Starting today, I’m trying to go lactose-free for two weeks. Avoiding milk, cheese, yogurt, and milk stouts is no fun, but it’s actually fairly simple in practice. What’s already stymied me (but not yet thwarted me) is butter. I basically have to assume all restaurants use butter in all things, don’t I? So a quick pastry as I dart from place to place is going to be a non-starter for awhile. I have dinner reservations with a friend on Thursday, and I wonder if this is going to be a problem. It’s a little stressful. I’m sure I’ll manage it, but I’m going to be stressing about it until it’s done. Maybe it’ll just help me get into and stay with the habit of carrying nuts or similar as a snack at all times.

The rather ill family member I mentioned a couple posts ago appears to be doing better. It’s more complicated than that, but for the moment, I’ll take it.

My garden is producing well. But not super tastily. The tomatoes are a little boring. I’m not sure what’s up with that. Still, I made a pasta sauce last night that was pretty darn good. All the tomatoes from my garden, two bell peppers from my garden, oregano I grew, basil and onions from my CSA… It was spicier than I expected, but fairly good. If I weren’t trying to go lactose-free for a bit, I’d reheat it with some cream and see what that does with the flavors. Maybe I’ll freeze it and try that later.

I’m still on a spent grain kick. My most recent efforts were some chocolate chip cookies for a brewer friend of mine. They’re good. We’ll see what he thinks later today. Tomorrow, I’ll make a couple of loaves of sandwich bread. That recipe will be up Friday. Sometime in the next two weeks, I hope to get some more spent grain science posted.

What are the random tidbits, big and small, that make up your current life? Tell me about them, please.