Dinner and a drink…

Dinner is lobster bisque – store-bought – with a drizzle of “Deb’s Blend” ( a slight mistake when she filled the empty Roasted Pumpkin Seed Fusti with Butternut Squash Seed Oil. At the time, she was horrified but I am enjoying the fruits of her faux pas. I put a sprinkle of the new Vintage Merlot Sea Salt on top. The deep burgundy flakes melded with the coral color of the bisque and leant a salty tang.

I brought home a wedge of the Humboldt Fog goat cheese we sampled yesterday. I’m very familiar with this chèvre because Hanni works for Cypress Grove, the producer. It’s bloomy and rich. The rind is beginning to mature and carry a taste that almost dries out your tongue. Tonight, to offset the richness of the soup I carved myself a slice and paired it with my neighbor’s Quince Jam. My elderly friend and I picked the quinces a few weeks ago and his wife kindly bestowed a jar on me. Between bites of the creamy soup, the jam and cheese and sips of wine, I think about my day.

What did I learn today? It was a day of mechanical malfunctions. Suddenly at 12:45 the store went dark. Power went out in the entire town. Being daylight, it wasn’t an immediate inconvenience. Then it occurred to me – no cash register, no heat gun to seal bottles, no refrigerator to cool the cheese. Customers were oddly patient and congenial about the situation. They came up with cash and I offered to hand write receipts. Life was a little strange for an hour of so. Before the power returned, my cell phone rang. I had used it as a calculator, otherwise I never would have noticed. It was the alarm company for my house. They had just received a key-pad generated emergency medical response and fire code. I quickly called Julia, thinking she was home on her first day off in a month, and perhaps hit the keypad. She was at the barn but assured me she was headed down the road to check out the problem. The next call was from the EMT who showed up expecting to find me stretched out on the floor, suffering from who knows what. He said there was no alarm going off – just Alice on the trunk in the window having a huge hissy fit, as emergency vehicles converged on the yard. He asked if he could to do a ‘walk though’ to secure the house. I quickly inventoried my dust shelves and dirty laundry tossed around my bedroom. “Sure! No problem! Check the house for dusty bunny thieves!”

The power eventually came back on and I guess the house was secured. Sweating the small stuff really wasn’t worth the time. Enjoying a good dinner and a chilled glass of wine was the perfect way to end the day…