use real butter

Finally, finally I went into town today to buy groceries. It’s not as if we’re ever in dire need of food for fear of starvation. *snort* I mean, we have enough food to live off of for months. Lately I have moved into the mode of “what can we scrape together here?” from the mode of “I have this meal in mind and I need the following ingredients…” Planning is good and I love it and I do it a lot, but mastering spontaneity in the kitchen is bringing my creative cooking juices to a nice simmer. Shocking, I know! Next I’ll be sleeping in past sunrise…

Tonight was a twist on the old steak and potatoes. Something beautiful and delicious in all its simplicity of preparation and flavors. Took less than 30 minutes to prep it all and serve. I tend to eat less when things are chopped up. Does that make any sense?

**Jump for more butter**

It was overcast and rainy for much of the day yesterday. Didn’t look good for eclipse viewing that evening/next morning. When we went to bed around 11:30 pm it was raining. The total lunar eclipse was to start at 2:51 am. I checked satellite imagery which revealed a lot of clouds, and then I set my alarm for 2:40 am. But I never heard the alarm.

I got up at 2:00, the way you do when you anticipate something like getting up to catch a flight or getting up to see… a lunar eclipse! I padded out to the perch and peered out our picture windows – the moon! The blanket of clouds that pissed on us all night had moved on and instead we had mostly clear skies with a few menacing blobs of cloud here and there. I went back to bed to try and get some more sleep.

But by 2:30 I got my camera gear together and threw on my trusted capilene and fleece and set myself up outside. Jeremy had an exhausting day before, so he asked me to wake him when it was approaching totality. Sure thing.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: caesar salad

Last night I made eggplant parmigiana (or Pecorino Romano is more like it). I hadn’t ever made this before, but I had eggplants, bread crumbs, mozzarella, some leftover sauce… I sort of wung it and it turned out different from what I had expected, but wasn’t bad at all. I have thoughts for improvement the next go around which will be soon because I have another eggplant waiting in the wings. These should improve on texture and the reduce the “vomit-like” appearance of the sauce.