​June 23
Breakfast: lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from cashew milk, coconut water, plain nonfat yogurt, canned coconut milk, hemp protein powder, strawberries, and banana.  This was fairly light and I am hungry again fast.  Another cup of decaf afterwards.  A slow morning-- I am planning on going, by myself, to a couple of documentaries at the AFI DOCS film festival today.

At the first movie (Obit), I drink a cup of coffee.  Usually the theater coffee is stale and muddy, but apparently it is better at 11:30 in the morning than it is at night.  Then, in the 45 minutes or so between films, I walk one door down the street to Panera and grab some lunch: a roasted turkey and caramelized kale panini and an apple.  I did not end up being excited about the panini.  It was okay, but I would not get it again.  Then back to the theater (the exact same theater, same row, even) to see Under the Sun.  I buy a box of peanut M&Ms and eat them while I watch a travesty unfold onscreen.  The official description from the American Film Institute reads: "Given permission by the authorities to film a Pyongyang family, Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky soon realized that his government minders were turning his documentary into a highly manipulated fiction. Mansky left the camera running between takes to capture them staging scenes. This controversial, award-winning film is a chilling glimpse behind North Korea's propaganda curtain."  The film has really turned into a fascinating documentary about the making of propaganda, as well as the soul-deadening effects on the general populace of being forced to live a false public life, full of simulated emotion.

At home afterwards, another cup of decaf while I struggle to get some work done.  This proves unsuccessful; for the second time today, my web editor crashes, and I lose my unsaved work. 

Dinner is late, because my husband has to go to a meeting.  When he gets home, we have one of those catch-all type dinners: CSA vegetables (beets, the "tronchuda," broccoli) served over rice with a fried egg on top, and a little fruit on the side (honeydew and raspberries).  Sometimes you just have to eat food, in its mostly-unadorned state.  Oh, and a glass of sherry.

Before bed, I have a little dish of Cascadian Farm oats-and-honey granola with milk.  I have the munchies, I guess; craving something sweet or crunchy or both.
 
June 24
Breakfast: lemon water, coffee.  My husband ate the remaining bananas in the night and I find there isn't much to put in this morning's smoothie.  Smoothie ends up being made of coconut water, almond-coconut milk, whole milk, plain nonfat yogurt, peanut butter, hemp protein powder, and frozen mango.  But it is more liquid-y than I'd like-- needs more fruit, and I need to buy some greens.  I miss the greens; the depth of flavor is not the same without them.  Afterwards I have another cup of decaf and start a new book.

At noontime, after yoga, another cup of regular coffee while I try again to settle down to work.  Today I will be more diligent about saving my work constantly.  This helps.  After a while, I have a working lunch too: leftover leek soup from Wednesday night (I like it better cold!), leftover farm vegetables from last night, mixed peanuts and raisins.  And another cup of decaf mid-afternoon.

​June 20
Back to our usual sorts of breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from coconut water, vanilla yogurt, hemp protein powder, almond butter, frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, and iceberg lettuce.  Not my favorite (too much iciness between the fruit and the lettuce), but my husband especially liked it.  He is reporting feeling a post-smoothie queasiness that could be about blood sugar.  I am responding by cutting back the sweetness in our morning smoothies-- no more lemonade and fruit juice bases for a while.  My kid, on the other hand, will be disappointed.  They were guzzling juice as fast as I could bring it into the house.

Later in the morning, we practiced setting up our new tent and using the new campstove.

Morning shopping (Co-op): organic lactose-free 2% milk, coconut water, peanut butter, 2 fresh mozzarella balls, organic cashew milk, organic flour tortillas, Cascadian Farms Ancient Grains cereal, pepperjack cheese, honeydew melon, organic portabello mushroom spaghetti sauce, 2 boneless pork chops, green salsa, can coconut milk, large can black beans, bananas, cilantro, 3 roma tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries.  $64.

Just before lunchtime, I go to the mall to try on a few more backpacks and shop for clothes.  While there, I take a lunch break at the Panera in the mall.  Coffee is my number one priority, but I also want a sandwich.  Somehow I am seduced by their limited-edition Lobster Roll, with a $17 price tag (at least I pay cash for it).  Is it worth it?  Well, if you are measuring purely in terms of quantity of lobster, it probably is.  There is a TON of lobster, giant chunks, in my roll, and little filler in the form of mayo or lettuce.  Lovers of lobster rolls may be satisfied.  Do I derive twice the pleasure from it as I would from a normal sandwich, for instance the roast turkey and caramelized kale panini I was considering?  Doubtful.  I have an apple on the side.  A $20 lunch, for myself only, at the mall.  What kind of self-indulgence is this?  But I read my hard-boiled Scottish crime novel and drink my coffee and am reasonably happy.

At home again after buying an excess of cardigans at H&M, it is time for some decaf and settling down to work with my laptop.

Dinnertime finds me trying to make a decent soft taco, in order to erase the memory of Saturday night's Mexican Fiasco.  I chop up some boneless pork chops and marinate them briefly in hot sauce and spices, then brown the meat with some onions.  Season (similarly) and heat some canned black beans.  The kid does not eat pork.  Other fixings: chopped tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce, grated pepperjack cheese, chopped cilantro, green salsa, bottled hot sauce.  Some warm flour tortillas, build-your-own.  This simple dinner, in its infinite variety, is always much appreciated by my family.  On this particular occasion, I didn't go to a lot of effort; there are fancier versions.  Even this basic and relatively boring version was so much better than what we had at that restaurant. 
I will note again that one Google review calls Jalisco Mexican restaurant in New Market "the best darn food, probably, in this part of rural Virginia."
​
Oh, and I had a glass of red wine with dinner.  Now that bottle is finally gone.

​June 21
Same old, same old breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie.  The smoothie is good, uncomplicated, like a Slimfast breakfast drink.  Coconut water, cashew milk, vanilla yogurt, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, banana, strawberries.  Maybe it doesn't sound uncomplicated.  But it is.  Also, the lack of greens make it an actual pale pink instead of army green or mud-brown.  I don't get a chance to finish my coffee before I have to go out.

Back midmorning, I have some decaf, then some more regular, and then some more regular again around lunchtime.  After which I have lunch.  Lunch is leftover pasta from last Thursday night with a tiny bit of grated parmesan (kid has used most of it, left the rind in the fridge); also, a slice of stale whole wheat bakery toast with butter and lingonberry jam. 

​Midafternoon, I cannot handle any more coffee, so I have a cup of Pero with half and half, try to do some planning for our backpacking trip while listening to hail and thunder outside.

As dinnertime approaches, and especially after a late afternoon yoga class, I am really hungry-- have a few salted cashews, scarf down some honeydew melon while I am slicing it for dinner, drink a glass of white wine.  Dinner itself is spaghetti again: sauce from the jar, but lots of fresh basil and sliced fresh mozzarella dress it up a little bit.  Honeydew melon on the side, which I realize does not match at all.  Just trying to feed my family; but there's been too much pasta lately.  Our carb intake is through the roof.

In the evening, we walk over to the neighbor's to pick up our CSA box.  It is a really good one this time! Giant leeks (see photo), tiny cabbages (see other photo), a few giant leaves of something I cannot identify (farmer says it is "tronchuda" or "Portuguese cabbage."  Most vendors seem to refer to this as a variety of kale, but to me it looked somewhere between Swiss chard and collards), marjoram, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, radishes, 4 gorgeous red onions, garlic.  I miss the strawberries but they cannot last forever.

​June 22
Work day, typical breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from cashew milk, plain nonfat yogurt, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, strawberries, and honeydew melon.

I have a cup of decaf coffee at work, but it takes me the entire shift to finish it; too busy.  So, when I get home at 2:45, I have a lot of catching up to do.  Coffee, a Q ginger soda, lunch consisting of leftover spaghetti from last night, 6 saltine crackers, about 3 cashews.  Yep, we need to find something besides carbs to eat.  While having lunch, I look up leek soup recipes online.  Preferably ones that use up a TON of leeks.  I choose this one. 

Still in workplace recovery mode, I have another cup of decaf, black this time, because we are out of half and half and I haven't been to the store yet.

Shopping (Co-op): organic whole milk, golden raisins, decaf coffee, organic frozen mangos, creme fraiche, sponges, half & half, carton of almond coconut milk, 3 rolls toilet paper, organic spinach, bananas, raw peanuts, pull-apart challah rolls, white cage-free eggs, fresh tarragon, 2 lemons.  $64.

For dinner, I have to do something about these outrageous leeks that came into our lives last night. The leek soup recipe I chose off the internet is pretty plain, really-- lots of leeks softened in butter, thickened with rice (instead of potato), a lot of raw spinach blended in at the end, with a garnish of creme fraiche and tarragon (no chives were available at my local store).  I don't bother to strain the soup to eliminate all spinach bits.  Neither do many of the commenters on the original recipe.  We are sane people with lives.

​Along with the soup, I make a slaw out of some of the other CSA vegetables: a tiny cabbage head, shredded, with grated radish and kohlrabi.  The dressing is my standard slaw dressing: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a little mayonnaise, honey, salt and pepper.
​
Neither of these swell items has much in the way of calories, so we also have some challah rolls with butter.  And I have a glass of sherry.  And another half a challah roll with butter just before bed.

June 17
The first day of our mini-break!  We have an ordinary breakfast: lemon water, coffee, smoothie.  After getting kid squared away and packing ourselves, more decaf coffee for the road.  And off in the direction of Shenandoah National Park.

We arrive at lunchtime, too early to stop into our hotel room.  So we scout out the small town of Luray, VA for someplace to eat, and end up at what is clearly the town's trendy hotspot: a combination coffeehouse/restaurant called "The Gathering Grounds."  All small-town coffee-houses are required to make some kind of pun on the word "grounds."  The clientele is an odd mix of student-types with laptops and elderly couples having a staid sandwich.  Everyone is white, though, which is something that, after some years living just outside of DC, we now notice and remark upon.  A sea of whiteness-- which I got used to after some years living in Montana-- now makes me feel uncomfortable, as though something potentially sinister were going on.  We order coffee and chicken salad sandwiches; I have potato chips.  The food is fine, the coffee terrible, even though it is most likely the best coffee in town. 

We take a pleasant afternoon stroll along Luray's outstanding riverside walkways-- huge investments have been made here in green space and beautification, despite the tiny size of the town.  There are more murals here in a small radius than practically anywhere else I have ever been.  There are lots of ducks and other waterfowl-- a least bittern is there, and a black-crowned night heron, and a duck that I try and try to identify, but which does not seem to exist.  Finally this helps (thanks, Cornell).  Some kind of mallard-y hybrid, I reckon.  And yet it looked like a totally plausible wild duck.

​When 4:00 rolls around, we go check out our cabin, which I can whole-heartedly recommend.  For $95/night, there is a medium-sized bedroom (decorated with artificial flowers and teddy bears by someone's great-grandma, but no matter), a large bathroom with skylight, a small hallway/closet area with full-sized coffee pot, refrigerator, and real mugs... and not one, but two porches!-- a sunny front porch looking out on the parking lot (the only place where the wifi works well), and a lovely shaded back porch facing a burbling stream and, on the other side of the stream, forest.  We buy coffees (decaf for me) in the hotel restaurant, and spend some time resting, hanging out on the back porch, enjoying the set-up.  I mentioned, when I reserved the cabin, that we were celebrating our 5th anniversary, and the staff have left us an assortment of tiny "gift shop"-type gifts, including a Virginia shot glass decorated all over with little hearts.

We are not ready for dinner until what turns out to be late for Luray-- on a Friday night, lots of places seem to close at 8:00, or even earlier.  We end up at a place called "Mok-N-She's" (a pun, I guess?) whose crowded parking lot makes it look popular, and general festooning with American flags strikes us as potentially alarming.  However, Mok-N-She's turns out to be friendly, tasty, and cheap.  We both eat BBQ sandwiches, topped with coleslaw, and french fries, and enjoy the heck out of them.  From here on out, every restaurant meal we eat in the Luray area costs precisely $19-and-change (plus tip) for two people.  (Hip "Gathering Grounds" cost us a few dollars more.)  There is an artificial flower on the table in an American-flag pattern, and an artificial Christmas tree behind me covered in American-flag ornaments.  My husband keeps mentioning, hopefully, that Flag Day just passed, but these things look like permanent fixtures to me.

Home to bed, all full of middle-American fried food and charm.
 
June 18
We sleep in a little, drink hotel-coffeemaker coffee on our back porch in the dappled morning sunshine.  It is lovely.  It's around 10:30 before we mosey on over to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast.  We're kind of overwhelmed by yesterday's consumption of heavy food, so we have breakfasts on the lighter side: for me, 2 eggs, toast (homemade!), a fruit cup, decaf coffee.  Then we have the restaurant ladies pack up some bag lunches for the road, and head into Shenandoah NP. 

​Driving, beautiful overlooks and vistas, a brief stroll here and there, a cup of good coffee-- at last!-- from the Park concession at Skyland.  We eat our lunches late, around 3:00, sitting on boulders near the Crescent Rock Overlook.  Mine is a turkey sandwich-- made from real, thick-sliced roast turkey, with lettuce and tomato, but unfortunately NOT on homemade bread this time but some kind of supermarket white bread that gums up and sticks to my teeth.  Little sandwich baggie of ripple chips.  An orange that turns out to be secretly rotten.  An apple-cinnamon Nutrigrain bar (my mom would be so pleased).  When we ordered our lunches, which had been billed as "sandwich, chips, fruit and drink," the waitress said in a worried voice, "I'm not sure if we have any candy bars left."  We quickly assured her that it was ok, we didn't need any candy bars!  But apparently these Nutrigrain bars were offered as a substitute.  I hadn't been planning on eating mine, but when my orange was bad I needed something as solace.

​After lunch, a wander around Big Meadows, then back towards our cabin for a rest before dinner.  We hang out on the porch, read, fall asleep.  Concerned that everything will be closing again, I wake my husband a little after 7 to go forage for dinner.  This time we drive to the next town, New Market, another 14 miles away, scout out all the nearby restaurants, and choose-- my husband chooses, I'll put the responsibility on him-- the Jalisco Mexican restaurant, which also has the advantage of being open until a sophisticated 10:30 on this Saturday night.  As it turns out, my city-boy husband has never in his life been to a small-town Mexican restaurant and doesn't know the risks; but, in his defense, the place does appear to be run by genuine Hispanic people.  There's a big free basket of standard fried tortilla chips, salsa that seems unusually mild, and the odd addition of a little dish of coleslaw to dip your chips into.  Nothing unpleasant, even though the idea of coleslaw with chips is an unusual one.  I add some habanero sauce to the slaw, and that improves the situation.  My husband orders a burrito platter (one chicken and one beef burrito), and I order soft tacos with carne asada.  The tacos are served (strangely, I think) with a choice of either lettuce and cheese or cilantro and onion.  Why not all of the above?  But I choose cilantro and onion, and my waitress nods approval, telling me "they're good that way" in a tone that suggests few people are so in-the-know.  Then she proceeds to deliver tacos with lettuce and cheese instead, with an impassive expression that suggests there is no point in complaining.  The "carne asada" seems entirely unseasoned, except for salt.  There is no flavor whatsoever.  I load them up with some more salsa (from the chips) and some habanero sauce (I don't typically use habanero sauce, but it wasn't very spicy either).  These tacos are one of the blandest things I have ever eaten.

Meanwhile, my husband, who is really not very picky about food quality, seems stunned by his burritos.  One is full of unseasoned shredded chicken and nothing else (except for the lettuce, cheese, sauce, and sour cream on the outside).  The other is filled with some kind of oily ground beef.  Much worse than my meal, but I feel his pain: I have eaten burritos like this before, in other small towns, in other times.  To some extent, it is a matter of local taste rather than restaurant quality; for instance, the most recent Yelp review of this restaurant reads "My friend, Brad, and I stopped at this place on our way through to town. I had probably one of the best burritos in my life."  Unless this review is intended as some kind of sick joke, I have to conclude that some people like this kind of aggressively bland cuisine.  The check comes to $19.

I promise to make it up to my husband by taking him to the outdoor frozen custard place we saw on our way into New Market.  There is a long line.  The people in front of us have a couple of restless kids and are controlling them by grabbing arms and twisting.  The vehicles in the parking lot are all massive.  Everybody is ordering elaborate, often colorful menu items, many of which I cannot identify.  Eventually we get our plain old custards-- a small vanilla cone for me, the plainest there is.  Then we sit on a reeking bench outside a cigarette store that's closed for the night, and eat them.  It is nice.  But we are eager to go back to Luray.  New Market just doesn't have the same friendly vibe.
 
June 19
Sunday morning; we're going home today.  We have last coffees on our sylvan back porch.  Late in the morning, one more stop at the Brookside hotel restaurant.  We both have ham-and-egg scrambles (they also contain potatoes) with biscuits on the side.  I have butter and honey on my biscuits.  More coffee.  Check: $19.

We are sad to leave the Brookside.  While we are checking out, the owner asks us whether we have seen any bears wandering around behind the cabins.  We haven't.

I have planned a long, meandering drive home, because I like that sort of thing.  When we get back, my stepson will be coming for dinner in honor of Father's Day.  So we stop at a farm stand, not far from Point of Rocks, MD, to pick up a few veggies.  I buy sugar snap peas, a tomato, a red pepper, broccoli, and an entire large basil plant.  We also buy a pie for dessert: apple walnut.  Total cost $31.

Dinner is to be simple, given that we're coming home at 4:30, having a guest at 6:00.  I roast a few vegetables for better flavor-- broccoli, red pepper, tomato-- then saute these with garlic, onion, sugar snap peas, and lots of fresh basil.  At the same time cook spaghetti noodles.  Combine all together with tons of shredded parmesan.  Voila, balanced meal.  Also a side salad of mixed lettuces, cilantro, and tomato, with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Glass of white wine.  Plus a Q ginger soda before dinner.  Also, apple walnut pie, which is surprisingly good (you never know with "homemade" pies), and decaf coffee.

June 14
Breakfast: lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from limeade, ricotta cheese, hemp protein powder, blueberries, frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, and kale.  This tastes good when I first try it, but once it sits around a while the texture becomes lumpy.  I think the limeade curdled the ricotta.  Fortunately, I bought my husband some nice big stainless steel straws for our our anniversary ("silverware" being one of the traditional 5th anniversary gifts), and these make it easier to ignore the texture of our smoothies.

Mid-morning, I am in Silver Spring and have half an hour to kill before picking my kid up early from school, after a morning exam.  The most convenient spot to buy a coffee near my parked car is the Tastee Diner, so I do something I don't normally do these days: go in and take a table by myself.  For $3.98 (plus tip), I have a decaf coffee and "a biscuit" (but, when it arrives, it is two biscuits), with butter and jam.  Quite a deal.  I read a book.  It is fun.

We get home about 10:30.  A slow morning.  After finally showering, I have another cup of coffee around noon and get to writing.  Lunch after that: a leftover chicken leg, an attempt to reproduce the British "bacon roll" with soft white bakery toast, butter, and leftover cooked bacon from last night, and leftover asparagus.  This was a lot of heavy food and the whole "bacon roll" thing just didn't taste quite right.  It is no wonder that the scale says I have gained 5 lbs. since last Thursday.  While this seems physically impossible, there is no doubt that I have been doing my best.

Afternoon shopping (Co-op) [note that this trip is when I found the "Man of God" LED clip-on light]: raspberry lemonade, organic pear juice, can cat food, organic roasted cashews, 3 rolls toilet paper, bananas, strawberries, fresh sage, swiss chard, 2 local peaches, 2 avocados.  $38.  I feel vaguely queasy from my lunch.

​After shopping, I put the chickpeas on to cook for Madhur Jaffrey's Swiss Chard with Tomatoes and Chickpeas, and turn my attention to other matters until they are done, 2 and a half hours later.  At a more reasonable dinnertime, I prep the rest of the vegetables for this dish and stick a couple of red peppers in the oven to roast.  As Jaffrey suggests, we eat the chard dish with a crusty wheat bread, two kinds of Italian cheese (an aged piave and a fresh asiago), and roasted red peppers.  This is a pleasant meal; the bread-and-cheese board on the table is always popular when it appears at my house.  I don't do it that often because, in order to control portion size, I tend to plate my family's meals in the kitchen.  (This works well for us, except the part where kid tends to waste about 1/3 of the food on their plate.  However, they do this even when they have served themselves.)  I like the chard, especially the prep tip that suggests slicing the pretty red stems fairly small and cooking them along with the leaves.  It's striking how much this adds to the visual attractiveness of the dish.  I have also discovered, as I noted in a previous post, that I greatly prefer the texture of these long-cooked greens recipes when the pot is not covered.  It requires adding some extra water, but the final texture is much less gelatinous.

​Have I forgotten to mention that I've been drinking a glass of wine most nights with dinner, or after dinner, for the past week or so?  I have leftover bottles of both red and white wine open (as well as sherry.  How long does sherry keep?  Anecdotal answers range from one week to forever (I think the people who said "forever" might have been my parents).  Tonight I have white wine.
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Also, the last two mint chocolates.  And I am hungry again before bed, so have a little more bread and cheese.
 
June 15
A regular work day.  Breakfast: lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from raspberry lemonade, plain Greek yogurt, hemp protein powder, almond butter, blueberries, banana, and CSA lettuce.  I had another cup of decaf coffee (lightened with heavy cream of late, as I finish up the cream from the cheesecake) before work, and another one once I got to work.  I was hungry.

Lunch when I got home at 2:45 was regular coffee, the last leftover chicken leg from Friday night, and leftover asparagus.  Then I had to rush back out again in order to take my kid to a brief doctor's appointment.  Home again 4:45, more decaf coffee, reading, a very short nap, housework.

I started dinner about 6:30-- a use-up-what-you-have-in-the-house sort of affair.  We had an egg scramble with CSA kohlrabi and garlic scapes, cilantro and the last of the fresh asiago cheese; also fruit salad made with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and the first good peaches of the year; and white bakery toast with cream cheese and the blackberry jam we bought at the beach.  Also I had a glass of red wine.

​June 16
No work today; my last day at home before my husband and I go on a three-day weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park.  We've been looking forward to it.  But I have lots to do today.  I have the usual breakfast, unusually early (husband woke up at 5:15 for some reason): lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from pear juice, hemp protein powder, avocado, banana, blueberries, strawberries, and CSA red lettuce.  This was a particularly pleasant one.  Nothing weird.

After showering and dressing, another cup of decaf while I get to work on my computer.  That's the last of the heavy cream; kind of a relief. 

By lunchtime, my kid is home from their last final exam (goodbye, 9th grade!) and I have a couple of errands to do in town, so we go out for lunch at our local Thai restaurant, eat outside at a table on the sidewalk.  Kid orders up a storm, and I have a garden roll (fresh veggies and rice noodles wrapped in rice paper, peanut dipping sauce), an eel-and-avocado sushi roll, and a pomegranate lemonade, of which I drink half (kid finishes it).  Somehow we manage to spend $46 on lunch.  And it wasn't because of me, just saying.

When we get home, I have coffee, and in the afternoon, there is another cup of decaf, of course.  I can't say what I was doing; husband and I are going away for a long weekend tomorrow, and this day is a blur in retrospect.  Always so much to do to get ready.

Shopping (Co-op): toothpaste, pantiliners, quart of Brown Cow plain fat-free yogurt, 4-pack of Q ginger ale, hair de-frizzer, quart of Brown Cow vanilla yogurt, Knudsen "Mega-Antioxidant" juice, bottle of Pinot Grigio, coconut water, organic fusilli pasta, goat cheese, 2 packages organic spaghetti, 2 individual cups lactose-free plain yogurt, baking soda, multigrain English muffins, coffee, 2 lemons, shredded parmesan.  $80.

For dinner, I fix some fusilli pasta with sauce made from things I need to get rid of: canned plum tomatoes, fresh sage, fresh tomatoes, garlic scapes, red wine.  We sprinkle some goat cheese on top, but this turns out to be a mistake, because the goat cheese tastes slightly rancid.  Goddamn co-op, which is terrible about keeping on top of product freshness.  I paid like $6.50 for that cheese.  Side salad of mixed lettuces, cilantro, strawberries, balsamic vinaigrette.  Glass of white wine.