Read both the first (1605) and the second (1615) books of Don Quixote along with the (William) Marx commentary (Un été avec Don Quichotte) over the PNW vacations, a delight in discovering how modern it is! Even modern enough to write a follow-up (II) and to initiate the meme that sequels are not as good as the original, although the parts where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza debate of their own characters in tome I are hilarious and the prologue of tome II made me discover a certain Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda had written a (poor) sequel of his own, published in 1614. As well as the detective novel The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney, set in Glasgow in 1975, which I enjoyed a lot (except for the lazy, easy, hurried ending), presumably due in part of the references to places near the U of G that sounded so familiar. The political aspects are more stringent than in the earlier book. (And those of his uncle.) And Gab’s Road to Freedom, of course! Also came back from a Sunday aft at Barnes & Noble, in NE Seattle, with a pile of books that threatened to overflow my luggage allowance!
Made frijoles negros over a rainy day in Mount Hood Village. As it takes a while to soften the black beans and then further simmer them to turn them into a yummy paste, this was the perfect opportunity! And I made enough to recook the dish several days in a row, improving each time! I also learned there how to cook with an iron skillet (found in the first airbnb cabin we rented), after rescuing (overcleaning?) the skillet from its greasy state and starting the fire alarm a few times (only frightening the nearby bear, I presume). Mount Hood Village where I bought some outanding smoked salmon from a local First Nations fisherman, with a long discussion on running (as I was wearing my Huckleberry 10k tee-shirt) As I had not time at all for cooking while at JSM in Portland, I gave into the opportunity to get great lunches at Hat Hei Belmont (advertising Thai levels of spicy that remained rather mild) and Kiboshi (red) Ramen (that fuelled a great training session the next morning). While near Mount Baker (with no true bakery on the radar!, as many “bakeries” I came across neither bake nor sell bread…), I baked our daily (whole wheat if not rye) bread with a spelt substitute I had brought from France and on the same bake made a first attempt at whole wheat plain bagels, which ended up eatable if on the hard side. (Blame the oven!)
And watched no Netflix or any other video during the entire PNW trip, mostly due to early sleep – early run schedules, followed by long hikes on most days, and on top of frequently checking the Olympics events in the (PNW) mornings. And of course due to meeting with (no enough) friends during JSM! (Leaving Paris during the Olympics was presumably a wise move in this respect as I would have otherwise spent most of my days there watching events!)
Had one cooking marathon a Saturday aft (in the sense it lasted longer than my estimated time for a marathon!) when making new kimchi with cabbage, carrots, and turnips (and of course a large serving of powder gochugaru), matcha rice pudding, grilled peppers, rhubarb preserve, marinated calamare all at once! With markets approaching peek season in terms of offer of local vegetables, I also made plenty of dahls and pasta dishes, like the above panned fennel orecchiette serving.
