RIP George McGovern

In 1970, at age six, I attended my first political event: an Earth Day march through the streets of Pittsburgh, wearing a filter mask the whole way to emphasize concern about air pollution. Obviously, this was my parents' idea, and they brought me along, but I had some idea what the issues were, and I did care about having clean air and clean water.

In 1972, at age eight, I attended my second political event: a McGovern presidential rally. I don't remember much about it, but I was in the same room with George McGovern, in whom my parents believed passionately. A few months later, my parents took me with them to the voting booth to see how voting works, and later that day we watched on TV as Nixon won 49 states (IIRC). Not a happy day, but it gave me the model that adults pay attention to politics, and vote, and accept the results, and keep going.

dinner

Last night I was poking around in the freezer and found a couple of beef loin medallions dated almost a year ago, so I got them out to thaw. Tonight I patted them dry with paper towels, salted and peppered them, seared them for a minute on each side in butter, then wrapped a strip of bacon around each piece and put them back in the pan for about five minutes more. I was worried that the beef would be overcooked by the time the bacon was cooked, but that didn't (quite) happen: the beef was medium-rare and lusciously tender, and the bacon was a little squiggly but edible. I think pre-cooking the bacon for a minute or so would have made it perfect.

On the side was a large mound of "fauxtatoes" (cauliflower, microwaved to fork-tender, then pureed with the sorts of things one puts in mashed potatoes). This time it was half of a huge farmer's-market cauliflower, 4 ounces of farmer cheese, about 10 ounces of white cheddar, about four cloves of garlic (microwaved with the cauliflower), a good-sized sploosh of buttermilk, the same of heavy cream, about half a cup of Greek yogurt, and a good bit of black pepper. Turned out very nicely.

Meanwhile, I was making brisket for tomorrow: I sauteed some bacon in a Dutch oven, removed it, seared the brisket on all sides in bacon grease, removed it, threw in a mirepoix of celery, carrots, leeks, and garlic (all from the farmer's market) for a few minutes' sauteeing, then added back the brisket and the (crumbled) bacon along with a bottle of Sam Adams Light, and stuck the whole thing in the oven for several hours. Now it's in the fridge.

To make room for all the leftovers in the fridge, I had to repackage the ham leftovers into something smaller, and put the ham-bone in a pot to simmer off the hammy goodness so I can throw it away. So the house will probably shortly smell very hammy.

Dessert will probably be high-protein, low-carb Red Velvet cupcakes (for a dozen cupcakes, I used 9 eggs, half a cup of coconut flour, etc).