notes and comment

I'll try to get something started here. Corned beef (commercial, not my own) in the oven, cooking slowly. Using the very, very last of our fresh cabbage, one I didn't expect to be able to salvage, but I have just enough. Will have mashed potatoes with it, I guess.

Weather is raw, but most of the snow has melted. We had nearly four inches when RF got a dusting late last week. Looked nice, and it was going to be warm enough that we didn't have to shovel much. I'm always kind of glad to see the first snow, but it's hard to face five months of winter coming up. Puss has mixed feelings; she enjoys the big white catbox (yes, she shits in the snow, neatly covering it up, though the other day she gave a little "eeep" when she sat down in the cold stuff), but she always gives her feet a few shakes before she steps outside, and sometimes she refuses to go out, even when she's asked us to let her out.

So much time has passed, and the days are just packed (Calvin & Hobbes quote, for the uninitiated). I've been going to a lot of schools and doing a lot of cooking. Notable things cooked (if I can remember): Nice cheese fondue for David & Judy Heberlein a week ago Saturday. Vera, our Swiss friend, gave us a beautiful hard-fired crockery pot for fondue when last they were here, and this was our first go-round with it. I was nervous about putting it on the stove (to melt the cheese), but it came out fine. We keep it hot on the table on our electric burner. Easier to control than sterno.

We're on our second hog jowl, made into guanciale, and it's good. Had it yesterday with tomato sauce and pasta. I made up another big bunch of Mario's tomato sauce. I've also recently made some good chili, for which I have a new method. I start by making taco meat, flour and all (I know the original recipe calls for paprika, but I don't use it), then add beans (in this case the last of last year's pintos) and tomatoes. If anyone wants details they will be forthcoming. The key to chili (I believe) is to always use McCormick's chili powder. I've tried other kinds and they don't taste right.

Yesterday I also made an apple pie. What an ordeal. Apple pie is as simple as pie, but I was trying to get some good out of the last of this year's apples. I must have peeled twenty apples to get enough good ones. Took forever. The remaining apples (about 20 of them) will not be edited; they will go out to the deer. Good pie, though. After the pasta lunch and pie, we ate popcorn for supper. Watching football, of course (Sunday). I was happy to see the Packers beat the Vikes. We couldn't stay up late enough for the second half of Da Bears, but were happy to find they'd won. A quick comment on Monday night football, it being Monday. Before it was turned into a circus, I mean long before, Monday night was the first chance one got to see all of the big plays of Sunday. There was only one game that one could see on Sunday (or maybe two), and for all the rest one had to wait until Monday to see any plays. Halftime on Monday night was the highlight of the football (highlights) week.

Other cookage. The grapefruit/arugula salad from the new FC truly is a winner. I made it again for David & Judy. I also made, from that issue, the turtle-like shortbread bar cookies. Many steps, but nothing really complicated. One has to be comfortable with a candy thermometer, though. And at last I have a really good one, inherited from Charlie's mom. Anyway, they are super. The recipe makes a ton, but they're almost gone (took some to Dwight & K's on Saturday when we ate there, in the house that Charlie built three/four years ago).

I can't think of anything else cook-y, though when I'm making things I blog in my mind. Need to do this more often, of course.

On the reading front, I'm on the last disc of S/N. It's been hanging fire for almost a week, but I'll finish it tomorrow on my way to Cannon Falls. I could have brought it in to listen to the rest of it, but was trying to save it, because I don't want it to be over. Charlie has at last read Oryx and Crake. He started reading it in bed, a bit at a time, in the middle of last week. Then one day he brought it downstairs, and the day after that he did not move until he was done. It was a nice day by the fire. I'm short of read at the moment, so I was rereading Here at The New Yorker, probably the least interesting of the TNY books, which was fine, since Charlie made a lot of comments while reading O & C.

Of course I remember "Million Dollar Baby." Strangely, it is one of my most common earworms, and I have no idea what triggers it. As far as my homegrown housekeeping scheme goes, it's working pretty well. The hardest part is going back a week later to a place I normally clean so rarely that I'm used to cleaning it dirty. It's odd to reclean something, if you know what I mean, but I know from previous experience that cleaning something that has been cleaned recently gets it even cleaner. The main thing is that if I have an hour, I can get that day's work done, and if I have more time I can do more. So far I've moved the kitchen spice shelf to a much better location and given it a purge (I'm pretty much on top of it, but there are always a few stragglers), cleaned out the upstairs and downstairs grocery shelves, and, wonder of wonders, today organized and purged a messy pile of kitchen stuff in the basement that's been there since we tore out the old cubbyhole under the stairs. Most of it is stuff to keep, but I still got a good pile of stuff to throw. Mainly, it's now neatly organized (on the floor), and I know what's where. This was good. What's left now will have a place when the new kitchen cabinets are finished. So I understand and appreciate your efforts, Suze. It's nice to get some of that crap out, thrown, stowed, whatever. My next effort will be our guest room. It's bad enough that we have one room piled with junk ("The Book Room"); two won't do. It's not a massive job, but will require a certain amount of thinking. The Book Room is hopeless until we get the sunroom finished, and who knows when that will be.

We are, however, making progress. Charlie has a lot of siding up on the front and west side of the garage. The view of the garage from the downstairs toilet is particularly splendid. We are getting so civilized here. Our very nice tax assessor lady still lists our house as "gutted," but one of these years she won't be able to, and our taxes will go up.

I know that I have left all stones unturned, most questions unanswered, and many interesting things uncommented upon, but this will have to do for today.