Back from Up North #1

Wednesday, August 4th, 2021 09:57 am
jesse_the_k: Flannery Lake is a mirror reflecting reds violets and blues at sunset (Rosy Rhinelander sunset)

Spent a lovely long weekend in Up North in Rhinelander. Tragically, the air quality was unhealthy for sensitive groups so I couldn't swim. I hate this timeline.

We cooked up a storm, including a strawberry crumble to die for, based on Nigella Lawson's recipe made GF on the fly.

I spent most of my time chatting with great friends and admiring beautiful clouds. So lovely I didn't take any pictures!

I'm giving myself comment amnesty, so feel free to drop pointers to your DW in the comments.

jesse_the_k: White bowl of homemade chicken soup, hold the noodles (chicken soup)

…was the title of a surrealist cartoon book by B.Kliban (more famous for amusing drawings of cats). We frequently admonished each other to pick our food carefully back then in the 70s.

Despite this shared experience, MyGuy picked up this huge bell pepper at the grocery.

click for pic with bonus free OCR app )

jesse_the_k: Water above, pair of white woman's legs dangling from thigh into sky below (Walking in sky)
  • MyGuy makes BLTs twice a year. He sets aside three strips of crispy bacon for my delectation. This week I went wild: gluten-free buckwheat crackers generously slathered with creamy simple peanut butter and then crowned with bacon bits. It was a party in my mouth! All the textures, lots of tasty fat, lots much crunch.
  • Oatly Chocolate Dessert is pretty damn wonderful. Oat milk brings a creamy mouth feel very close to milk. The chocolate is not as dark as I’d love, but being able to eat ice cream without starting a war in my guts is excellent.
  • Another sky picture! Brown prairie, bare trees, rolling hills dominated by medium blue sky with five contrail artifacts and low clouds coming in from the south. Indian Lake Park, Dane Co, Wisconsin — 10 December 2020 — 50 degrees F inside the cut )
jesse_the_k: Slings & Arrows' Anna offers up "Virtual Timbits" (Anna brings doughnuts)
Knife on a cutting board

New! [community profile] gluten_free a comm for sharing gluten-free recipes and resources is open for business! Come sign up and join the gluten-free cooking conversation!

All joy to [personal profile] runpunkrun for cooking (and baking) this up. I’m thrilled and will help stir.

jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)

I need a lot of salt and protein in my diet. Several years of experimentation yields this recipe. I switch between tofu and turkey cutlets as my protein. 608 words )

jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)

Thanks to [personal profile] runpunkrun and [personal profile] isis for extensive variations, I stumbled into a really tasty gingerbread with an exquisite crumb--delicate and coherent, unlike any GF cake I've made so far.

Chewy Gingerbread Bars

(Gluten and Dairy-Free) tasty and quick )

jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)
After some experimentation, here's a less-sweet and slightly-chewier version of my GF molasses spice cookies wow, stand mixers are wonderful tools )
jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)
Makes 30 ~2in cookies
adapted from
Gluten Free Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich with Maya Klein
  • 170 g (=12 tablespoons or 1.5 sticks) softened unsalted butter, cut into chunks
  • really, how can you go wrong with that much butter? )
    jesse_the_k: Fat ewe stares at camera (ewe looking at me?)
    I've always been a big cheese fan, and moving to Wisconsin only improved this.

    five questions and nine answers )
    jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)
    makes: 4 dozen 2in cookies

    90 minutes start to finish with pause for refreshments



    ETA: I improved this recipe so they're less sweet and more chewy


    24 cookies you'll like even if you're not gluten-free )

    jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)

    1. Do you mostly prepare your meals at home or do you eat out more?

    Mostly at home for two good reasons: I have dietary restrictions, and MyGuy's cooking is great!

    2. Is there a time of day when you are more likely to buy food already prepared?

    If I've missed lunch and it's after 2pm

    3. What is your average weekly grocery bill? What is your total restaurant/fast food bill for an average week?

    For two people, $190 week for groceries, $29 for eating out.

    4. What is your favorite meal to prepare at home?

    Breakfast: sweated onions and greens plus 20g of protein (Greek yogurt, turkey burger, chicken thighs, sautéed fish or liver)

    5. What is your favorite meal to order in a restaurant?

    Sushi, or fancy risotto, or ceviche, or pakora, or I'll eat anything I can eat that's too much work to make at home.

    jesse_the_k: Large ewe stares front while adolescent lamb escapes (lamb runs away from ewe)
    1. Do you suffer from Spring Fever? I get jazzed when our clocks switch back to Standard time, because There’s Light After Dinner!

    2. Have you ever been twitterpated (infatuated or obsessed. In a state of nervous excitement)? Regularly.

    3. What does Spring taste like to you? Asparagus steamed with a lot of butter

    4. When was the last time you visited an ice cream truck? Decades ago. I prefer sorbet.

    5. Do you know what song your ice cream truck plays? Pachelbel’s Canon, damn it.

    jesse_the_k: text: Be kinder than need be: everyone is fighting some kind of battle (alanna is amazed)
    So spoiled for choice! The infinite sky and mainly-low rise landscape makes me and the sprawling city feel tiny and unknowable. The city’s website is excellent in both design and information. cabq.gov Random Thoughts and Details )
    jesse_the_k: text: Be kinder than need be: everyone is fighting some kind of battle (alanna is amazed)

    Instead of journaling, I’ve been amusing myself with YouTube. I’ll share on the chance it will distract you pleasantly as well. Captioned except where noted.

    Mark Rober Romps in Fluidized Sand
    you will want one of your own )
    Tom Scott Explains A Dress I Desperately Need, Because it Would Prevent Anyone from Touching My Sore Shoulder
    assistive tech that's creepy too )
    A Dog Who’s Figured Out Ballroom Dancing (no caps, just highly visual music)
    these dancers really trust each other )
    Vi Hart Demonstrates a Folded-Paper Thingy Better than a Fidget Spinner
    admire at full speed; learn at slow-mo )
    Hank Green Squees at Remarkably Small Animals
    seeing is believing )
    Seven Ways to Chop an Onion As Comedy
    as opposed to my way, which is generally full of tears )
    The Manitowoc Minute, Wherein Charles Berens Captures the Wisconsin Accent Quite Well, Thank You (auto caps go wild)
    Regional humor at its goofiest )
    jesse_the_k: Sprinter with right AK prosthetic leg (prosthetic sprint)
    Spent great day with Sasha-feather

    Made beet root/sweet potato/kale/onion chicken curry soup with yogurt. So tasty i got to eat the whole pot!

    Watched a delightful educational video on YouTube. I'm on mobile so I can't embed*
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KSfjv4Oq0
    But the animation is stellar, the narration Oh So British, the captions excellent, and I actually learned something!

    Also finished a six-hour BET/CBC coproduction "The Book of Negroes." Watch for free on the CBC site if you're in Canada; currently on HULU in the US. Beautifully filmed. More on the substance anon.

    Revised my site style/layout -- again.

    *That is, YT won't offer the full embed code, even when I request desktop site. is there a trick I'm missing?
    jesse_the_k: Modern design teapot with two cups (Share tea with me)
    I love tea—I drink a gallon a day. I drink from a thick, 16-oz, glass, better to warm my hands with. I use a tablespoon of loose tea in a single-use paper tea filter bag.

    I'm lucky my local co-op carries many delicious loose teas. I adore Rishi tea (from Milwaukee)1, particularly their Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong, Jade Green, and Mahgreb Mint Green, as well as my own special mix2.

    I've discovered that tea tastes so much better when it's brewed at the right temperature. Oolong brewed at 175° or Green at 165° is delicious. (Boiling water is the right temp for mint tea and other herbals.)

    How to get the temp right without a fancy pot )
    jesse_the_k: Flannery Lake is a mirror reflecting reds violets and blues at sunset (Rosy Rhinelander sunset)
    We're finally into the vacation spirit, doing almost nothing and feeling the bliss.

    Sunday I rolled to the Gulf Coast YMCA branch. The water was deliciously warm at 85°. I neglected to bring my flippers, so only swam 8 lengths in my allotted time, but that's why I exercise to time, not distance.

    The pool may be filled with filtered sea water: it's certainly soft enough.

    I streamed the first half hour of the final Sherlock to my massive disappointment. As always, [tumblr.com profile] plaidadder nails it

    begin quote
    I think that I may fairly make two postulata:
    • 1) Whatever about series 5, this episode was designed to be the last episode of Sherlock that Moffat and Gatiss would make.
    • 2) It should be.
    http://plaidadder.tumblr.com/post/155952044114/the-perfect-metaphor-the-final-problem-and-the
    end quote

    We walked over Mississippi Sound on the 2 mile bridge connecting Biloxi and Ocean Springs. The view, the sun, the breeze, were exhilarating. My traditional direct attention to the water photo memorializes one stop:

    Sitting on the walkway, framed by intense blue sky, woman in powerchair points to Mississippi Sound )

    Home to nap, and finish The Final Problem. Wow, that was terrible. (As with most Sherlock canon, there were a handful of wonderful moments, but...thank god for fanfic. I heartily recommend all of [archiveofourown.org profile] plaidadder's.)

    We then drove back to Biloxi to assess what was where. The beachside road is furnished with a wide array of architecture: brick Waffle Houses; massive casinos; 1940s apartment buildings; humble 900 sq ft shotgun houses, Frank Gehry's typically bizarre Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, and the Biloxi Visitor's Center, a majestic three-story former mansion.

    In my brief time here, I've seen scores of historical markers, displays, websites, pamphlets. Based solely on the ones I've seen, the only people on the Gulf Coast have been the immigrant waves of French, English, Spanish, and "Americans." Africans aren't mentioned anywhere. This is what it looks like to be written out of the narrative.

    The third Monday in January has officially been "Robert E Lee's Birthday" in Mississippi, until this year. Twitter shaming played a part in the Biloxi City Council voting unanimously to bring the holiday in line with the Federal designation of Martin Luther King's Birthday.

    We finished our day with a promising but ultimately dull meal at Mosaic. MyGuy liked his pulled-pork quesadilla. My ceviche & rice-stuffed portobello was tasty, but not enough to write home about, although I seem to have done so.

    Time to swim!

    jesse_the_k: unicorn line drawing captioned "If by different you mean awesome" (different = awesome)
    In early January we set out in our ridiculous red van, MyGuy at the wheel. We brought lots of snackers, copious water, and scores of props to help us stay comfortable in car seats. We stopped at least every two hours to stretch. Four days through St Louis, Tulsa, Amarillo and into a rented condo in Santa Fe NM, and we're still on good terms.

    Great Things


    indeed five of them )

    Frustrating Things

    four of those )
    tl;dr

    It was fun, I'm glad we went, we would never move there.
    jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)

    Better living with upper respiratory infections


    all about it )


    Gluten Free Pie Crusting: An Observational Study


    Last week MyGuy did apple pie SCIENCE! He bought a pack of two frozen GF crusts, nestled in artisanal aluminum foil. He then made cover crusts with two kinds of GF flour, providing ample comparison tasting opportunities.
    It was definitely a struggle. )
    jesse_the_k: Muppet's Swedish chef brandishes cleaver and spoon with rooster at side (grandiloquent cook is grandiloquent)
    We've got lots of grocery stores in Madison; many deliver; all sell beer because Wisconsin; some are within ready walking distance of our hotels; all are on bus lines or cheap cab ride away (we do have Uber here).

    If you need to keep costs down, in addition to the free food in the Con Suite, many groceries offered prepared food & deli. I've noted those which offer catering if you're hosting a party.

    From nearest to farthest away...


    Triangle Market
    corner store with mostly snacks but some food and cheeses.
    2 blocks away
    302 State St
    open 24 hours.


    Fromagination
    Extensive & expensive cheese market, with wine & crackers
    2-1/2 blocks away (same block as Inn on the Park)
    12 South Carroll
    Open 10am - 6pm


    Capitol Centre Market
    Smaller city grocery
    3.5 blocks away
    111 N. Broom St, Madison
    Open 24 hours, online ordering & delivery
    http://www.capcentremarket.com/


    Madison Fresh Market
    Smaller city grocery, catering & delivery.
    6+ blocks away, 0.6 miles
    703 University (at Corner of Lake St.)
    6am to midnight, 7 days/week
    Online ordering & delivery
    http://freshmadisonmarket.com


    Willy St Coop
    Member-owned coop, small, full-line, non-members pay 20% markup but reciprocity if you are member of any other food coop. Delicious prep food inc., vegan & GF as well as carnivorous options.
    2.0 miles away
    1201 Williamson
    7:30am - 9:30 pm
    Online ordering, catering, & delivery
    http://www.willystreet.coop


    Copps Grocery
    Full line, cheaper, small deli, two locations:
    1312 S Park St
    7am - 10pm
    2.1 miles away

    3650 University Ave (catty-corner from Metcalf's)
    6am - 11pm
    3.5 miles away


    Metcalfe's Sentry
    Full line, upscale, prepared foods, flowers, "natural foods"
    3.5 miles away
    726 N Midvale (in Hilldale Mall, corner of University & Midvale Aves)
    6am to midnight, 7 days/week
    Online ordering & delivery
    http://shopmetcalfes.com/


    Woodman's first "warehouse" store in Wisconsin, lowest prices in town, many "ethnic" foods
    3817 Milwaukee St
    24 hours/day
    4.7 miles away
    http://www.woodmans-food.com/madisoneast/


    Hy-Vee
    Full line with lots of prepared food & "natural foods"
    5.5 miles away
    3801 East Washington Avenue
    24 hours/day
    Catering & delivery
    http://www.hy-vee.com/stores/detail.aspx?s=529

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