rsc

So the results of last night's game were definitely more satisfactory, but...

(1) The defense once again tried to sabotage it. Three more unearned runs.

(2) Did they really have to take four hours over it? That over-extended bottom of the 9th was particularly annoying, especially at fucking 2 AM ET.


Well, susandennis, our final showdown is this afternoon. After that we can be friends again (mostly).

For the record, as always.

Robiola due latti
Sautéed duck liver
Octopus in olive oil
Assorted crackers

Roast duck with cranberry-hazelnut stuffing
Roasted baby potatoes
Delicata squash sautéed in butter with shallots and tarragon
Tossed green salad with mustard vinaigrette

2017 Henry Lagarde Malbec

Denver chocolate pudding

Harney & Sons ginger tea


I took the Robiola out of the refrigerator after lunch, but didn't unwrap it; by hors d'oeuvres time it was almost liquid, and getting it out of its wrapping was rather a challenge. We were wondering how we would get it back into storage, but in the event we finished it (it wasn't very big), so we didn't have to deal with it.

The duck once again took under an hour and a half, starting at 425 and going down to 350 after half an hour (would have been sooner, but I forgot). The skin was not as crisp as I was hoping for (last time it was better); I'm not sure what I did differently this time (I did pour boiling water over it ahead of time, as recommended). Maybe I need to do something to cause more of the fat to drain off.

The dessert came out the right consistency this time – it's sometime been to gooey in the past (and it was little dry the last time), and I've had to make adjustments with the proportions, complicated by the fact that I was aiming to make ⅔ of the recipe. Using only half the full-recipe amount of milk and sugar seems to work well. (And who uses ⅔ of a square of baking chocolate?)

I just learned on Facebook that today is National Black Cat Day. I assume Biggie knew this already, but he may have neglected to tell you.

Not a big deal in light of current events, but not something I really needed right now.

Late yesterday afternoon, we heard what sounded like a bunch of stuff falling over, but couldn't immediately find a cause either in the kitchen (my guess) or outside ([Unknown site tag]'s).

This morning we discovered the cause: one of the supports under the top shelf of my sheet-music bookshelf had broken, causing the shelf to spill its contents (all of the solo piano music except for the ones that have actually been used any time recently, which are piled on the piano) onto the floor at the feet of the piano bench. (Overlooked yesterday because the room in question was dark, and it didn't occur to us to look.)

Some of those books are old, and weren't in very good shape. They're in worse shape now. All are piled on the couch in the music room. I'm not sure what we're going to do about repairing the bookshelf (nothing right now, what with hardware stores likely not going to be useful anytime soon).

While it's fresh in my mind:

Squids in ink sauce
Délice de Bourgogne¹ (soft cheese)
Raw milk truffled gouda
Assorted crackers

Roast Cornish hen
Yam casserole with cranberries
Sautéed cauliflower with shallots and cumin seed
Pain d'Avignon cinnamon pecan rolls

Mixed green salad with mustard vinaigrette

2016 Frey Pinot Noir (Mendocino)

Individual Whole Foods chocolate cheese cakes
"African Autumn" tea


I decided not to stuff the hens, both to simplify the process and to try to avoid going too overboard on the carbs. Instead, taking hints from various recipes that I looked at on the web, I put a quarter each of an onion and a lemon inside each one² and surrounded them with whole peeled cloves of garlic, and at the end I smushed the garlic into the pan drippings and added a bit of the wine to make (a small but sufficient amount of) gravy. I roasted the hens at 400F for about an hour and quarter, and they came out fine.

I know I said last year that I felt a Pinot Noir wasn't robust enough to go with duck, but with the hen it worked well.

Everything was quite lovely.

¹I think; I lost the label before I got around to posting.

²We made two, but only ate one tonight. Leftovers are good.

This entry from susandennis reminded me of a bit of my own history as a baseball fan, which I will put behind a cut to save screen space for those of you not interested.

( Read more... )

This year's Thanksgiving feast, for the record:


Small scallops in Galician sauce
Lincet Délice de Bourgogne (soft cheese)
Sautéed duck liver

Roast duck with hazelnut-cranberry stuffing
Yam and apple casserole
Sautéed cauliflower with cumin
Stone and Skillet whole wheat rolls

Tomato and mushroom salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Francis Coppola Syrah 2016

Chocolate truffle cake


Expecting the duck to take at least an hour and a half, I checked its temperature at about an hour and a quarter to see how close it was, and was somewhat surprised to find that it was done, and actually past the target temperature. Perfectly OK for it to sit out of the oven while I cooked the cauliflower and made the gravy. The duck showed no signs of being overcooked; it was moist and flavorful, and the skin was properly crisped (I had followed the previous practice of pouring hot water over the breast an hour or so before putting it in the oven).

We had a bit of an adventure with the gravy. I had put the neck and giblets in a moderate (apparently too moderate) quantity of water in order to produce stock to use as a base, but despite my turning the flame way down once it had come to a boil and keeping it (as I supposed) tightly lidded, the liquid had all boiled away by the time I was ready to use it. So I had to fake the stock by dissolving some vegetable bouillon in a fresh set of water, but once I'd added the pan drippings and some flour it was perfectly good, if not particularly memorable, gravy.

We were expecting to have a mixed green salad (which would have included tomatoes and possibly mushrooms), but we had bought a lettuce mix that included romaine, and despite the fact that we'd already eaten a couple of salads from the same mix without ill effects, we decided to follow the CDC's advice and discard the remainder.

The Syrah was a good choice, my having taken warning from my own notes from two years ago suggesting that a Pinot Noir was a little too light.

The dessert was store-bought (Whole Foods) and quite good, and avoided the problem of having way too much leftover dessert.

A very nice meal. And we have leftovers.

After being away for 2½ weeks (fabulous trip to Georgia [no, the other one] and Armenia, jwg will eventually post pictures), it was time to address the garden -- which is in pretty good shape, thanks to a kind friend who stopped by to water as necessary -- where there were a few holes that we would have addressed earlier if we'd been here. Of course, we got home just in time for the first real heat wave of the summer.

Anyway, we bought some more plants yesterday to fill in (most of) the holes, and have put in some time in the morning and late afternoon, to avoid the worst of the heat. John has mowed much of the grass, which sorely needed it. Today I decided to address the two beds that are supposed to contain Cosmos, planted from seed, very few of which survived. Indeed, of the C. bipinnatus "Sonata", there was only one survivor, and of the C. sulphureus "Bright lights" there were three. The former are easily obtained from nurseries, and we bought an additional 12 yesterday. The "bright lights" are basically unobtainable, and while I think I still have more seeds, it's not clear that seeds planted this late will ever turn into flowering plants; still, there's nothing to lose by trying.

But first I had to deal with he fact that in the two cosmos beds, in addition to the abovementioned survivors, there were three quite robust tomato plants. I've been finding and removing little volunteer tomato seedlings all over the place, but these were big enough to be worth keeping, and fewer than usual of my home-started ones had made it, so I moved them to the tomato bed, although of course I have no idea whether they're red or yellow (I'm trusting that they're cherries, since that's the only kind we grow). So now we have 13 tomato plants, in space where there really ought to be no more than 12, especially since we only have 12 tomato cages (and not enough room for a 13th if we had it).

So then I planted the 12 new cosmos plants, and moved some of the zinnias from one whiskey barrel that had too many to the two that had too few (the varieties are not entirely compatible, but we're not competing for any prizes, so who cares). I still need to plant the other cosmos seeds, plus another round of onion sets, but I had been out in the heat long enough for one go; maybe this afternoon.

But my inclination is to follow the example of susandennis: "I'm taking the rest of the day off".

I received in yesterday's mail a summons for jury duty -- my first in many years -- scheduled for mid-July in Woburn (MA). The card encouraged me to respond online, providing the URL of the relevant site, plus a "Badge #" and PIN for identification purposes.

One of the first things the web site offered was a list of reasons why one might be disqualified, which I looked at even though I was pretty sure I wouldn't meet any of the criteria, whereupon I learned that as a consequence of being over 70 I could opt out. However, I didn't really want to do that; I feel like I should do my jury service, and might find it interesting as well (although, in practice, the most likely result is that I'll be dismissed the first day without being put on a jury). But I wasn't enthusiastic about doing it in the middle of July, especially if I hit the lottery and ended up being on a long trial (as happened to jwg when he was last called, more than 25 years ago), since I have a commitment for the first weekend in August.

Well, I knew that Massachusetts allows one to request one postponement, but I wasn't sure that I wouldn't end up with a worse date if I did that. But you never know till you try, and when I selected "request a postponement" it turned out that I could choose my date from any of the "available" dates within a year of the original date, so I selected December 10, 2018. While I was at it, I gave my email address and opted to have further notifications sent by email rather than paper.

Immediately after I completed the process, I received email acknowledging the postponement and assuring me that I would receive a notification 10 days before my service. Altogether it was an entirely painless process.

It's always nice to find the state getting something right.

Friend susandennis writes: I get up at 4:30 on weekdays. It's not hard.

"Not hard" is one of those relative things. Unless we have a flight to catch, we're extremely unlikely to be up before 8:00. I made an exception this morning because I needed to get my blood drawn before breakfast, and got up at the absurdly early hour of 7:40. By the time I had driven to Peabody, gotten my blood drawn, and returned, it was about 8:45, and I expected, somehow, that breakfast would be waiting on the table, or at least in progress. But somehow my beloved husband had managed not only to be unaware of my departure but to sleep through the entire hour.

Oh, well, it's not like we had any important appointments this morning.