Monday Morning

It's the usual post-weekend morning here, only taking place a little later. I wish I hadn't waited until AFTER 7 (!!!) to get out of bed. This morning's plans included cleaning (or starting on it anyway) the pantry. The little moths are driving us nuts, and I thought I'd gotten rid of the infested items, but it's really due for a serious purge. That was, of course, assuming I was going to have the energy/ambition for that. It must be the weather...very Septemberish, gray, rainy and cool. The chokecherry leaves are really starting to turn yellow, and days are speedily getting shorter.

But the weekend was gorgeous. Not too warm, but warm enough to be outside without a jacket. We took our 4.5 mile walk both Saturday and Sunday. After driving up to church for our obligatory photo directory session (I was prepared to do battle refusing sales pitches to buy pics, but thankfully we got none), we picked up some Stanley plums, baby white and purple striped eggplant, acorn squash, leeks, and Red Zeppelin (ha!) onions at the Hartland Farmers' market. Saturday night dinner was grilled salmon and the veggies done in the grill basket along with a few potatoes. I baked the acorn squash most of the way in the microwave and then finished it on the grill, and drizzled on a sauce of grainy brown mustard, maple syrup and some of that always-surprising, fabulous Schubeck's Sexgewurz blend Ellen sent us.



We finished the leftovers of Tim's birthday peach-blueberry pie I'd frozen 2 weeks ago for dessert.

Sunday after church we braved the crowds at Spicer's and picked up some Honeycrisp and Molly apples. Then at home, split a grilled sharp cheddar and Swiss cheese sandwich with thinly sliced apple and toasted walnuts. Split the sandwich, because we were saving room for dinner that night. Tim decided he wanted to try Toasted Oak for his birthday dinner. A lot closer than Detroit, and we really enjoyed it. They get into charcuterie, and we were able to have mussels and frites like we would have had at Cadieux Cafe (we will get there eventually). We had the most fun with the duck confit pizza. Not on the menu, something the staff came up with as a result of a windfall of quail eggs from someone's farm in Belleville. The server seemed pretty geeked about it, so we tried it. It gave me another idea for pizzas without tomato sauce, because the thin, tender grilled crust was 'sauced' with Michigan cherry vinaigrette. Then it was topped with duck confit, goat cheese, pine nuts, peeled cherry tomatoes, microgreens and poached quail eggs. A lot going on, but it was really good. I wish I had remembered to take a pic (there was a can light spotlighted right on it, too), but we went ahead and devoured it.

In other news, I took up a craft project I haven't touched in a while (like 20 years). I'm either going to go blind (bifocal eyes don't handle stuff like this quite as well as before) or get carpal tunnel as a result of it. I'm alternately optimistic or gloomy about how it's going to turn out. Or if my time frame is reasonable to get it done. So...I'll put off saying more about it until later.