I am back to the city after being on the mountain for five days. I have not been back to the city for a full 48 hours and I have already had frustrations. But I am trying to remain calm and deal with this life. I know part of it is that I did not sleep well last night but part of it is truly frustration.
When we travel, I may have mentioned in the past, I drive to audiobooks. I like Kerry Greenwood's Earthly Delights series a lot. It is about a baker who solves mysteries. By the time I get back, I am really in the mood to bake. I wished to make bara brith. It is not hard. The recipe is here. But a main ingredient is buttermilk.
I now have a small grocery store and a WalMart that I can walk to. With my state of mind, I knew the WalMart would be too much so I went to the small grocery store. It really is not that small. No buttermilk on their shelves. Fourth largest city in the United States and no buttermilk. Every other grocery store would have meant longer away from home and I just could not deal. My Beloved suggested that I make butter and use the leftover liquid. The recipe calls for cultured buttermilk and that would take days. I used a mixture of yogurt and milk. I made do.
There was a lot of upgrades to the mountain. One of my favorite is that my Dad gifted me with a very basic pressure cooker. The manual looks like something from the 1950's but the gasket was nice and fresh so it was not that old. I now can cook dried beans in about a half hour after soaking them for eight hours. I think this is lovely. By the end of a trip, I am always craving a bowl of beans and rice. I now can cook it on the mountain. It is just way too easy for me to cook too much! It is what I do.
More pictures of my week away are to come. It was a good time with the boyos. Lots of work. I did take a tumble so that slowed me down for an afternoon. And there was a long walk. It was good. I am not ready to be back.