I took a little breather from blogging for a few days. The March doldrums were definitely starting to get to me—all gray days and filthy streets, muddy yards and sandy floors. I’m not a summer person, but even I need a good dose of vitamin D and soon.
In lieu of sunshine, I drank a lot of wine Friday night, which made me feel sunny at the time, (slightly less so on Saturday).
The husband and I had dinner out with friends at Red Wing’s only real modern restaurant: The Staghead. It’s notable for its wine-list, which is pages long; its chef, former bassist for the band Husker Du, Greg Norton, (handlebar mustache and all), and, to my mind, for its perfect grilled polenta. Friday evening I had salmon with some sort of curried cucumber on top, jasmine rice on the side and roasted asparagus. When I go out I seem to order the same sorts of things I like to cook at home, but I’m not that good at salmon, not yet.
We went out with rural friends of ours, a young farmer and his wife who have a generations-old farm over in Pepin, Wisconsin, just a mile from the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I became so engrossed in the conversation, that I completely lost track of how much Pinot Grigio I was drinking. It only ended up being two glasses, but that was enough for my husband to tell me I was talking in the longest sentences he’d ever heard come out of my mouth. As long as they were sentences, and not run-ons! (If I’m going to be a garrulous drunk, let me at least be grammatical.) I was just so happy; words burbled to the surface in a way they seldom do in real life, except for writing.
Social evenings out are such a rarity for me. I can see I need more of them. Perhaps less wine, but definitely more evenings.
Saturday I drank a lot of water and took a nap to recover, then I set about in the kitchen making Lamb Biryani. Had I read through the entire recipe before I started, I never would have begun, for it was labor intensive, and nowhere near being finished by dinnertime. Although it was good, it will not go into the repertoire. Sorry, Madhur. I find I like that Minimalist guy more and more and eagerly await the arrival of How to Cook Everything and The Minimalist Cooks Dinner.
And now I have just watched the Oscars and must blog about that orgy of self-congratulation, as someone just put it, tomorrow.
11:19:47 PM 
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