🍴:

Mon – last week, Hampton impulsively picked up a bag of unicorn cornmeal at our butcher. We put it into action tonight to make corn pone in a take on shrimp and grits using TJ’s frozen black tiger shrimp and the tomatoes he brought home recently because they’re the closest thing to those we had in Italy (aka, the only time either of us happily eat raw tomatoes).

Tues – burgers with mushrooms and Gruyère, fries, salad.

Wed – Over the weekend, I had thawed a pack of four duck breasts we had bought a while back with no plan on how to use four. A dinner party? Anyway, I cooked two as usual and then confitted the other two, which tonight we added to a big garden salad with jarred Asian dressing and crispy noodles.

Thurs – Hampton went to a basketball game (he has season tix to the WFU ladies and they were playing his real team, NC State. A win either way!), so I was on my own and, of course, tried once again to recreate my fave D.C. brothy seafood and pea dish.

Fri – Hampton had proposed doing a veg meal, since we had two red meat meals this week. I couldn’t make a decision, so he just bought ingredients, and then I was tired and freezing after a work training day… so we ordered Domino’s. Which may have been his plan all along.

Sat – I had a big late lunch with my pre-COVID gym class before a murder mystery gig and grazed when we got home after.

Sun – time for that veg meal! Out of the various options, he chose a crispy cauliflower steak with mushroom gravy. And then we realized we were out of panko 🤦‍♀️ Using this for secondary inspo, I utilized more of the aforementioned unicorn cornmeal in the crust.

🥃: nothing new to report. Will do better next week.

🐶:

This one has been barking on the bed at… the air? a ghost? since the rest of us sat down on the couch after dinner. Trying to remember she’s this cute.

📚: Less time to read right now with rehearsals. This week, I got through one mediocre British YA thriller and half of a white lady thriller with a huge exposition that I hope pays off.

🎭:

We had a Mystery Men show at a new-to-us venue where one of our regular cast members works. It was a very fun and involved crowd in a great space. Thanks, Board & Batten!

This week, we also booked a few February shows. One is private, but we have public events in both Winston and Greensboro. Tickets here.

Seagulling continues. We finally had promo pics done. So far, this is the best one.

Related to the above pic: Camel City Playhouse finally announced Hedwig take 3! Ethan and Brandon have some great new ideas (again), and I can’t wait to dive in (again).

The last announcement of this week: regular readers (hi, Melinda) may remember I did a concert at Elon University late last summer of original works by one of their faculty members, who also regularly accompanies the Broadway concerts at my old job. And this week, I was asked to join a redux of the concert at said old job!

And in just fun theatre stories: after the first ballet class of the semester last week, I saw a familiar face in the hallway, and this week, he took our class.

Back when I was Anita in West Side Story (I didn’t initially audition but was asked, and yes, I would say no if asked similar these days. Know better, do better.), Jackson was a clear standout in the Jet ensemble. He went on to high school at UNCSA and is now a professional ballet dancer! I’m so glad I got to run into him on his winter break.