Do you play the “what was I doing one year ago today” game? I love thinking about it - what I was doing one week ago, one month ago, one, five, ten, years ago. I also think about what I might be doing one year from now, or five years from now. For example, one year ago today I was sore from the Chicago Marathon that I ran the day before. Two years ago today I was was painting our apartment – probably the dining room. Three years ago today I was planning my wedding and had no idea that we would be moving to Chicago in the coming year. Four years ago today I was waiting impatiently for M. to propose to me. Ten years ago I was living in Ecuador and hanging out with Abby all the time. Jesus, ten years, are you serious!?
One year ago M. and I started trying to get pregnant. I hoped that I would have a baby, or at least be pregnant, by now. One year ago today I also had no idea that I was going to start this culinary program, let alone that I would be almost done (7 weeks and counting…) at this point. It has been a good year in some ways - school, etc. - and it has also been hard with being sick and not being able to get pregnant. I can just hope that one year from today I will be closer to having a baby. I also hope that my chef-y business is going well. I am not sure yet how those two things will go together, but I guess I’ll figure that out as I go along. I can’t put my life/work on hold while going through IVF – I think I would make myself miserable.
Four days ago M. and I ate at The Little Village Cafe in Baraboo, Wisconsin. It was undoubtedly the best restaurant in the town, with a fairly gourmet menu. M. ordered the jerk chicken, which I was thinking about, primarily because it came with sweet potato pancakes, though I also do love jerk chicken. Those sweet potato pancakes were amazing! Yum. The chef/owner was hustling around the restaurant, helping customers, and I asked him what was in them. He would not reveal his secrets. What I got out of him was potatoes (small dice), sweet potato (small dice), jerk seasonings, and orange juice (because I guessed that one). I think it was like a pancake batter with potatoes and sweet potatoes in it. I need to have a culinary experiment at home to see if I can replicate it. His jerk chicken recipe is similar to mine in taste, so I think that the sweet potato pancakes could become part of my repertoire too.
We didn’t really eat anything else too exceptional on our weekend away. We ate all our meals out, which I know is kind of cheating when you are camping, but it made it a lot easier. Plus we need a new camp stove that I am not afraid of. We did purchase some leek and morel monterey jack cheese at the Mars Cheese Castle (not as castle-like as you might think) that was very good and I bought ginger vinegar and buckwheat honey at various places, both of which found their way into a salad dressing on Sunday night.
