Solitaire

Gray and damp, but not actually raining. I played a game of Spider, the solitaire that my Dad always played on vacation. It uses two decks and is hard to win. I figure it's good for my hands to shuffle 104 cards 10 times at least once a day. I often play more than once--my rule is I can play as many times as it takes until I win! So if I win the first game (rare), I only play once that day. It is hard to define why the game is so appealing to me. One part is tradition--the game reminds me of watching my Dad play and of showing younger people like my daughter or my nephew how to play. It's fairly complicated to explain and is available to play on line as well. There are advantages to that, like no shuffling and hints, but I only play with real cards. My favorite deck is getting pretty worn out. I know which card is the four of spades from the crease in the back, but that's not much of a help and sometimes I forget when I'm concentrating. After shuffling the decks 5 times, I deal ten cards face down. Then I repeat that 3 times, so there are 4 cards face down in 10 piles. I deal four more cards face down on the first four piles, to make the numbers come out right. Then I deal 10 more cards face up. If you're counting, that's 54 cards, so I have 50 left. I study the 10 cards I can see and put lower cards on higher cards--a Jack on a queen, a five on a six. They don't have to be the same suit, but it's better if they are, so I place the ones that match first, if there are any. If the cards are the same suit, they can be moved as a unit (unto another, higher card). So the Jack and Queen of diamonds can be moved together onto the King of diamonds. Then the card underneath can be turned up and played if there's a place for it. If you play all the cards in a pile, you have a space. A space is very handy, critical to winning the game, so I move cards from piles with fewer cards before the piles that still have 5 or 4 cards in them. You can put a card (or run of matching cards) in a space to rearrange something or turn over a card. When everything has been played that can be (or that you want to play) and all the spaces are filled, you deal 10 more cards face up on top of the 10 piles. It's a mess. Now you have a King in your space (Kings can only be removed when all the lower cards of that suit are piled on it; you win when all 8 suits are complete) or a 5 on a 4. By planning and thinking, you decide how best to resolve the chaos. Sometimes that leads to more cards being turned up and played and more spaces opening up, but sometimes there are few or even no cards you can play. They mysteriously seem to come in groups. I had 4 Kings in my first deal (not a good sign). Later, there were lots of Jacks. Perhaps it is the sense of following rules and making order out of chaos. Or the satisfaction of solving a complicated puzzle. I start each game naively hoping that it will go well--oh great, there's a two of Spades I can put on the three! As it devolves into a mess after 3 more deals, I say, Yeah, this one's not coming out...Usually I can tell within the first few deals if it's going well, but sometimes a really great deal will be followed by a deluge of kings or a deal with no moves...and sometimes I can pull out a surprise win on the last deal. I think I'll go try again!

asparagus tart

This is a great make-ahead recipe because you do it in parts. It uses a whole wheat crust (well, part whole wheat) that does best if you make it over a few days. Mix the flours and salt and butter (NYT Cooking recipe) and divide the dough in two, flatten it and let it chill overnight. The next day, roll it out and put it in the pan and chill overnight again. Meanwhile, sometime during those 2-3 days, you roast the asparagus. Rinse it and dry it and roll it around on a baking sheet in olive oil, then cook it for about 15 minutes. Saute some scallions in oil and add them to the asparagus with some herbs.

The third day, you mix up the eggs and put it all together and bake it. You can eat it hot or room temperature, so make it when you like (if it's hot, bake early in the day and eat later).

Happy New Year!

The first day hike was amazing, but it was not peaceful. There were people everywhere. I was afraid of the hanging bridge, but I went across it. I wanted to wait until no one else was on it, because it bounces so much, but they came out of the woods and walked on behind me. They didn't know I wanted to be the only one on it, or they didn't care. They were just going on with their walk. We signed up and we were a little later getting there than we had wanted. You know, someone had to use the bathroom just as we were leaving. There were three of us. It's harder the more people you have to wrangle. There were signs and volunteers directing us to the parking spots that were left. There was a crowd visible through the woods. I truly think there may have been 500 people there. There was a long hike and a short hike. More people went on the 4-mile hike--maybe 300? We waited for the second group. It was supposed to be about 2 1/2 miles. There was a line at the bridge. We chatted with other people waiting. We could see people ahead of us, behind us, across the river. Splashes of color, noise. It was a beautiful sunny day, not warm, but not bitter cold. We were all there for the same reason. Some people left because it was too crowded. Ray and Amy went to look at the rocks. I stayed back. I could see them most of the time, a red jacket, a hat. Near them was a small group getting ready to go in the water. A teenage boy and his younger brothers or smaller friends. He stripped down to his striped underwear and waded in. One of the others ran in and out, splashing, but he was calm and unhurried. On the way back, I saw another group in the water. The bare skin contrasted with the layers of clothing the rest of us were wearing. Is this a tradition I don't know about? We turned back, enough walking for us today. I was out of breath and didn't want to push myself too much. There was hot chocolate with marshmallows in compostable cups. Ray made a donation.