weekend report: October 13 and 14

Saturday
I’ve "somehow" [I think we all know how this has happened ;)] fallen desperately behind at work. I have an an issue that ships to the printer next week and I haven’t started the editorial yet. With each new issue planning session, I vow that this will not happen, and yet, here I am, dragging my ass into the office on a Saturday. Winston accompanied me in exchange for unfettered access to internet games.

First we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the St. Paul Farmers Market. The main weekend market is just a few blocks from my office so we moseyed over to see what sort of things were available on the second weekend of October. I was surprised to see that the market was hopping and that vendors had plenty of produce yet. We bought tomatoes, fresh sage, leeks, red onions, a beautiful head of cauliflower (which later this week will join ham and cheddar cheese in a casserole—I know, I can’t wait to see how this new recipe turns out), vivid-orange sweet carrots, and pinkie-sized fingerling potatoes. We visited with the Big Woods Bison lady and purchased a log of bison cotto salami and a few bison salami sticks. And, because Winston insisted, we picked up a bag of kettle corn, of which we made short work .

Later, we went to an early evening “surprise” 40th birthday party. I use the term surprise quite loosely as there was no hiding and/or jumping out yelling surprise, which is fine, it was just all sort of understated. The party was held at the birthday boy's sister-in-law's house so he was pleasantly surprised when friends began arriving . The invitation promised “family dinner,” which never materialized. Love these friends, but lord help them. Renee (the wife) bought frozen party food—egg rolls, meatballs, and more—from Sam’s Club and reheated them. The beer was good, however.

Sunday
John and I took the boys to Bread and Chocolate for pastries. I so wish I had a picture of Simon reading the comics. Some people are born to read the newspaper, and he’s one of them. Even though he's only almost-eight, it’s not hard to picture him wearing a bathrobe and slippers, sipping a steaming mug of Costa Rican and puffing on a pipe. It was a relaxing morning. I loved basking in the glow of My Guys.

After breakfast, we made a trip to Target for kid clothes as neither boys has jeans or shirts that fit. I’m not sure how that happened, either, since we had this foolproof method of hand-me-downs from Simon to Winston. Somehow the system is broken (one is grown, the other isn't or something), and they both need clothes at the exact same moment. We dropped a small fortune—which is possible at Target even when you're only buying what you need, damn Target—and returned home to watch football, fold laundry, and cook. The braised pheasant and polenta, with brussels sprouts on the side, was pretty delicious. I look forward to tackling another pheasant recipe soon. I already have at least four birds in the freezer and hunters in the family (brother Jeff alights later this week for the SoDak pheasant opener, which is a very big deal in my family). Must. Make. Room. For. More.