Adventures at Home and Abroad

Gainesville

It continues hotter'n hooties here. By the time I'd cranked myself up to go out to Publix for Knox gelatin and a paper, it was too late. (And a good thing, too. See below.)

I'm finally finished unpacking and caught up with post-trip laundry. Decided to call that a decent accomplishment for the day, and get to the Blessings tomorrow.

Made a Leanne meal: tuna salad with lots of dill, scallions, cukes and yogurt served over chopped romaine and topped with slivered almonds. It was okay, but I wouldn't do it again. The prescribed side was a relish tray of celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, radishes and black olives. Bill doesn't like radishes, so I omitted them, and, inspired by Sandy, could not just put plain cherry tomatoes out-- I couldn't find little fresh mozzarella balls, so bought a big piece of fresh mozz and cut it into pieces. Cut off the stems of a few sprigs of store-bought basil and put them in water for an hour or so, and they became wonderfully crisp-- glad I remembered that trick. Anyway, as able to turn the mediocre cherry tomatoes into something approximating Sandy's dish. Felt very good about that-- it made the rest of the ho-hum relish plate spacial.

We also finished off last night's sushi. Turns out the cat is a sushi fan-- her favorite is spicey eel. Who knew?!

While looking for sturdy toothpicks for the tomatoes (found some red, white and green plastic ones with hearts) I stumbled on two boxes of... Knox gelatin! I thought I had some in there somewhere. The gods where kind. I'd have been pissed if I'd dragged myself out in the deadly heat and found it later...

So after getting the kitchen squared away after dinner, I started my very first panna cotta. Hardest part was finding and washing my seldom-used custard cups, actually some dessert dishes from either Dan or Grandma. I have six of them (one mismatched), but they were not enough-- I had to press my two ramekins into service to take up the slack. And then clearing enough room in the fridge for them all. This very easy recipe took me about an hour, and I can already see many opportunities to screw it up. It will be interesting to see how many of said opportunities I actually took. There seemed to be so much undissolved gelatin in the bottom or the pan and in the strainer, I can't believe there was enough left in the panna to actually make it cotta. (Or vice versa, however it works.) I guess the truth will be told tomorrow.

No, wait! Three hours-- the truth could be just 15 minutes away! I think. "State tuned," as I used to think they were saying on the radio.

Okay, as promised, some tales from the journey home. The first one happened shortly after we left Spring Valley. I found I-90, no problem-- and then proceeded to tell Bill to turn WEST. D'oh! All I can say is that was a brain fart-- after heading west for so long, the old inner navigator didn't get the message we were headed back east. I was humiliated! Bill did not reproach me, but I could feel my face burning all the way to the first possible exit, and back to Menomine. (I will never learn to spell that world).

Adventure number two happened in the Menoma-whazzit, where I'd made a reservation at a "Best Western" which turned out not to exist. We drove up and down, nothing. Finally realized, with the help of the Nav system, that something called "Holiday Manor" had to be it-- sure enough, it had been a sub-chain of BW, but had now severed ties. Was probably an okay place in the '50's, but now on the seedy side-- the kind of place that in Gainesville we consider "hot sheets." The parking lot had a number of Harley-wannabes. The soap in sink and shower was already opened and partly used. The AC vents were stuck in a position that blew the cool air straight up, making the window curtains billow.

We coped. Bill jerry-rigged the vents and got the curtains out of the way. The towels and sheets were clean.And soap is soap, right? Once the place was cooled down, we slept like babes in the room's one bed, an old fashioned double, just like the one at home. We were inspired to be up and out early. What more can one ask for $55 a night? ... To be continued tomorrow.

I just checked the panna. It looks grim. Tops seem to be setting up a bit on some of them, but mostly still liquid. I may have to eat my mistake. Maybe I can turn it into some weird frozen granita-like concoction.