Some experiments just don’t work out

Sporting Baylor's green and gold. Real school spirit

Quiet Saturday night. The Burtons are in Waco for the Baylor homecoming game, though they plan to make it home before the storms hit later tonight. Right now, it’s a lovely night. Patio doors open, and in the distance, I can hear faint music and cheering from the TCU homecoming. Of course, in my mind, Jordan, Jacob, and Christian have gone to the wrong game, but Christian is a dedicated Baylor fan and my efforts to convert Jacob to TCU have been fruitless. His cousin, Ford, however, is a dedicated TCU fan.

Perfect night for an experimental dinner. I’d found a recipe for eggs poached in red wine. Since I love poached eggs, it seemed to have my name on it. I added some sautéed mushrooms, and it was okay but not the score of ten I’d hoped for.  Best thing about it was the baguette slices browned in garlicky olive oil.

Eggs in the pan

The eggs looked beautiful in the pan, not so much so when I dished them up. It tasted okay but just not the outstanding and unusual dish I’d hoped for. I may work on it another time.

The final dish

Basting the eggs with wine gives them a funky color

A light supper was okay, because I had a hearty lunch. This morning I was working away when Jordan came out to announce that Christian had taken Jacob to a soccer game and did I want to go to lunch. So I showered and got ready. We chose Press Café where we could eat outdoors and enjoy the lovely day—temp in the 80s, slight breeze, comforting cloud cover. I had a cheeseburger—and I can’t believe I ate the whole thing! Usually I bring half home for a future meal, but this tasted really good although it was not quite cooked according to my request.

We drove around the new shops at Clearfork, Fort Worth’s new ultra ultra (and expensive) shopping center anchored by Neiman Marcus which alone tells you something about it.. There are restaurants there, but I will avoid many of them because the price is so high. I have my eye on one though that seems to have an interesting menu and reasonable prices. I had no idea there were so many shops back in there.

Came home and napped—that glass of wine with lunch! But I got a good thing accomplished today—the November neighborhood newsletter, the Poohbah, is ready to go to the printer as soon as I get answers to some questions I unearthed in the copy and approval of some bold changes I made in the minutes. Nice to have that out of the way.

A long email from a treasured and longtime friend who lives way too far away completed my day. She nailed it, said what drives us both is a northern European Protestant work ethic. Read that as we are two compulsives. Martha and I were in graduate school together in the sixties---shh! No comments about how long ago that was, please—and we gravitated to each other immediately. We were both in the English department and had another thing in common—our fathers were both presidents of osteopathic medical colleges. Ours is a friendship that has endured over long distance, with a few wonderful visits, for over fifty years. Such is rare and to be treasured.

A really good day. I think I’ve got my oomph back.

A good day

At the risk of whining, not all my days have been good lately, what with hobbling around on a swollen foot, losing all the self-confidence I’d built up about walking, and a bit of depression. Today was a good day—not outstanding, but just good. The kind of day I like.

Woke feeling optimistic—good dreams, easy to transition to the real world. Spent the morning working on the recipe section or “Murder at Peacock Mansion.” Working with recipes is always a joy to me. For recipes from the Blue Plate Café I have to keep in mind what kind of food folks expect in a small-town East Texas café, ease of preparation—things cooked by single order really aren’t practical, and the cost of ingredients. So today I chose a lasagna-like but much simpler casserole, shepherd’s pie, vegetable soup, a hearty cheeseburger soup, a recipe for the café’s signature sticky buns (my mom’s recipe), and an enchilada casserole. Still have a dessert to add, but I’m happy with it.

Lunch with my good friend Fred who was my major professor all those years ago when I got my Ph.D. and has remained a friend for forty years. I really value long-standing friendships, and his is special. We ate at Carshon’s, and I indulged in a half a Reuben--so good. Then home to fiddle at the computer and take a long nap.

Jordan came by after Jacob had a play date with the little boys in the house directly behind mine. She has declared that this is a week without clocks, so she arrived at six, and stayed for a happy hour. We made all sorts of plans, including a Saturday night “see Jacob off to camp” dinner, possible trips to Austin, and the like. We laughed, we gossiped, we planned. I am so fortunate to have her close by—she is both a good friend and a treasured daughter. And during our happy hour my other daughter called, so we had a three-way communication—sort of.

Dinner—at 7:30—was a bit of leftover tuna, the bit of leftover salmon stuffing for my pasties (gosh it was good), hummus and a heart of palm stalk. My idea of a meal, and it balanced the not-g--d-for-you Reuben from lunch. Now I’m sleepy, lazy, and content. Don’t know that I’ll do much more than read tonight—oh, I guess I have to wash the dishes.

Some days are that way—nothing unusual but just satisfying. This was one, and I’m grateful.