There’s nothing earthshaking to note today, but I have a lot of tidbits to share.
The amaryllis bloom that I posted about recently has begun to wither, but the bloom on the second stalk is just starting to open! Tomorrow, I’ll cut off the first stalk and move the supports to the second. I think we’ll have another week to ten days of pleasure from this plant. This summer, I’ll put all four of the amaryllis plants outside, in a bid for a Christmas display.
Dear Husband and I had a light breakfast together, and talked about our (read:MY) plans for the weekend. I want his help to clean out the mudroom closet and the shelves under the counter. The hanging things are his, and I suspect there are dead boots and odds and ends that could be thrown out. I need to have him tell me why something should be kept.
I hadn’t intended to clean out three of the shelves in the cleaning pantry, but I wanted to put away the food processor, and it seemed like a good time to do the job. I store potatoes, onions and garlic on the lowest shelf, and discovered four sweet potatoes lodged behind the onion bin. Wouldn’t you know that I had just sent DH off to buy a sweet potato? I reorganized all the cleaning products, threw out an old iron (there were three stored there, I should really throw out one more), and generally got things into a more usable order. When DH returned I told him where to find the mink oil for his shoes, and he said he had just purchased more mink oil, not knowing it was there. I handed him two containers, and the brush. I think we need to do this reorganization about once a quarter until we’ve used up all the doubles and triples of things. Note: I did this with the food pantry and the freezers last week!
Mark the calendar. Today was the first day we have seen chipmunks for the 2011 warm season, and they are exceedingly frisky! The gray squirrels have been ruling the roost during the winter, but these little rodent cousins will eat them out of house and home now that they are awake.
My brother-in-law’s sister, Karen, is in the hospital. She may have had a heart attack. Prayers and positive thoughts would be welcome.
I’ve started a book called “The Coffee Trader,” by David Liss. It’s set in Amsterdam in 1659. I love novels in historical settings. If this turns out to be a good book, I’ll post more about it later.
I have to buy a skein or two of red yarn this weekend. I am assembling an afghan for Shelly Tucker, the organizer of “Share a Square.” She has organized the donation of more than 12000 six inch crocheted squares, as well as the assembly of these squares into 150 afghans for kids who will be attending cancer care camp this summer. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of this effort. If you crochet, or know someone who crochets, Shelly will be organizing a repeat effort for 2012, starting in August. Visit her FAQ page for information on what she needs.
I had a good day yesterday in the sewing room. I have just two seams to sew and I will have finished the second of five or six baby quilts I plan to do this year. YEA!!! I have the parts cut for one, and half of another, sailboat quilt. There are times when it’s just comfortable to sit and cut pieces for quilts. I have another quilt on which I’ve completed the blocks, and just need to sew them together.
SUN!!! OMG, the SUN IS SHINING!!! I understand that we are supposed to have a week of gradually warming temperatures, with some sunny days. THIS is what I have been missing for the past two and a half months. I think that I experienced a little SAD this year, and I’m very happy to have this glorious light around me!
And with that, I think I’ll open the shades in the studio and sew for a bit. I hope you’re all having a great weekend. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back!
Category Archives: Def-y’s Categorizing
Just ONE ingredient
Why is it that when you want to try a new recipe, it seems that you are always lacking just one ingredient?
I am a new subscriber to Cook’s Country magazine. I’ve been a part of the America’s Test Kitchen family for a long time, but I’ve used the cookbooks and the Cook’s Illustrated magazine.
So, my first issue arrived and I sat down to browse through it. YUMMY recipes, a lot of comfort food, not especially oriented toward someone on a diet, but great older recipes updated. There were several recipes I wanted to make immediately!
No….I need smoked paprika for the paprika potatoes. Hmmmm, no half-and-half for the cheese sauce for the broccoli. Darn! I need HOT Italian sausage for the “Quick Sunday Gravy,” Dutch-processed cocoa and milk chocolate chips for the chocolate pudding. Ooops…that’s two ingredients. Oh nevermind, it calls for heavy cream, too. I don’t think I have clam juice in the pantry to do the popcorn shrimp, and there are no Granny Smith apples for the apple fritters!
I’ve been told that if the local grocery store runs out of anything, they could call on me, but I can see that I’m falling down on my motto of “Be Prepared!” I don’t mind having to wait on most of this, but the potatoes and fritters are really talking to me! *G* Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have all the ingredients.
Bob
We have a daytimme racoon, which is a bit unusual. For the most part, raccoons are nocturnal. However, this raccoon seems to have a problem. The first thing you notice is that it walks oddly, protecting it’s back right hip and leg. The second thing you see is that it’s missing a large part of its tail. The guys in this household have taken to calling it “Bob.”
I’ve watched this animal for several days. It comes to gleen what it can from under the bird feeders. Its winter fat has faded, but it’s not gaunt. When he, or she, walks, she puts the right foot down carefully, so I think the damage might be higher up. She doesn’t limp as much as she shuffles.
Either this animal has been clipped by a car, or a larger preditor may have hurt it. We have learned not to feed the raccoon population, but it’s very hard to keep from helping this one. I really don’t want to encourage it to stay. I suppose it would be best to let it sink or swim on its own, but I hope it recovers.
A Job
I HAVE to find a job!
How do you go about figuring out what to do, especially in THIS job market, when you have done only three jobs in your adult life? I know my strengths, but I also know my weaknesses, and I’m having trouble believing that someone would care to hire someone my age, with the skills I have to offer.
I feel a bit overwhelmed.
I knew there would come a day when my husband and his partner disbanded their company. Our partner is older, and has already reached retirement age. Dear Husband is coming up on it quickly. Unfortunately, I’m a bit younger than they are, and still need to work.
My youngest sister suggested that I might be working for MickeyD for a few years. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to do a job that requires I stand all day.
I can remember driving my mother somewhere, talking about this situation. It must have been eight or ten years ago, so I was concerned about it even then. At the time, I was worried about having to work away from home, when Mother might need me. I turned to her and flippantly said, “Pehaps I’d be a success at phone sex!” Not a rise……not even an eye roll.
I am so envious of those of you who can reinvent yourselves and move on with your lives. I need to get out of my rut, and figure out what I might be able to do that pays more than minimum wage.
I presently manage an office of one. I use Quick Books (with occasional help from the CPA), Word, and Excel. On the right keyboard, I can probably type roughly 60 wpm. (I plan to ditch the streamlined keyboard I have and go back to an older model with higher keys and a caps lock light.) For my present company I am responsible for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, banking, filing, and I am the back up Payroll person. I determine expenses per job and provide material waivers. I am a notary public. I also manage an LLC which rents two business condos. I can do double entry manual bookkeeping, but I doubt there is a company left that doesn’t do it’s books electronically.
In another life I was a grade school band director. I don’t wish to substitute. It’s a whole different world out there since I last taught, and I’m not prepared to deal with kids on a daily basis. However, from that experience I bring the ability to organize large groups of people, to plan goals, and determine the steps necessary to reach those goals. I’m trying to apply those abilities to my current situation, but it’s easier to do when you are not focusing on your own needs.
I have the feeling that this is going to be an on-going series of posts. Feel free to jump in with suggestions, or tell me to stop whining. The door is open.
Swathed in Ice
We had the oddest weather yesterday. We had a little bit of everything except warmth!
There was sunshine early in the day that gave way to our usual gloom. We had a bit of snow, but nothing that amounted to anything. Then it rained, and by ten at night we had lightening and thunder, along with a major downpour.
When I woke this morning, everything was swathed in ice! The trees are gorgeous, glistening in the sun. It won’t last long now, but the first half of the day looked like a fairyland, with all the glitter from the shrubs and trees. Unfortunately, the road had pockets of ice that made driving very dangerous. On my way to exercise I saw the first accident on our road in the 20 years that I’ve lived here!
It’s actually supposed to be colder tomorrow, but the forecasters are teasing us with the possibility of temperatures in the forties on Friday.
Wowwwwwwww…….a heat wave!
At least 34″
The amaryllis is at least 34″ tall, but since I last wrote about it, there is another bud stalk coming up, and there are at least four leaves. The longest leaf is about eight inches long, the others are just starting to come up.
The bud on the tall stalk is just beginning to open. I noticed a slit on the outer shell, and you can see the tips of the flowers within.
Perhaps most people are not as interested in how an amaryllis grows, but it reminds me of my father. The last year or so of his life, I lived in Missouri in a cabin on my parent’s property. I worked for my Dad, and ate meals with them. Dad had built a rustic fireplace in the dining room and that particular year, Mother was growing an amaryllis. Dad’s chair at the head of the table had him facing the fireplace, and as the amaryllis grew, he kept track of its height by measuring it against the stones of the fireplace. We received a daily report, and it created a sense of anticipation as the stalk grew taller and taller.
I’d forgotten how tall this particular amaryllis was. It might have skipped a season of bloom, or perhaps I was just too busy last year to make a mental note about it’s growth. My Mother would be thrilled to see it blooming again. I’m sure she would encourage me to take pictures and print them out for her. She truly loved these flowers.
I’m blessed that such simple things bring good memories.
Peanuts!
How does a squirrel remember where he’s stashed his food?
I just fed the birds, and I had half a bag of peanuts in the shell that I decided to give to the local squirrel population. I use the top of a recycling bin when I don’t want to set things right on the ground, so I poured the peanuts out onto it. It doesn’t take the grapevine long to announce that I’ve put out food, so by the time I was in the kitchen the back yard was a beehive of activity.
I stood at the window and waited to see if the squirrels would show any interest. One did. I think he might be at the top of the pecking order because none of the other squirrels went near the peanuts. Alpha found them right away, picked one up, secured it in his mouth, and charged off. I watched him repeat this procedure a dozen times or more. I know that he will move every one of those peanuts within the next fifteen minutes.
He’s buried them all within the cleared area of our lawn and gardens, on the north side of the house. Several are under tufts of grass, and more of them have been tucked into my herb garden. Some of them are under piles of leaves at the edge of the lawn, and at least one of them has been tucked into the dirt at the edge of the raised veggie bed.
But…..there are no little markers saying “Peanuts, here.” There’s nothing to remind him where he put these things under piles of leaves. HOW is he going to find them again? Thank God these were roasted, or we’d have peanuts growing all over the place this summer! I can see how the chipmunks have repopulated the dill and cosmos and tiny tomatoes, and I think it’s possible that their bigger rodent cousins have helped!
It was fun to watch, another of the gentle amusements that are a part of living here.
Dichotomy
I love my youngest sister dearly, but there is quite a dichotomy between her life and mine. Lately, I’ve thought her life is MUCH more interesting than mine!
On Face Book last night, she quoted Thoreau: “We live meanly, like ants.” She asked what we thought he meant by that. Her reading is extensive, and she frequently finds concepts to apply to her own life, and she’s had an incredible influence on the lives of the students she teaches.
The most involved passage I’ve read lately is a recipe for Bolognese sauce!
Way to go, sis! Keep up the quest, and you’ll be young forever!
Rain, Rain
We have gone from the frigid blizzard to Spring rains. Tonight we may return to the snow, but we are not expecting another blizzard.
Dear Husband and I made a quick trip to the grocery store this morning. I had intended to wile away the morning working on baby quilts, but it seems that I’ve frittered it away! I need to clear off kitchen counters, have some lunch, finish defrosting a turkey breast for dinner tonight, and then MAYBE, I might get to that piecing. How is it that time gets wasted like this?
I talked with one of my sisters for about 20 minutes or so, and I read my e-mail. I’ve visited my blog and published two comments (one of which was my own! lol) I put away groceries, and made toast. I gotta get to bed earlier so that I’m up at five o’clock! I do my best work early in the day, and maybe I wouldn’t fritter as much.
So….I’m off to get things going. I hope you’re having a great day today, rainy or not!
HOT DATE, DEUX!
Imagine my surprise when Dear Husband turned to me and asked if I cared to go grocery shopping with him! I had been wanting to take him to a local chain that carries almost everything Italian. We finally made that trip, and it was fun to see him checking out the aisles. I believe that he could have happily spent three hours shopping!
So, we went again today. This time I had several new recipes in mind, and it was the perfect place to get the ingredients. I have never cooked with fennel. At this store fennel is called “California anise.” I think fennel might be one of the ingredients that gives a vegetable broth depth and complexity. I plan to make my own vegetable broth for soup later this week. I need to read up on using fennel, so that I know how much to use, and whether to use the lacy greens or just the bulbous part.
We found a pasta called “mafaldine” that might work in a pasta dish I want to do. I’ve found a lightened version of Bolognese sauce to try later this week. I bought several small eggplants and plan to roast them for this casserole using Bolognese sauce, cubed eggplant, crumbled Italian sausage and mafaldine. The pasta is a long strip that has a ruffle on one long edge.
I have a new recipe for bread pudding for dessert on Valentine’s Day. This one calls for coconut milk. We found cans of it in two of the ethnic sections. I could see the wheels turning as Dear Husband looked at all that was offered and though about how he might use things we don’t normally have in our pantry.
We’re going to make saganaki one evening, and one of the deli men talked us into trying a cheese other than Kaseri. I’m too lazy to look up the name. I’ll let you know what it is if it turns out to be good! *G* We also bought Gruyere for something called a “Grape Pickers’ Skillet” that’s in the February “Cuisine at Home” magazine. My only other experience with Gruyere is in fondue.
It was fun! We so rarely get to shop together it was novel to spend the time wandering through the store. I’m delighted to have some new things to try. DH helped me bring in all the goodies, and put lots of them away for me. It’s been a pleasant day, one I hope we’ll repeat occasionally.