Saturday

On Saturday, we woke up to sobering news that we are involved in another conflict in the Middle East. It was difficult to process, so I did what I had to do to survive. I turned off the news and enjoyed the beautiful day we had here. 

Amidst the tragedies of the world, there are still signs of hope and things to smile about.

As the day was warming from the 30s F to the 60s F, Wally and Theo came over for a visit. While Wally and Ward processed yard waste, Theo and I made a big pot of chili. I always enjoy our cooking sessions and the cooking tips I learn from Theo as he tries to make each dish have a good depth of flavor. He is much better with seasoning than I am. The chili turned out to be some of the best I've had.

After lunch, the sun was shining, and the temperature was rising. Wally and Theo made their way home, and Ward and I sat on the porch and read in the warm sunshine. It was wonderful. 

Later, we worked in the yard, pruning and cleaning up the beds. I usually don't do much fall cleanup, except in the vegetable garden, so there's a lot to do. My excuse is that the dead growth on top is a layer of protection against the winter cold. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :)

We saw more signs that life goes on when we found that bluebirds are
 building a nest in one of the nest boxes.

However, to protect the birds, we need to narrow the box hole
that a squirrel enlarged this winter.

During our cleanup, we found several branches that came down
with last weekend's snow. This cleanup is going to involve some chainsaws.

We also found that voles had been active in several places in our yard.
We're still in the research process, but it looks like they won't be easy to get rid of.

I uncovered some daffodils that were trying to grow under a flower pot.

And it looks like the spinach from last fall is coming back.
 Another thing to smile about.

We're back to colder weather today, but spring is on its way.

Until next time...

This and That Check In

More mums are blooming in the yard.

I haven't done an exercise check in for a while, so I thought it was time. I continue to attend classes 4-5 times per week, unless there is something else on the schedule, such as a doctor's appointment. I like the line dance classes I go to and am becoming more comfortable each week. However, I wouldn't say that I like the rest of the classes. I go because they are good for me, and I don't seem to be able to push myself as hard as I need to when left to my own devices. I tried that for years, and an organized class is what I need. And now that I have the flexibility in my schedule since retirement, I can do them regularly.

However, in this morning's class, I pulled something in my groin and couldn't do some of the exercises. Hopefully, it will correct itself before too long, and I'll be back to my regular aches and pains.

Here are a few more things that have been happening around here recently.

Yesterday, Theo came over and we cooked a pot of split pea soup together. After having it for lunch, we each had a good amount to eat this week. The time before this, we made pizza beans (lima beans with a pizza twist). We still have some of those in the freezer.

After lunch, Theo casually mentioned that they were having
a family day at work, so off we went. They had lots of food and games,
but Ward was most interested in learning about the pallet jacks.

Last weekend, Ward and I volunteered to help with therapy dog certifications. The dogs and handlers have to go through a series of tests before they can go out into places like schools and hospitals. Our part was to help simulate the places they go to. For example, Ward was the grumpy old man with a walker, and I was a loud arguer. I loved watching how eager the dogs were to please. This was Zoe, a 9-year-old golden retriever who was being recertified. Recertification happens every two years.

On Friday, we planted a new crepe myrtle tree. It didn't look so big or heavy
in the nursery. I'm glad we paid for delivery, and Ward was able to dig
the planting hole where he had to cut through big roots and rocks. 

Another color of mum in bloom, along with pollinating visitors.

That's about all I can think of for now.

Until next time...

C is for Cooking

I'm not into cooking. It's like laundry. I don't mind doing it, but it's not my first choice of something to do. It's just another necessary part of everyday life. I know some people, like my brother-in-law, find it relaxing. Others find it creative. And some cook so they can eat well. That would be my son, Theo. 

Theo approaches cooking like almost everything else he does. He studies it and has learned to cook beyond the skills I taught him. He understands spice blends and flavor combos better than I do, and he can tell you the science behind cooking techniques. That's why I'm so happy that we have recently started having a weekly cooking session together. We meet on one of his days off and do a large batch of something we split to have for the next few days. While Ward and I enjoy having a fridge stocked with ready-made meals, the best part is spending time with Theo. It actually makes me look forward to spending time in the kitchen. 😀

Below are a few of the things we've done so far. Sometimes, I remembered to take a picture, but sometimes not.

Today, we made cabbage roll soup. Theo's pot had more hot pepper in it than mine did.

Last week, it was chicken enchilada casserole.

This was the second time we made chili.

This day, we had teraki salmon. All of the sides had a Chinese flavor palette. That was Theo's doing. He thinks about those kinds of things more than I do.

I didn't get a picture, but Theo borrowed our slow cooker and cooked two pot roasts and veggies another time. I made a fruit salad to share. 

Cooking with Theo first started when we were discussing chili recipes and decided to make it together to nail down a recipe. It just kind of evolved from there, but I'm so happy it did.

Until next time...

It Was So Good, but...

No pictures of the chili,
so here's one of a young Theo.

Theo likes to cook. Partly because he likes to eat good food but partly because he enjoys the science and creativity of cooking. So for Christmas, we got him a gift certificate for a session at a cooking school - the real thing with big-time chefs, good equipment, and helpers. He recently went to a class for one-pot meals. I'm not sure if that's what he wanted to learn about the most from the wide variety of classes, but that's the one that fit into his work schedule. He said he learned a few things and had other things that reinforced what he knew, like the importance of layering flavors. They made three dishes: Morrocan chicken, mushroom risotto, and southwest chili. 

He came home and said he'd like to try making the chili for us. That required a trip to the grocery store and five hours of his time. He roasted peppers, he chopped peppers, he ground peppers. Five kinds of peppers in all. He roasted a whole head of garlic in olive oil. He chopped, he browned, he braised. And the end result was delicious. There are almost as many ways to make chili as there are cooks, and I've tasted many of them. This batch may have ranked at the top. But was it worth the effort? We all agreed that it wasn't. None of us have enough time in our schedules to cook this way, even with the excellent results it provided. Theo said that he would be looking at ways to streamline the process and still maintain the rich blend of flavors.

I hope he didn't get too discouraged by his efforts because I'm looking forward to some Moroccan chicken. Not sure exactly what that is, but I hope I get to find out soon. :)

Take a Ride

Come take a ride with me as I share my stream of thoughts this Tuesday evening. 

Coming soon, I hope. This was our first crocus bloom last year on March 12.

I have high hopes for what Amazon delivered to our door this evening - an air purifier. Since construction began on the house, I have been miserable at home with sneezing, stuffiness, runny nose, and itchy eyes. The dust is driving me crazy. Theo and Ward aren't suffering the same way, although Theo is at work most of the time and has his own air purifier running in his room when he is home. And to think that we almost got rid of that purifier when we were cleaning out my parents' house. 

And speaking of my parents' things, we almost gave away a little fridge from them that is in our temporary kitchen in the living room. It works great but is very loud. We have tried everything to remedy the noise to no avail. So if you want to have a conversation, you have to go into another room. Lucky that we have other rooms to go to. 

But back to the air purifier. So far, so good. It's been plugged up for a couple of hours, and I haven't sneezed once. My nose is still stopped up, but that's okay. I can live with that. The real test will be tomorrow, when they will be doing a final sweep of the subfloor before the floor guy starts laying the tile. That's bound to stir up a lot of dust.

And speaking of the floor guy coming tomorrow, when I get up from here, I need to go clear the stuff off of the tile in the garage. We have been using the boxes of tile as a flat surface to put things on. I'm not sure where everything will go, but I'll start with putting the ice chest back in the car. And because the floors had to be cleared, the washer and dryer are in the garage, too. I did laundry over the weekend, so we should be good for a while, but there's nothing like not having a working washer to make one think they need to do laundry.

Theo made a delicious Japanese lima bean curry for supper. A few years ago, I would not have thought I would like anything like that. But somehow, he fixes lima beans in a way that takes away their bitterness, and I like them. A lot. He has various lima bean recipes, and they're always good. Well, except for the lima bean-baked bean recipe. While it was well done, I just couldn't wrap my head around sweet lima beans.

And speaking of food, I made a pot of vegetable soup yesterday using up several things in the fridge. The soup was made with two things in mind. One was to use up the chicken broth, old carrots, and onions, and the other was to have some lighter, healthier food around. We have been eating even more take-out than usual recently, and while it tasted good, it was not the best nutrition for the calories we were consuming. Cooking regularly is difficult for us in the best of times, and these are not the best of times. We'll see if our new bright and shiny kitchen inspires us to cook more when it's done.

I feel very lucky to have these first-world problems when much of the rest of the world is suffering in one way or another. One which is being thoroughly documented before our eyes. 

Time to go clean up in the garage.

Until next time...

Tuesday 4, Let's Cook!

 This week's Tuesday 4 is about cooking. Play along if you like. 

If you've read here for very long, you know that cooking is not my thing. I know how to cook, but it's just like the laundry. It's a necessary thing that I don't mind doing, but so many other things are more interesting. Also, I'm not really into the big eating experience. All my life, I have eaten small amounts frequently. My mother said I was born that way and I never really grew out of it. What that means, is that I'm full before the appetizer is done. This causes problems sometimes because people/restaurants think I don't like their food because I'm not eating much of it.

So the questions this week are harder for me to answer than some other prompts have been. But read along, anyway, if you're interested.

1.What is/are your favorite meal(meals) to eat and to cook?

I'd say that my favorite meals are heavy on fresh vegetables. I like them prepared many ways, but the carnivores in the house like them best roasted, so we do that a lot. I like them that way, too, especially because they are easy to prepare. When I was growing up, we got to pick the supper menu on our birthday. I usually chose creamed chicken and biscuits. And when I got a little older, that was my favorite meal to make. 

2.How often do you cook at home and what kind of  meals do you make? 

We get take out once or twice a week, and eat in a restaurant once a month or so. The rest of the time we tend to make easy meals in large quantities so we can eat the leftovers for a couple of days. Big pots of stew and casseroles lend themselves to this. My husband is a fan of Costco chicken (big rotisserie chicken for $4.99), so he tends to buy those a lot.

3. When you go out to eat what foods do you find yourself ordering most?  

When we are in an actual restaurant, I tend to order salads or vegetarian entrees. The carnivores can get their big piece of meat and everyone is happy. And I have been known to be one of those people who eat the fries off of other's plates.

4. Can you recommend a restaurant in your area?  Why do you like it?

I'm not a foodie, so I'm just as happy with a Subway sandwich or a Domino's pizza (tomatoes and feta cheese) as anything else. 

Wally's Blue Apron Experience

For Christmas, Wally got a subscription to Blue Apron from one of his cousins. Blue Apron, for the few of you who might not know, is a service that delivers ingredients and recipes to your home for you to cook. I've always been interested in what one of those meal delivery services looked like so Wally brought a box over and we cooked a two meals.

The food came in this box and was inside an insulated sleeve with ice in the bottom. It was well packed and everything was appropriately cold.

These were the box contents, ingredients for three meals.

Each meal came with a recipe card with a description of the dishes on the front along with a list of ingredients.

And the back had detailed instructions for every meal preparation.

Everything was provided except salt, pepper, and olive oil for sauteing. 

First, all of the vegetables were cleaned and chopped.

Then the cooking began. The steak was cooked in the skillet.

And the potatoes were roasted in the oven.

After the steak was done, mushrooms and shallots were cooked in the same skillet. After they were browned, balsamic vinegar was added.

Then the only mishap of the day occurred. The garlic, that was browning in some ghee, burned. At that point, there were two things cooking at the same time and Wally got a little overwhelmed. However he was able to recover and cook the kale with special cheese sauce minus the burnt garlic.

Ta-Da! Dinner is served.

So what did we think? First some background. Wally is not a cook. He has some experience in the kitchen, but doesn't like to cook. He's happy with a spoon and jar of peanut butter for supper, or sometimes a simple rice and bean dish involving a rice cooker and some cans. Actually, pretty good nutrition that he is very happy with. Repetition is not a problem for him.

He cooked this meal entirely by himself. The only help I provided was to occasionally help him find a pan or spoon he needed. It took him about an 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. An experienced cook, would have been able to do it faster, but there were a lot of steps to do including a lot of chopping that would take time no matter what the experience level.

By the time he was done, Wally was totally frazzled. Getting everything cooked and ready at the same time at the end was very stressful for him. However, he was pleased with the results. The whole family tried the meal and everyone thought it was good.--very flavorful. Ward said it was the best kale he's ever had. There were a couple of grizzly pieces in the meat, but overall not bad.

After that meal was completed, Wally and I together prepared another one, Beef over Zaatar-Spiced Rice. This one was a little easier to prepare and was also very tasty. This was the preferred one between the two.

Wally decided that Blue Apron was not for him. Too much work. However, he said that it was a good service because the ingredients were of high enough quality and the instructions were detailed enough that a non-cook like him could produce a tasty meal.

This weekend we're going to try some more Blue Apron meals here. Those are coordinated with Weight Watchers and I am very curious what those will be like.

Note: As for cost, I think Blue Apron meals are expensive. They were $10 per person per meal. A good price for nice restaurant quality food but could certainly be done cheaper if you did the planning and shopping yourself. But if you like to cook, it might be a fun way to spend a date night. Or if you like to cook, but don't have the time and energy to do the planning and shopping, this might be a good thing.

This post does not contain affiliate links. It does not contain any links for special deals. Sorry.

C is for Cooking

My son has been cooking,
but I haven't been taking pictures.
This is the only one i could find.

As most of you know, cooking is not my thing. I consider it a chore not the creative or relaxing activity that many find. The problem is that eating usually goes much better if cooking is involved. Meals are often more healthful and cheaper when they are cooked at home. Therein lies the problem. Neither my husband or I like to cook and when we don't, our meals become more expensive and usually not as healthy. I have struggled with this for years. (My husband, on the other hand has no problem eating out all of the time.)

But then the most wonderful thing happened. My son moved back home and part of his rent was to cook dinner every night. And we are certainly getting our monies worth. He figures out our schedules and cooks our meals to coincide with when we will be coming home. He makes balanced meals and we are eating more vegetables than we ever have as he adds them to dishes (shredded carrots here and chopped spinach there) as well as having them star on their own. We didn't ask him to cook on weekends, but he does. And if he goes away, he plans ahead and cooks enough to last us while we were gone. I used to think it was funny when I heard people cook for their family when they were going away. I thought that the family ought to be able to handle a few meals for themselves. Well, they probably could, just like my husband and I can, but we sure appreciate it when he does that. He, also, studies recipes and checks the ads. Sometimes he does the shopping and sometimes I do, but he always has a list.

At this point in his life,
all my son wanted to do
was read books and climb trees,
 not cook.

Sometimes I am his sous chef or sometimes I stir something when goes back to work (he has a workshop in our basement), but he is always has a plan he is executing. He occasionally asks me for advice on cooking techniques, but student has outpaced the master. With access to the Food Network, YouTube, and wide array of cookbooks, he knows things that I never learned. He talks the layering flavors and about spices I've never used. And the list goes on.

Last January, my husband joined Weight Watchers. This is the first time anyone in our household has been on this program and it's all new to us. However, my son, mastered the points and allowances quickly. He has expanded his meal to include WW point values. For example, he asks my husband how many points he plans to eat for breakfast and lunch, so he knows how many points he has to work with for dinner. And the list goes on.

Not for one single second do we take my son's cooking for granted. We know this is the best thing that has happened to us in a long time and it won't last forever. He will move on. But for now, the quality of our life has greatly improved and we are very, very thankful.

Thankful Sunday--April 9, 2017

I'm still working on more regular posting here, but in the meantime, if I can only manage one post a week, I'm glad it's Thankful Sunday. It makes me slow down and appreciate things around me.

I am thankful for good, cooked food.

If you've known me very long, you know that cooking is not my favorite thing. If there's any other distraction around like another project, a migraine, etc., I struggle to prepare a meal. It's been like this forever. Which is okay. Not everyone has to like spending time in the kitchen. What is not okay is the anguish I cause myself over this. 

Well, relief has come in this area. Hurray! No, I didn't find the magic pill that made me like cooking any better, I found my son. When we moved into our new house, Theo set himself and his workshop up in our basement. When we invited him to do this, we told him part of his rent was cooking dinner for us during the week. When Ward had surgery last year, Theo came and did some cooking to help out. That worked out so well that we wanted to try it again.

Theo cooked beans in the slow cooker overnight to go
with the ribs we're having today.

He has totally embraced his responsibilities. He prepares a healthful dinner for us every night. He even does it on the weekends even though he doesn't have to. He reads the supermarket ads (Aldi's) and plans the meals around what's on sale. He makes an effort to add extra vegetables to every dish. He keeps track of what's in the fridge that needs to be used up before it goes bad. He's doing his job just the way I would like without prompting. I'm in seventh heaven.

And meal prep has become a bonding experience, also. He bounces dish ideas off me and sometimes I'm his helper. Occasionally, he asks me about cooking methods or techniques. (I may not like being in the kitchen, but I am skilled there.) We make grocery lists together. He often does the shopping and sometimes we do it together.

Theo asks for feedback on every dish he cooks as he is honing his skills because he sometimes consults recipes but rarely follows them. Presently, he's trying to prefect his fruit crisp with different fruits. Ward and I particularly like these tests. :) But most of the time, everything is darn good.

When he goes away to spend the weekend with his brother, he makes sure that we have food cooked for when he's gone. We didn't ask him to do this, he just does. One week, when he was sick and I didn't want him in the kitchen, he left written instructions for dinner with both menu suggestions and cooking methods to use. 

If you can't tell, I could gush on and on about this. This is the biggest improvement that has happened in my daily life in a long time. 

For all of you out there who do just what Theo does day in and day out, remember that you are doing a wonderful thing. Your efforts may be taken for granted because that's just what you do. And have always done. But let me tell you, you are doing an invaluable service. I know because I'm on the receiving end of it now and it's great.

So for Theo and everyone else who fixes dinner for their family, roommates, or whoever, I am thankful.