A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of...

Bread, and me. I like sandwiches. They are an especially nice thing to have for lunch. A wide variety of ingredients and condiments gives you lots of flexibility to create something nice to eat that you probably wouldn’t have at any other meal of the day. Despite what goes on the inside, there is a common ingredient on the outside: the bread. And, despite being the secondary player in the package, it’s extremely important that you do it right. It should be a supporting layer not the feature. Therefore the type and heft of the bread is important for a nicely done sandwich. Strong flavored middles like corned beef or pastrami are nicely partnered with rye (and please, not marbled), while a milder smoked chicken calls for a milder bread, probably white. Over the years, I have finally gravitated to thinking that (of store bought varieties) Pepperidge Farms “original white” is about right. Not too thick, not too thin, with a nice weight. As an aside, their “toasting white” is just great for melts, lots of little holes to soak up that clarified butter before you finish in the pan. The "sandwich bread" is beneath contempt, and don't even mention "very thin". Anyway so the other day I went into Shopper’s to obtain a loaf for lunch, only to find an empty shelf. Lots of “hearty” this, “farmhouse” that, “75 grain” all sorts of stuff, just no Original White. And other brands are not even worth looking at. So, I altered the menu for lunch that day. Next day, I happened to be returning from Leonardtown, so thought I’d pop into Giant and get myself set. Nope. Same story, empty shelf. I hope they haven’t stopped making it. One last note, always cut your sandwich on the diagonal, it’s much more civilized. Oh, and have the inside stuff at least as thick as the bread. Enjoy

Besides bread, I like electricity (in it’s proper place). It makes the house warm/cool, you can see at night, and it makes lovely little ice cubes for your cocktail. I don’t like outages any more than the next person, but it leads me to a dilemma. Last week I was driving down to the digs on Esperanza, and noticed one of those “non- SMECO” power trucks on the side of the road with a cherry picker extended, “working” with the trees. Their goal was to reduce the likelihood of an outage due to the branches whacking the lines during a storm. The result is that now a drive down Esperanza is like driving through a Van Gogh or Dali painting. Grotesque, misshapen, out of balance trees line both sides of the road so that a tunnel exists for the wiring. I kind of bet that the trees were there before the wiring, but they still pay the price. I don’t think the trees got a vote.

Quick sports note. And okay, I will be the first to admit that I’m probably biased here. Last Friday night I watched the women’s softball World Series game between Florida and Michigan. So, I freely admit to rooting for Michigan. I wish I could say the same for ESPN2. Apparently they decided that since Florida has had some success recently in other sports, they would “Feature” them. Florida makes a good play – tight shots of the Florida bench. Michigan makes a good play – another shot of Florida fans. I guess that there were no Michigan fans in the stadium, so maybe there weren’t any to show. Holly (I love cheeseburgers) Rowe interviews multiple Florida coaches, fans, and grins her way through all, using that overworked, idiotic phrase: “what was going through your mind when…” And I will be fair, I don’t know what it is with women’s softball, but why does the bench empty after every inning, mobbing each other like little league? It's like they never hit a home run before. More closeup shots of the Florida players grinning and dancing on the bench, along with general glee. How cute. Over the rest of the weekend, I watched more games, and that “I’m so happy” approach seems to permeate the sport. I suppose it’s preferable to a steely game face (such as Tiger’s), but boy they seem to over do it. And we watched again as Tim Clark resolutely refuses to win a tournament, and Nadal loses on clay for the first time in many matches.

Oh did you notice that Tom Seitsema in the weekend Post reviewed the “Founding Farmers” restaurant in DC that the feeder visited a while ago. While we both agreed that the service was spotty, Tom also didn’t like the food much. Pretty negative review.. one star.

DFD(&L)