Freckles And Food

One of the things I like best about Kate are her freckles. I've had freckles my whole life so I can easily bond with someone who has her own brand of freckles. Here she is in an alert pose either listening or sniffing for something on our property or maybe staring down the marauding Jack Russell Terriers who live next door.

Not much excitment this weekend. Friday night we went to Lincoln Produce Market for their monthly wine tasting. Kerry belongs to the wine club. We tasted five Pinot Noirs and had a few appetizers. Then Turtle Doug, Kerry and I went to Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ. I had the beef ribs which were yummy. I forgot to take my Zantac before going to bed so about 3 a.m. I had a reminder of just how delicious they were. Once the Zantac kicked in I dozed off until around 9.

Yesterday Doug and I ran errands. Kerry was at his photo class. Kate was in the hatchback part of my Prius. We bought lottery tickets. Our mega lottery will be $243 million on Tuesday night. If I don't write anything for a while you will know why.

Last night I cooked this delicious risotto with cauliflower. The cauliflower pretty much disappears into the risotto because it cooks so long in the chicken brother that it turns to mush. I love eating risotto but it can be a pain to make because you have to keep stirring and adding more liquid. The topping for it was something called "panagrattato." Basically it's bread crumbs that have been browned with a bit of olive oil. This recipe first called for mixing the bread crumbs in the cuisinart with a small can of anchovies including the oil and some red pepper flakes. It turns out very crunchy and brown with hardly a bit of anchovy flavor and just a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes. Doug wrinkled his nose when I bought the anchovies, but after dinner he admitted he couldn't even taste them. Panagrattato would be good on lots of things like tuna casserole and macaroni and cheese (made from scratch). I put a small piece of steamed salmon on top of the panagrattato. Leftovers for dinner tonight along with roasted asparagus.

We shopped at a new grocery store yesterday: Nuggets. I felt like I was in a Whole Foods store. The place was jammed with customers. The checkout clerk said that they ran out of shopping carts on the first day it opened, which was Feb. 28. They had staff on patrol in the parking lot to retrieve carts the minute they were emptied. Doug enjoyed the store as much as I did only he watched all the young mothers in tight jeans while I checked out the food. We are both good at what we do.

Today I'm going to fertilize the fruit trees, red maples, bulbs and vines. For those of you in the frozen part of this earth, March is a big month for gardeners in California. You fertilize stuff to give it a boost when things start to leaf out and bloom. Our miniature peach tree is already blooming.

Time to get on the treadmill and do my 30 minutes of fast walking. I've been quite religious about this; five times a week for now. I feel better for doing it.