Perhaps the stress of taxes had a positive outcome: my Wednesday morning weigh-in was the lowest it’s been in months and months...and I committed then and there to defeat that progress with a meal of abundant absurdity that evening: oven-roasted baby back pork ribs and the seriously rare appearance of a big ol’ casserole dish of mac-n-cheese. With Amy over for hanging out, it was all the more special and worthy of unrestrained indulgence.
The mac-n-cheese was not what I had hoped. I was piloting a modernist approach, trying to up the cheese punch while preserving the creamy luxe of a well-made batch. Yes: I mean the sodium citrate gimmick to skip the flour-based bechamel roux. The online world reports greater first successes with this compared to my results. Tasty but definitely not cheesy and decadent.
It was another ideal spring day as the afternoon came on and settled over us: brilliant sunshine with amicable but warmer temps and light breezes. The season of camp chairs on the driveway, moved about as sun and shadow do their dance of dominance, makes it very hard to call an end to the work breaks I was drawn to regularly take. Plus, an insistent pooch has smells to sniff at and yard pests to watch and stalk, or at least a warm patch of sun-soaked pavement to stretch out on.
Or, when he gets too warm, a soothing sometimes shaded monkey grass border to take refuge in.
As all the trees are leafing out, it was disappointingly clear that the fourth and and only surviving tree that I got from Mitchell’s Nursery was ready to follow the sad and expensive lead of its former barked brethren. These were the ones I got when I decided it was time to address landscaping the narrow strip of back yard behind the kitchen. I paid too much for four trees but it is also a frustration to consider that it puts me years behind, given tree life and growth cycles. This ain’t like pansies not surviving a drought and getting replaced within days.
The grass was due for another cutting as well, and when those labors were completed in the early afternoon, I was free to just sit and spectate from one of those camp chair spots, while Sumner soaked up some sun. I do have some tasks hanging over me, delayed by the mad dash on taxes, but the decompression granted by this leisurely sitting time is good for my soul.
"How to Make Great Ribs in the Oven," by Emma Christensen. From The Kitchn. [Published 01 July 2017]
"Sodium Citrate Mac & Cheese," from Adam Ragusea. [Published 30 May 2019]
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