Remember the leeks? They had been stowed in the fridge for another
day. Ruth had a couple saved out for private experimentation later
and the rest we divvied up and did two ways. Mark induced Steve to
frizzle some on the grill, and I julienned some and made them fondu
with butter. I think both met with general approval, the preferences
determined by whether you favored grilled or buttery flavors.

==
Turkish delights
From Nancy's son came Turkish nut'n'honey, I don't know the real
name. It was as described, but the nuts hadn't been roasted
beforehand, which I think would have improved it.

Aleppo brand halvah with pistachios was pretty much as expected
but a little greasy in the mouthfeel. It had a high proportion
of pistachios, which almost justified the elevated price.

Near the register at Petra the other day Steve had found Turkish
delight in 3 flavors, coffee, orange, and pomegranate. This was not
the typical starch-based lokoum we usually see but was pretty high
in fruit puree so had a different than usual texture. The flavors
were dubious, bearing as little resemblance to the real thing as
the candies did to the bright brown, red, and orange photograph
on the lid. A dull dark brown coffee tasted like mud; a dull dark
pink pomegranate had a bit of acid and bitterness but not a whole
lot else; and the orange, which didn't taste like orange at all
but a very fleeting fruitiness, not even citrus, was in fact pond
water green. I suspected that it had been past its due date, but a
check revealed a 2020 expiration. I think this was also Aleppo brand.

==
As I didn't want to haul two pounds of it back through security and
on an airplane, most of the chocolate was distributed, a bar here
and a bar there. I felt like the Red Cross after a disaster. As it
was, I dragged back over half a pound.

It was fairly late when we said fond auf Wiedersehens. I was
completely knackered and gave in to my baser instincts and had a
couple of Yuenglihgs before turning in.

==
We'd agreed to get to the Hafflys' at 0930 to chat and say
another set of goodbyes and be out by 1000 so as to avoid all
possible rush hours. All went well except for the 1000 part.

Breakfast was offered - Mark's eggs with jowl bacon, regular
bacon, and turkey bacon cooked in jowl fat. The others report
that the eggs were fresh and delicious. I can attest to the
fact that as clothing makes the man, fat makes the meat. The
turkey bacon was almost good after being fried in pig fat.

The Shipps took off a quarter hour or so behind schedule; we
hung around for a quarter hour yet and were on the road by 1030.

It was an uneventful trip punctuated by substantial showers
in a couple places. It being unpleasantly glarey I kept my
eyes shut most of the time and certainly took a nap or two.
I don't know if Nancy felt left alone, but I can and do carry
on conversations with my eyes closed and possibly even asleep.

One gratifying effect of our finding the classical stations
was our listening to WETA coming back and hearing the Franz
Clement violin concerto in D, which seemed an amusing mishmosh
of violin works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn. It
was interesting enough for me to look it up, and guess what?
It was written before Beethoven's violin concerto and when
Schubert was 8 and years before Mendelssohn was born. The
others were cribbing from him, not the other way round! This
composer deserves another look for sure.

We debated which way to take the Beltway around Washington.
I initially wanted to go the long way but then waffled and
figured the normal way (west, left) wouldn't be too terrible.
When the time we hit the confusing interchange at Springfield,
we were in the west, left lane, which promptly curved under
and became an east, right exit, so the best laid plans went
awry, and the next time I opened my eyes we were heading for
the famous cost-cutting drawbridge that commuters have hated
for decades.

It turns out that my rule of thumb "outer loop good, inner
loop bad" obtained, and if we'd gone the normal way we would
have lost half an hour.

As it was we got in an hour before the Shipps and had a snack
of the Cabot 3-year-old along with a bit of summer sausage and
braunschweiger, both okay and nothing special.

For dinner porterhouses cooked from frozen, a newish adventure,
and word to the wise, don't trust the instant-read thermometer:
when according to my timetable the meat wanted to come off, the
reading inside was 77F, so we kept it on a bit more; when the
thermometer gave an acceptable number, the steaks ended up a
notch or two over, medium-rare to medium. To complete the meal,
broccoli and baked potatoes; I had an ounce of the former with
half an ounce of butter. The steaks had been Choice and quite
marbled, so a little extra cooking didn't harm the flavor or
the texture.

Afterward the bones went into the crockpot with some onion and
carrot to cook overnight for bone broth.
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