Who's da man? Anadama...n

Used the sourdough starter for the first time today! I made anadama bread, a very lightly sweetened, traditionally New England loaf. It's not an everyday thing, if only because it requires the less-common-in-the-household ingredients of cornmeal, molasses, and starter, emphasis on the starter. The process itself, however, is pretty standard. The recipe yielded two batards, both of which had a firm, crunchy crust with a hearty, pliable inside. Perfect for... winter.

So it's only fitting, of course, that I paired this with a white bean and chard stew flavored with thyme and cinnamon. The irony might be elucidated if I tell you that today was the first in awhile that it hasn't been damp and unseasonably chilly. Remember when I delayed making that granita for the warm weather? Apparently, I took advantage of the warm weather to make warming food. Oops.

Something more seasonal is coming tomorrow, I promise.

In any case, no photos or anything tonight, because we got home late after attending a reading of Henry V from some big cheese Boston lawyers and judges and politicos, followed by a discussion from even bigger cheese politicos (including Andrew Card. Look him up.). I was excited for it, but it was a disappointment almost all around; a reading of the approximate quality of my ninth grade class's reading of Romeo and Juliet would only be worth sitting through if it were followed by accurate, in-depth, informed discussion, which it unfortunately was not. Historical errors, rhetorical fallacies, and sidestepped questions flew all around, and the "audience participation" part ended up being a mere three questions at the end, two of which were from absolute crazies. If I'd known beforehand that it was sponsored by The Federalist Society, I'd have been forewarned. At least the comfort food was in some way fitting, because I sure needed some comfort after hearing members of the de facto ruling class imply that it's okay to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed because he's not an American citizen, so since legally we're not forbidden from doing it, there's nothing restricting us!

Something more cheerful is coming tomorrow, I promise.