Doug's Project 365

From the beautiful condition and the fact it’s parked inside at the dealer’s service department, this Volvo PV544 is somebody’s baby.

A new plant for us. There’s more shade in this spot than when we originally selected its neighbors. Not a native, but said to be attractive to butterflies.

A thunderstorm today produced enough hail (thankfully small) to accumulate on the ground.

My pallid meal this evening: CSA fresh kielbasa, braised in hard cider with apple, onion, butter, and garlic; roasted red potato; cauliflower cooked in the braising leftovers; and New England IPA.

Spatchcocked CSA chicken, smoked for 2 1/2 hours over hardwood charcoal and apple wood.

Why do I think spring is nearly upon us? Here’s your answer, courtesy of Gandalf.

Inspired by a friend’s post about a breakfast cookbook and a podcast yesterday about food fads, I am making myself mini cheese souffles for breakfast.

Two years ago Sunday was my last day in the office in 2020. I was going in over the summer and fall of 2021, but today was my first day of 2022 in the office. The sandwich you see here (sorry, I had to take a bite before the picture) is from Pennypackers — their porchetta, arguably the best sandwich in Boston — now available at the food hall adjacent to my building (this is dangerous). I think they were happy to see customers, too, because this sandwich has about half a pig on it, and half will be tomorrow’s lunch.

I guess it was a bit windy last night, as this broken-off fifteen foot tree branch impaled into the neighbor’s yard can testify. At least it didn’t take out the power lines — or her car.

This is the guts of the shutoff valve for the toilet in our 1/2 bath. The black thing on the bottom is the rubber washer that interrupts the flow of water. But it’s from (guessing) 1987 and so barely qualifies as rubber anymore. It broke into the two pieces you see here, causing two problems: 1. the smaller piece broke off and wedged itself in the tank’s intake valve, causing the toilet to fill very noisily and slowly, and 2. the larger piece, not being whole anymore, was ineffective at shutting off the water, making it hard to fix (1). An easy fix, but required shutting off water to the whole house.