Monday morning in the city

The cars were not as loud early yesterday, but today by 6:15, there is a river of them running by our windows. It is also the coolest it has been, and I almost went back to sleep. I did sleep almost 8 hours though, so no reason not to get up.

I made pancakes with blueberries yesterday, following the recipe in my head. They were cooking when Molli said, "I don't have any real syrup, you know." "Oh, no. We could easily have bought some." She doesn't really care if she has real maple syrup or not, and Ray doesn't use it at all. The irony is I have 4 containers of real maple syrup at my house, somehow. Not that I would have carried it here on the plane. So we had homemade blueberry pancakes with fake syrup and no bacon...and they tasted pretty good to me.

Of course, Ray and Molli were not ready to go as early as I would have liked. We missed one bus because Ray went out the wrong door, looking for me. No subways (which are aboveground trolleys here) showed up. It was 5 after 11 and we were still on the bus, so I said I really didn't want to walk into church 10 or 15 minutes late. Molli didn't care and Ray didn't care, so we just stayed on the bus to the end of the line. The only thing is, I was all dressed up with no place to go...and I would have liked to sing.

We walked several blocks to the Sunday afternoon farmers market. I switched my shoes about half way. First we walked around the crafts--very nice, but not anything I couldn't live without: pet treats, baby clothes, t-shirts, chopping boards, the usual. There was one stall that was very popular and it caught my attention, too. They had taken vintage brochures and other items and attached them to tiles and finished them in some way, with cork on the back, to turn them into coasters and trivets. There was one from Grossingers I was tempted to get my Dad, but it was $25, the largest size they had. There was a
smaller one, but it was Grossingers day camp. They were sorted geographically...New England, Europe...some were maps. We ended up buying 10 of them. Great idea!

I also bought a tea with raspberry sorbet in it...Yum. Then we wandered around, admiring the vegetables. There were a couple that sold meat, too, and one that had fish...sole or scallops for $20 a pack (a little less than a pound). I just can't bring myself to pay that, even though it is good local fish and I want to support the fishermen and the people selling it. I just don't like it twice as much as meat. We got a "special" from one woman: 1 pound sausage, 1 pound ground beef and 2 "steak-burgers" plus some bacon "ends." I also did not pass up a pain au chocolat. There were several bakeries with delicious-looking breads and other pastries, but I pretty much am always allowed a pain au chocolat when I see it. We bought zucchini and a big tomato and more blueberries and green beans and Macintosh apples! I didn't carry any of it.

We were planning to eat at the food trucks, but there wasn't anywhere to sit and it was getting pretty warm. Ray and I voted to go to a restaurant instead. Molli consulted her smartphone (Urban Spoon) and found a restaurant that was not far away. It was the one Janna and Ron had taken her to not long ago: Union. They had had brunch, as well. She was even able to tell us about the menu and it sounded great. She called and made a reservation, but we were there in a few minutes anyway. Sitting in the window, watching people walk by, enjoying mimosas and coffee (I just had water), life seemed good. They had a prix fixe special: coffee, juice, omelette with home fries and toast for $9.95. Not bad! Molli had eggs, too.

Ray had a caesar salad with grilled shrimp. Yummy looking! The service was excellent. They kept our water glasses filled. Even the rest room was nice. I love good restaurants and fantasized about having a tradition of eating here every Sunday.

Then we shlepped our purchases (and by we, I mean Molli and Ray) to the nearest stop and rode home, back to Molli's apartment. We were tired and sat around for a bit, finalizing our plans for next week. Molli decided she had to go to Northeastern to get her heavy book for Immigration (actually two books. The small one is only two inches thick. I think the big one is close to five). Ray and Osa went with her. Osa had not eaten all her breakfast, but had thrown up on the rug after Molli cleaned it for our visit.

I studied the weather forecast and decided this was the best time to bake bread, if I was going to do it. She had bought me whole wheat flour and yeast, so I started mixing. I have my favorite recipes available on line, so I could look up a good bread recipe. I only made two loaves--those are all the bread pans Molli has. I could make round loaves on a cookie sheet if I needed to. On the other hand, there isn't room in her freezer either. Her biggest bowl didn't look big enough, but I started mixing in there. When I got all the ingredients in, there wasn't really anywhere to knead. I could have cleaned off the table, but it would have made a mess. I managed to knead it in the bowl quite successfully, but I knew it couldn't rise there or it would overflow. We put some oil in her biggest pot and let it rise there for a while. I moved it into the bedroom, where the sun could shine on it, instead of by the breezy window. It was very pleasant in the apartment.

They were back at 7:15, with more groceries. I don't know how everything fit in the refrigerator and cupboard, but it did. I shucked the corn, but had to move the bread from the pot to the bread pans before we could cook it. Molli did her reading, we ate dinner and drank some great wine (except Molli) and Ray and I watched some TV, while Molli read in her room. About 10, she was done and we watched an episode of Leverage. She has Chromecast on her TV, which allows her to project anything from her computer (if it's on Netflix or in Chrome) on the TV, a giant set she got on Craigslist for under $100. I was able to download Chromecast onto my phone and control her TV from my Netflix list...pretty fun.

Of course, I forgot about the bread and it had risen over the tops of the pans. Molli baked it for me, so I didn't burn it. It looks very good. I was pretty tired after that and went right to sleep.