Multiconstruct

it was a pretty good saturday, rainy and cool, but after a taste of the heat and humidity it was kind of welcome. we’ve had an extra dog for a few days, a short term fostering kind of thing. he’s a scottie that we’ve been calling Gitmo. he’s uncut and pushy so he was running the pack for a couple of days, then they all started calling his bluff. shadow (my brother john’s aussie) kicked his ass john reports. even fido isn’t intimidated now and smoky has been pulling back her lips and snapping her jaws at him. he’s mellowed out now that he’s settled in. we were worried how he’d do with max the uncut old pit next door with only a dilapidated chain link fence between them but they got along fine. max is mellow. Gitmo likes to fetch and with smokey and fido in chase it gets pretty chaotic. fun though.

got out early to run errands and go to the market. saw an old client walking in the rain and gave him a bit of a ride. he was taking a bicycle riding class to earn a free bike. gotta love columbia. it was drizzling a bit but stopped before i made it to the market. stocked up on my local food stuffs. had to go up to a quart on the honey so i could get it in a glass jar. hard to eat a quart of honey before it stiffens, but we’ll do our best. listened to an older lady rave about bee pollen and the suburban type lady standing next to me asked if she ought to get a jar as well. i just shrugged. he had some literature out, “nature’s most perfect food” that i’d seen as place mats a truck stops of my childhood looking largely unchanged. the honey guy, a german immigrant by accent, talked about the vagaries of pollen collection its variance based on flower availability and some years the bees only make enough for themselves.

noticed chicken and beef up substantially, probably following the prices in the grocery store. got some ground round and whole chickens. going to bake one of the latter today. planning on stuffing it with lemon and apple wedges and sage, oregano, tarragon, & wild onions from the back yard. maybe some little pats of butter under the skin. throw in some red potatoes and cauliflower the side. also unfroze some extra pumpkin i froze and baking a pie.

and of course i got my spring veggies, chard, lettuce mix, asparagus, bean sprouts plus eggs. also trying marjoram again, going to ameliorate the soil a lot more. don’t want to pay $3.00 every year. i learned marjoram is kin to oregano and almost bought a cross between the two, but i have more oregano then i can eat already and put it in damn near everything.

after my errands i made chili. nothing better on a wet and cool day. i forgot to soak beans so i had quick soaked some pintos (boil for one minute, let set and hour or so, drain out liquid [less gassy]). i put them on to cook with some red curry powder, salt and cayenne and made john and me some poached eggs and cleaned up some of the strawberry seconds ($2 quart best deal ever) i got for desert.

when the beans were mostly done, chopped up some stew meat smaller and browned with vidalia onion and celery. added some canned tomatoes of various types, a can of kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, jalapeno, some smoked hot peppers, smallish onions with green tops (from the market they’re getting bigger every week), and a little agave nectar to soften the bitterness of the tomatoes. set that to simmer all day, came out good.

hung my clothes on the line even though it was cloudy and cool once i saw the rain was likely done. they’re still out they’re, i’ll bring them in after the wind blows out the morning dew. sarah and trevor came over and we drank a little champagne with strawberries (cleaned up the rest of my seconds and added a cup of my own, more then i expected for only the second pass). after chili and cornbread (thanks kevin, excellent) we went on a field trip to an abandoned mobile home park trevor had eye balled from the highway. the dogs enjoyed the excursion as well. we took a roundabout way home and it reminded me of explorations of childhood.