Planning is crucial. Here’s ours:

-Presuming a key meeting this evening isn’t a disaster, we’ve off to Yellowstone tomorrow thru Friday.
-We’re staying in the Absaroka Lodge in Gardiner rather than camping, to facilitate our goals of: relaxing, exploring the park via snowshoes and skis (hopefully we can find better skiing than last year), and doing some work. I’ve got a draft of an essay to finish, M has the LSAT to study for.
-Eat lots of good food, almost all of which we’re prepping in advance.

The menu (to be consumed over four days):

–Chicken and Leek Pie
-Beef and chili goulash (this recipe, modified, and with beef short ribs rather than pork shoulder)
–Potato Gratin
-M’s top-secret twice-cooked BBQ-Marinara meatballs
-Lentil and Garbanzo bean stew (my own recipe)*
–Bacon-Onion-Cheddar Biscuits
–Corn and Wild rice

Along with bread , beer, and other things.

Should be good. I hope to come back to town at the end of the week happy and relaxed, and with a good draft of what is right now a very ambitious essay. It is the time of the year where everything is going fine, and will end up fine, so long as nothing goes wrong. If anything does wrong, shit will go to hell real fast.

Game time it is.

* Lentil and Garbanzo Bean stew
-soak 1.5 cups green lentils overnight
-saute lots of garlic, a white onion, some bell pepper, sriracha, and a fat knob of fresh ginger root in sesame oil
-add 1/3 cup rice wine or apple cider vineager when veggies are almost done
-add lentils, 500ml veggie stock, and some water
-boil gently for a while
-add 1 can drained garbanzo beans, 1 can crushed pineapple, juice from two limes
-cook a bit more
-add 1 cup unsalted cashews
-mix, let cook for a few minutes, serve (or decant to tuperware and eat later, hot or cold)