...And the Wind. Continues. To. Blow.
I know, most readers are stuck inside because of lousy weather and/or pandemic issues. I have no room for complaint. I generally have no sympathy for sufferers of ennui. Get up! Go do something! Go learn something! I think to myself, although I'm too polite to say so. But yesterday, the sameness and the wind (and the news, and computer aggravations) all got to be too much for me. I decided to hide out for yet another day, except for the morning walk and afternoon bicycle ride, and do something about all the greens in the refrigerator. I had romaine hearts, a bunch of spinach, a head of leafy lettuce. My darling prefers romaine hearts, chopped with a knife, for his salads. I like that well enough, but I also like variety.
He now has a large tub of chopped romaine hearts (with the stem ends, because he likes the crunch). I have all the spinach and leaf lettuce washed and wrapped in towels, stored back in the refrigerator, for my own uses.
Midway through this particular process - which was one of several for the day - there was a tremendous crash in the dining room. The wind had blown out several of the removable panels from our screen doors.
Fortunately, nothing broke. I'm glad we got fairly thick-gauge polycarbonate rather than the thinner Plexiglass.
I made salad dressing of my own favorite style: lemon and a touch of white wine vinegar, garlic, salt, olive oil. I'd been working my way through a "spicy balsamic" salad dressing that I made from a recipe in Schlesinger and Willoughby's cookbook, Lettuce in Your Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). It was good the first time or two, but I was thoroughly sick of it before I finished it. My darling was no help; he's strictly a Good Seasons Italian Dressing (from the package mix) guy.
I also worked on the filling for spanakopita hand pies based on this recipe. I'm using puff pastry rather than phyllo, and plan to make the triangle version rather than an entire pan's worth.
I tell you, doing a fine dice on an onion by hand is a great way to work off aggravation, if your hands can take it. I got lazy and resorted to the food processor for chopping the parsley and mixing it with the onions and garlic, though.
I didn't finish the spanakopita yesterday. I got sidetracked by computer issues - specifically, trying and failing to set up appointments for Covid-19 shots - and lost all interest in kitchen projects. I stowed everything, washed the dishes I'd dirtied (a nontrivial quantity) and took my bike out so the dog could get a good run.
We sat outside by a campfire last night, then used the campstove to cook superburgers. For fun, we tried warming his burger bun in the skillet. It worked pretty well: got the bun halves warm, and soaked up the extra grease, for those who like that sort of thing. I didn't want bread. I gloried in a salad as accompaniment.
(I think my plate looked better than his 
but we were happy with our respective choices.)
It really is much of a muchness here, and will be until the desert starts to bloom, but there is one clear change: the days are getting longer, and the sun has begun its northward travel. Here's how much it has shifted since the Solstice:
It's almost as good as Stonehenge.
