magid

This week I’m hosting a tiny Shabbat dinner (two guests) and lunch (one guest).

Today’s food prep:

• challah
  
• split pea soup with barley, carrots*, garlic, Impossible sausage, onion, tomato pasted
  
• sauted Baby Bella mushrooms for hummus
  
• roasted Brussels sprouts
  
• roasted beets* and rutabaga*
  
• roasted zucchini, tomato, lemon, onion
  
• roasted garlic
  
• salmon with preserved lemon and whole wheat panko
  
• potato salad with dill, parsley, and chives*
  
• improv peach crisp with rice flour, walnut meal, and buckwheat flour topping
  
• ginger cake
  
• green salad with cucumbers and sunflower seeds
  
• beef stew/cholent with onions, tomato paste, diced lemon, diced lime, farro, chickpeas, and Vadavan seasoning

* locally sourced

Today I’d had the intent to finally put the Pesach kitchen away so I can start cooking, but that hasn’t happened (yet? Maybe posting this will get me to do it?). I was already underslept by a lot, and today’s must-do’s were emotionally raw. ( Read more... )

Work was lower key today, now that a deadline for $PrintedThing has passed (so much last-minute scrambling, including deletions due to no longer wanting to feature $CompanyThatDidStupidThings, as came to light yesterday). There are still some ongoing things, but without that one piece, it’s easier to cope with them.

I checked the forecast, and was appalled to see highs in the high 80s (°F): it’s not even April yet! We shouldn’t get those temps in Boston until late May at the earliest. ::sigh::

I was on to check my section of the eruv this week, and decided to do that after work today instead of before work tomorrow. Usually I start near the East Somerville T stop and head approximately outbound. Since I was already on the Green Line, I took it to the other end of the section and worked my way back. It was just enough different that it kept me on my toes.

I ended by a 109 bus stop, and decided to go to Costco before heading home. I was walking around the casino hotel, and realized they’d probably have a nicer bathroom than Costco, so now I’ve finally been inside the Encore building, though only a small fraction of it. It’s impressive, with fun mosaics in the floors, and the feel of a very very upscale mall, plus conference space (not to mention the hotel and casino). I think some of the landscaping includes mugo pines, so I may have a way to make actual mugolio this year. This Costco didn’t have much that was useful for Pesach; at least I finally bought the new pillows I’ve been wanting for months.

My feet are tired now; turns out I walked >6 miles today, some of it carrying some heavy groceries.

---

Weird idea: given that I can find tapioca starch kosher for Passover, shouldn’t I be able to find whole tapioca pears kfP? (Not that I’ve seen this.) And if so, I could use them not only for pudding, but also maybe in a savory application like a kfP cholent variant.

There are three bus routes that end by my work. One I take when I don’t walk the whole way, one I take to Brighton (friends and/or shopping), and the third, the 85, goes from Kendall Square to Union Square (Somerville) (it claims to go to Spring Hill, but that was cut off the other end years ago due to some construction and never put back afterward).

Until early next month, that is. The powers that be at the T have decided to merge the CT2 route, which currently runs from Ruggles to Sullivan (southish and northish on the Orange Line, but with the route wiggling west from the train route, going through the medical area, and not-close stops to make it more express, as befitting a “cross-town” bus), with the 85. Although the route will be almost the same as the CT2’s much longer path, for some reason, the name CT2 is being retired, and the new route will become the 85.

The new route bypasses the last stops of the old 85 route, leaving the Spring Hill area without much bus service. I use the current route as a convenient way to get to Market Basket after work. The new route will mean a longer walk to make that happen, though still doable. On the plus side, it will go past Sullivan to Assembly Square, which I haven’t visited in ages, so maybe I’ll manage to get there some time. (Also helpful for folks who have jury duty at the courthouse.)

I took the 85 (old route) last night, and the bus driver was Not Happy about the route change, partly about how it leaves that part of the Union Sq area unserved by buses, and partly about how the route will be moved from one T garage to another, after a previous change left the current garage down a route already.

I thought of Minoanmiss when I read this dialogue from Thomas Gray in Copenhagen: in which the philosopher cat meets the ghost of Hans Christian Andersen (Philip J Davis), pp. 37-29: ( Read more... )

• roasted sweet potatoes* with cumin
  
• sauted Beyond with onions to serve over hummus
  
• red cabbage*, carrot*, and purple starburst daikon* slaw with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, lemon juice, and toasted cashews
  
• cucumber-mango salad with tajin seasoning
  
• sauted parsnips*
  
• matza balls to put into
  
• soup with veg* stock, dried baby lima beans, carrots*, and onions
  
• seitan to put into
  
• a saute of onions, carrots*, zucchini, Baby Bella mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms
  
• ginger* cake from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

* locally sourced

It was time for another blood donation, and I finally found time to do that today after work.

I got lucky: the intake person managed a finger stick that didn’t hurt (this is usually the worst part of donation, so it’s noticeable*, and the phlebotomist was also excellent. (Also, very attractive.) We were chatting for the 5 min or so it took to drain enough blood, and it turned out that his sister graduated from $MyEmployer, 19 years ago. Which surprised me enough that I used my outside-my-head voice to say that either his sister is much older, or he looks seriously younger than he is. Turns out he’s 20, and all his siblings (and half-siblings) are seriously older than him: his father is in his 70s, and could be his grandfather. Whoa. He mentioned that he would’ve liked the chance to be a kid with siblings closer in age to hang out together, but did have the advantage of many more adults invested in him (in a way that made me think of Clara Barton.**)

On the way out, I recognized the other phlebotomist who’s my birthday twin, and he said that {other woman in a donor chair} was also our birthday twin, so we had a birthday triplets moment :-)
(And I got to tell her that we also share our birthday with The Count, from Sesame Street.)

* apparently Children’s Hospital and possibly also the Red Cross have ditched the finger stick (to determine hemoglobin levels; too much or too little (much more likely) disqualifies the donor for the day) in favor of something non-invasive. I’d really like MGH to get with the program.

** also apparently, I keep thinking Clara Barton thoughts around when donating blood. I suppose it makes some sense.

Yesterday morning, $Municipality announced snow emergency parking would be starting at 8a (the snow didn’t start until after dark), while $Employer announced later Sunday that today would be a snow day, with regular operation starting tomorrow morning at 7a. Alas for me, that I can work remotely, so I didn’t get any benefit (other than the lack of commute).

The wind today was impressive, snow whipping around so strongly that walls were coated in white, not just roofs. It’s slowed now to just snow, having already dropped what I think is over a foot of snow (the drifts make it difficult to be certain; a recently posted news article lists amounts ranging from under half a foot out on the Cape, to almost three feet in Dartmouth). It looks beautiful from the comfort of home; I’m very glad not to be out, though.

My porch is filled with snow; I haven’t been able to open the doors to the porch since MLK weekend.

eta, 7:50p: The city isn’t lifting the snow parking ban until 5p tomorrow, and my functional boss has said that tomorrow’s work sessions will be online tomorrow, just like today, so I can work from home again tomorrow if I wan/if Outside looks less navigable than I’d like.

• soup: turkey stock (made around Thanksgiving, frozen since then) with onions, carrots*, parsley, and matza balls
  
• turkey breast (also frozen since Thanksgiving) topped with smoky tomato* jam, baked over onion, sweet potato*, and slices of Georgia peaches (frozen since the summer)
  
• mashed potatoes* with spinach*, pureed basil*, pureed garlic scapes*, and scallions
  
• sort-of red flannel hash, with onions, pieces of what I guessed is corned beef in the mix of deli ends picked up from the Butcherie, thinly sliced cabbage*, potatoes*, and beets*
  
• the rest of the peach slices baked with a bit of matza meal, Earth Balance, and a a little hot* honey*

* locally sourced

Boxed share again, so I pulled out the kitchen scale.

• 2 smallish bags of spinach
  
• 4 dried hot peppers (looks like two different varieties, but the email is not helpful here)
  
• almost 3 lb beets (3 large beets)
  
• almost 7 lb carrots
  
• 3 heads of what the email said was Savoy cabbage, but looks a lot more like Taiwanese flat cabbage (one tiny, one small, one medium, about 5 lb)
  
• a jar of giardiniera (swapped for more potatoes because lack of kosher certification)
  
• almost 10 lb potatoes (both my original ones and the swapped ones)

First thoughts: all the roasted roots. Do the pickle thing already, darn it! Baked roots under a protein (fish/poultry). Various cabbage and carrot slaws. Carrot soup. Carrot halwa. Carrots baked with lemon tahini dressing. Any further carrot suggestions?