bought Zestar apples--an early apple all three of us like--blackberries, peaches, and a loaf of Hi Rise bakery's "Concord" bread. I then walked over to Toscanini's, but noticed New City Microcreamery en route, and went in. I asked for a taste of the key lime pie ice cream, and was pleased that it tastes like key lime pie and works as ice cream, so I got a scoop and took it outside to eat at a nearby table.

Then to Tosci's, where the board said they had raspberry and sweet cream (among other flavors). I asked for a pint of each, and discovered they were out of raspberry. I asked to taste the mango sticky rice ice cream, which I didn't like. So I just got sweet cream, then walked back to New City for a pint of key lime pie ice cream.

I now have dairy ice cream from four different local ice cream places in my freezer, the other two being Lizzy's (chocolate orgy and black raspberry) and JP Licks (peach). Boston is a good city for ice cream.

I went to the Brookline (Coolidge Corner) farmers market this afternoon. I bought the two things I was specifically looking for--lamb merguez sausages, from Stillman's, and raspberries. When I was buying the sausages, I told the vendor that I'd asked for this kind of sausage a couple of weeks ago, at a different farmers market, and thanked him (them) for making that specific flavor of sausage.

One small box of raspberries, because we've had bad luck this summer with over-buying berries, and not eating all of them before them spoiled. I also bought two small cucumbers, and a baguette, even though it's not good baguette weather, because we like Clear Flour bakery's "ancienne" baguettes.

I stopped at Burdick's and got a cup of dark hot chocolate to take out, because it's unseasonably cool and felt like good weather for sitting outside with a hot drink. I didn't buy anything else there, because the chocolate-covered citrus has suffered from shrinkflation: Burdicks is charging almost twice as much as they did a few years ago, for about half as much candy.

The Dean Road station on green line C station isn't far, but it's enough of a hill to be good exercise: I walk quickly on my way to the T unless I make an effort not to, and then the walk back is uphill all the way.

I realized, after posting this but before dinner, that I overdid things and was out of executive function.

I fear that I may have developed an allergy to strawberries.

Cattitude came home from the farmers market with two quarts of strawberries, so we sat down to eat strawberries this evening. Adrian washed a plateful of the berries, and we all started eating.

They're very good strawberries, but I realized after eating a few that my lips were starting to itch. They were tasty enough that I had four or five more before saying anything. When I did, Adrian suggested I go wash my face. I rinsed my lips with plenty of cool water, took a benadryl, complained about the situation, and got Adrian to make me herb tea. I hope I haven't developed an allergy to a fruit I like, after eating them without problems for more than fifty years.

ETA, after responding to people's comments:

It may not be just strawberries. Raw kiwi makes my mouth itch, and I think I remember having a problem with the kiwi on a mixed fruit tart. Possibly-underripe figs also made my mouth itch once, but cooked figs (fig Newton cookies) are OK, and a fig that was ripe enough to fall off the tree at my feet was fine. I think I need to do some reading.

Adrian is out of town for a few days, and I am feeling accomplished, because I made a tasty thing she won't eat for supper for me and Cattitude last night, and a different tasty thing that she can't eat for lunch today. I do some of the cooking around here, but less than Cattitude and Adrian do, and lunch more often than dinner.

Cattitude is making us crab cakes, another thing Adrian doesn't eat, for tonight's dinner.

Dinner last night was rice pilaf with roast pork, using leftover meat from the day before, and lunch today was a red pepper and cheese omelet.

My Penzey's spice order just arrived. I ordered enough this time that they threw in, free, a "joy of cinnamon" mini-gift box: Penzey's cinnamon (a blend), Vietnamese cinnamon, and cinnamon sugar, plus cards with tips on what to do with them. I would never buy cinnamon sugar, because it's not worth the money, but Penzey's was giving it away several years ago, so I took a jar. It turned out I liked it at least as well as the cinnamon sugar I mix up for myself from sugar and cinnamon.

This order was mostly restocking our pantry, plus one new thing to try, a blend called "Krakow nights." Also, we decided to try powdered rosemary instead of cracked, because the little pointy bits on the cracked rosemary can be annoying in some cases.

We didn't buy as many spices as it looked like: I got up to the "free gift box with purchase" level because gift cards were on sale ($35 for a $50 gift card), so I bought one. We shop at Penzey's enough that I've used up at least three previous discount gift cards, so it's worthwhile, in part because gift cards count toward the minimum order for free shipping, and it's no longer convenient for me to go to Penzey's in person.

I made chick pea and cauliflower curry for dinner tonight, because we had half a cauliflower, and canned chick peas are an easy source of protein.

I thought I remembered the recipe/process for this curry better than I did.

Adrian and Cattitude were both happier with the results than I was, probably because they weren't thinking about what they should have done and didn't.

Things I forgot or mis-remembered: I forgot the flour (which should have been added to the mix of dried spices, after sauteeing the onions).

I used twice as much broth as the base recipe calls for (I was thinking of a rice pilaf recipe), and I think the correct amount would have been halfway between (1.5 cups).

I put oregano and ground cumin in the spice mix, thinking of black beans and rice, and I don't think they improved it. Maybe garlic powder next time? (The spice mix is smoked paprika and Penzey's Singapore seasoning, in place of curry powder that includes hot pepper, plus ginger.)

Also: canned coconut milk is a bit thinner than whole milk. Adrian realized halfway through the meal that we have unflavored nondairy yogurt (coconut and cashew based), and added a dollop to her bowl; that worked well enough that Cattitude and I followed suit.

I originally forgot the raisins, but Adrian is temporarily avoiding dried fruit after dental work, so it's just as well I didn't add them along with the broth.

Raw cauliflower cooked this way was bland, so I probably won't make this curry again.

Some garlic powder might have worked well here.

Also, I am out of practice cooking more than one thing at a time, so I got Cattitude to make the rice, as well chopping the vegetables.

Too sour, the flavor isn't very interesting, and it's not very juicy. That's based on sharing pieces of one apple with Adrian and Cattitude. We bought three, and it's probably worth trying another before giving up on it.

Adrian, Cattitude, and I had lunch outdoors in Coolidge Corner, then went to the farmers market. I had mushroom borekas for lunch, because I don't get mushrooms as often as I like, and I knew I liked Rami's borekas.

We came home from the farmers market with tomatoes, yellow (shiro) plums, two kinds of berry, St. Nicholas red bell peppers, a baguette, some merguez sausages, and a few apples (and I think that's everything). Cattitude is eagerly looking forward to making tomato sandwiches tomorrow, now that large-enough good tomatoes have arrived at the market. It's early for the St. Nicholas peppers, but we were expecting tomatoes large enough to slice and put on a sandwich sooner.

I also tried ice cream from a truck that parks at the Brookline farmers market on Thursday afternoon; I got red raspberry chocolate chip, and ginger, and was unimpressed: the ice cream was nothing special, and this is Boston. JP Licks has peach ice cream this month, and the branch where I bought a pint of peach ice cream yesterday is also in Coolidge Corner. Still, I'm glad I tried it, and I have some Lizzy's ginger ice cream in the freezer.

I walked slowly and carefully today, because my hip was hurting this morning, and I walked a bunch yesterday (JP Licks and Trader Joe's, via green line C.) Part of being careful is that we took the shuttle bus that's replacing green line B this week, and then the 66 bus, which saves a bit of walking distance, and the trip home by that route avoids the uphill-all-the-way walk from green line C.