Saturday Reflections

Tonight is Sunday, September 8th and everything below the Xs was written a week ago.

My lovely neighbors, Farah and Jon and young Sofia, invited me to a potluck tonight with new neighbors (Melissa and Bob and 2 kids), and another Bob (whose wife is away). It was wonderful! Jon made truly delicious ribs which he first baked in a slow oven for three hours and then he finished them off on the grill. I'm so happy that he made some without BBQ sauce for me! He also made fried okra, breaded with cornmeal, that was yummy. (I'm not supposed to eat corn meal, but I only had about 20 grains of it!) He had pickled some green breans and green tomatoes from his garden.It was good but a bit too acidic for me. Bob R. brought mushroom risotto that looked wonderful. Bob and Melissa "made" wine -- they bought it. I brought Caulimac which tastes like mac and cheese, but uses cauliflower and a fudgy keto chocolate cake.

Caulimac

Fudgy Keto Chocolate Cake

I used a paper doily to get a nice pattern on the confectioner's sugar, but as you can see, it didn't work too well.


So I will leave you with this lovely End of Summer photo (which was taken at Apex Farms).

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As I sat sipping chai and munching on a homemade peanut butter cookie last night, I thought, "What could be better?"

I'm chuffed to declare that by 8 a.m. today I had:

*  cut up and put steak into the freezer (12 single portions)
*  froze half of a huge package of pre-cooked bacon
*  cooked a large quantity of ribs
*   peeled a half dozen of hard boiled eggs (shells in one bowl, eggs in another bowl)
*  peeled and sliced a cucumber (there was a chef's salad in my future)
*  cooked and ate breakfast.

Needless to say, I had gone to Costco yesterday and had to store my "big food." It was an adventure that Nancy W. and I enjoyed. I think my favorite part is always seeking out the taste tests. My favorite was the brie even though I said no thank you to my favorite kind of cracker (with the black seeds).

I'm pretty sure I wrote the above one week ago because I ended up splitting the giant package of ribs with my neighbors next door and they invited me for a potluck supper tonight (Sunday)!

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The link below will show you the scenery at the Clark Museum.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c8aVK1Z11JYupuyb6

Last week, Nancy W. and I went to see the Renoir exhibit at the Sterling and Francine Clark Museum in Williamstown, MA. It was Renoir's nudes which were controversial. At time, the only nudes that would be exhibited in public were either renditions of myths or (believe it or not) religious -- as in naked cherubim. He was the first to paint luscious, sensuous curvy women in a realistic way. It was also scandlous that he used everyday settings such as a tired shop girl snoozing in a chair or (many) portraits of bathers at the beach. I did not take any pictures. I know that is unusual for me, but I was drinking in the art. I loved it! The curator also put nudes by some of Renoir's contemporaries, but I feel his were the best.

The bonus was an exhibit by Georgia O'Keeffee's sister, Ida. She has a totally different style from Georgia and I had been ignorant of her existence until then. So I learned a lot!

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I did take a million pictures at The Bridge of Flowers, however. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kGzEa4hbEgLGMSSW9

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I forgot to tell you that on August 31, Nancy W. and I thoroughly enjoyed the Peachfest at Apex Orchards in Shelburne, MA.

https://photos.google.com/u/0/share/AF1QipPhrrnZ8abHEJ14BA2zGapF7qYf87cS4o49u5Ovb4IRZmuJ2JfcFlXsjXK6M4z7GA?key=UG01ejh6NWI5bXF4dTlOZi0xWEx6M1BSbW9mcWNn

If you copy and paste the above into your browser (such as Google Chrome), you should get the photo album for Apex Orchards. It was a fabulous day!

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Another cooking adventure: bread rolls. I'm not crazy about the taste. I think I don't like the taste of psyllium husk powder. I'm going to try using some oat fiber and maybe adding some Swerve (sweetener). Otherwise, it was a really easy recipe to make and the texture was great. It makes 6 rolls, but I'm thinking I'll make it into 12 rolls next time.