Today...

Today, I'm going to seize the opportunity 
wherever and whenever I find it.

I'm going to try to be more like Lucky who immediately took advantage of this opportunity when he saw it. I laid down a few jackets and sweaters that I was going to hang up in the adjacent closet. I left for a few minutes and came back to find Lucky all snuggled in on top of them. He knew a good thing when he saw it and didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity to enjoy it. I want to be more like that instead of someone who overthinks most things and sometimes misses opportunities because of it.

Are you one who seizes the moment?

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Mar. 15, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

Popcorn and onion that had to go.

This week I was experimenting with the popcorn button on the microwave and the experiment didn't turn out so well--meaning I burnt the popcorn. However, I put it outside and it disappeared quickly. I think the squirrels enjoyed it. Also, I found a little bit of onion that was rotting in the fridge. I thought it had already been used by Wally, but I was wrong. So out it went.

This Week's True Food Confessions

 It was a busy week with people coming and going at various times from late nights at the office and evening meetings. It was catch as catch can, but we did cook a few things that were available for grabbing as you went by. These included broccoli cheese soup, guacamole, Sloppy Joes, salad, and French toast. We also had takeout pizza.

The new recipe for the week was Yankee Pot Roast that Wally and Theodore made. We only have a roast about once a year or less, so the carnivores were especially pleased. It came from a cookbook that I have checked out from the library and is copied below. 

Wally and Theo mostly followed the recipe except that they added the entire 6 oz. can of tomato paste instead of just a tablespoon. The switch up was nothing more than a mistake. However, the dish was still great. The meat was very tender and gravy around it was flavorful. The only problem with the vegetables was there weren't enough, and surprisingly, everyone even liked the turnips.

Procedurally, we didn't have a large enough dish to hold everything. We had to put our dish into the oven on a cookie sheet because it was boiling over. Theodore is working on this problem with some thrift store shopping. Hopefully, he will be able to find something acceptable.

There are a lot of ways to do pot roast out there, but I highly recommend this one. I think this will become our new standard (but next time, we will only use 1 tablespoon of tomato paste to see how we like it that way.)


From The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook by Rick Rodgers and Heather Maclean

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 Yankee Pot Roast

3 tablespoons or bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 (3-pound) rump roast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 medium carrots, 1 chopped, and 2 cut into 1-inch lengths
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 medium celery rib, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups canned reduced-sodium beef broth
1 cup hearty red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 medium red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, cut into halves lengthwise
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into sixths


1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 F.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in Dutch oven or flameproof casserole over medium-high heat. Season roast with 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Add to the Dutch oven and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer roast to plate.

3. Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the Dutch oven. Add the chopped carrot, onion, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Sprinkle with the flour and stir well. Stir in the broth, wine, tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaf and bring to simmer. Return the roast to the Dutch oven and cover.

4. Bake for 2 hours, turning the roast over after 1 ½  hours. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven. Add the cut carrots, potatoes, and turnips to the pot, submerging them in the cooking liquid. Return to the oven and cook until the meat and vegetables are tender, about 1 hour.

5. Transfer the roast to the deep serving platter and let stand 10 minutes. (Keep the vegetables warm in the gravy, covered.) Slice the roast. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables to the platter. Season the gravy with salt and pepper. Spoon some of the gravy over the roast and vegetables, and pour the remaining gravy into the sauce boat. Serve hot.

A Second Look--March 13, 2013

It's been a good week with more days of sunshine than rain and more days of warmth than cold.  The crocus have started to bloom here and there, and their sparseness makes each one of them a treat to find. I think the groundhogs have emerged from hibernation because I found digging at one of the groundhog holes. I also found my mandatory bones. Both were very leached, so it was hard to tell what they were. However, I think one of them used to be a dog's chewing bone, and the other one belongs to some kind of mammal--maybe it's pelvis.

Here's What I Found This Week During a Second Look.

White Crocus

Purple crocus

Yellow crocus coming up through moss.

Purple striped crocus sharing spot with dandelion.

Female cardinal

Daffodils coming up through mulch.

First digging I've seen at this groundhog hole this year.

The snowdrops have finally opened a little.

Blue jay feathers

Crow

Bones

Boys vs. Girls--camping

Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess, who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls. 

Today's Story

When he was 11, Wally and I were discussing Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps. He was telling me what he had done at the camp that he had just returned from, and I was reliving my days at Girl Scout camp when I was about the same age. Among other things, we were comparing tents, cooking, and swimming. One of us swam in a lake and one of us swam in a pool. When one commented that there was a long hill that they walked down to go swimming, the other one said, “Did you race down the hill to see who could get there first?” To which the reply was, “No, we stayed in a group and sang songs.”

You chose: Which was the boy and which was the girl?

 ______________________________________________________

Answer: I was the one going down the hill singing songs with the other girls. It never occurred to us to race. However, that was the first thing Wally thought of when I said that had a long hill to go down.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But Wait, There's More:

I didn't provide answers to the other Boy vs. Girls stories and some have been asking. So here they are if you want to play catch up. 

Boys vs. Girls--the Stuffed Animals 

Answer: Lily was the one cuddling her animal and talking to it. Wally was the one dragging his animal on ground and generally not paying much attention to it unless he hit something with it. It was very clear that Lily had a baby, and Wally had a toy.

Boys vs. Girls--Wally's Valentine Party 

Answer: The girls were the ones carefully opening each valentine and reading the messages. The boys ripped any candy off the valentines they got, then started playing with one of the party treats--Red Hots cinnamon candies. Each boy would put increasing numbers of candies in his mouth until it got too hot for them. They were definitely trying to out do each other during this game.

  (Of course, we all know that each person is a unique individual with their own set of special characteristics. No one is all boy just as no one is all girl.)   

From Head to Toe

Our town museum opened a new exhibit that I am participating in. Or I should say, my grandmother's hats are. The exhibit is called From Head to Toe and features hats, shoes, and accessories among other things. Several of my grandmother's antique hats are on display, and I'm sure that she would have never dreamed that that would happen. My sister and I had a good time as we got them ready for the exhibit. We tried to imagine her wearing each hat and where she got it. We never knew her as the fancy Italian hat wearing kind, so it was an interesting exercise.

One of the best parts of having a local museum, besides being able to participate in the exhibits, is listening to others tell stories about what they have brought for display. One person associates hat shopping with her mother as a happy time which wasn't always the case. Another person wore hats and gloves when she went shopping and to church. The stories abound and maybe I'll tell more of them another day. In the meantime, below is a sampling of a few things from the exhibit.

The museum is in a small, portable building. Some day they hope they can raise enough money to have a permanent place.

My grandmother's hats. Also, notice the hat box on the end and how the word "Exclusivery" (Exclusively) was translated from Japanese to English. That box is from a hat Miss Landers got when she was living in Japan.

This may have been the fanciest hat there. Certainly, one of the most colorful.

 

This Beaver Hat came with a very fancy cushioned hat box. All of the hat boxes I knew about before this were made of cardboard.

The dapper man who wore the fancy beaver hat above probably carried this fancy umbrella with a mustache comb in the handle. The other side of the handle had a mirror.

If these shoes are any indication, our feet have gotten a lot wider over time.

These two ladies may be dressed in their finest hats, but it didn't look like they were taking the situation too seriously.

Apparently, one size does not fit all.