Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Jan. 31, 2014

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

I had a couple of slices of bread mold this week before we got to them. This loaf came out of the freezer with a soggy top which I guess means that it was predestined to mold sooner or later. Fortunately, this was later so that the whole loaf didn't go bad.

This Week's True Food Confessions

It was a good week with all of our meals eaten at home. Let's see, what did we have? Last weekend, Wally introduced us to the whole wheat gnocchi he found at Aldi's and is now quite fond of. The leftover sauce from the gnocchi meal turned into Poor Man's Lasagne in another one. That is when I took a slice of bread (different that the one you see above), a slice of cheese, and then covered those with marinara sauce. Zap for a minute and it's done. And for Ward who wanted a bigger serving, I made a double-decker. Super Easy and pretty tasty. We also had fish, pizza, steak, a spinach quiche and assorted vegetables.

However, the standout of the week was the mac and cheese made in the slow cooker. I was first introduced to this idea by Lois at Living Simply Free. She does it quite often and doesn't measure her ingredients any more. I sort of did the same thing. I read several recipes and then just used what I had on hand. It was very easy and turned out great. We will definitely be doing this again.

I'm not sure why the week was so successful, but leftovers are playing a large roll in everything.
Until next time...

P.S. I forgot to mention that we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast one morning. A friend made the yeast dough for us and I completed the task. Boy, were they a treat. Thanks, friend.

Our Thinker's Courage

Theo was an interesting child. He was always thinking and seemed to be several steps ahead of most people especially his parents. He loved to read. But most of all, he loved to think. To analyze. To take ideas to their logical conclusion. To learn. To think.

But so you don't get the wrong idea, he was also a very active child. Hyperkinetic was the word one doctor used for him. He loved to experiment. That might mean cracking a dozen eggs on the floor at age two to see how they would blend with a pot of chili or filling his room with an entire spider web of yarn. That might also mean taking his toys apart to see how they worked but never putting them back together. Why bother, he told me many years later. He had already seen what was inside and didn't need to know anymore. And he never slept. Most people agreed. He was amazing and also a handful. Most people would have rather heard stories about him than try to keep up with him.

As I said, Theo was an interesting child. Everyone, parents, grandparents,and teachers had great plans for him. He would go to college, get at least a doctorate degree and come up with some great invention or business. The sky was the limit.

So he started college. He changed majors a few times and settled on Financial Economics. That was a topic far from my interests, but he and Ward would have great debates on the merits of different economic policies on the financial health of the world. Some classes interested him and some didn't. So college went along and had it's ups and downs. However, everyone still agreed that he was a great thinker. That was why we were shocked when he came to us in his final year of college and said that he was dropping out to become a clock and watch maker.

We had the typical parental reaction. A what? What are you thinking? Just finish the degree and then you can do something else. I was thinking about the plans everyone secretly had for him. Our thinker wants to work with his hands? Maybe Wally who was always tinkering and building things, but not Theo who rarely built things. But our thinker had thought it through. This was not a whim. For a while, he hadn't liked college or his major and when he started to interview for jobs, he knew that was it. He would not be happy in his field.

So our thinker thought about what kind of job he wanted. What kind of working conditions he desired. How much money he wanted to make and what kind of lifestyle he wanted to live. Then he researched to find a job that would satisfy those needs that there would always be a demand for. And he came up with clock and watch repair. He told us about his plans the day before he had an interview at the clock school. He started a week later and has never looked back. This all happened a year ago and he has totally embraced his new profession and is happier than he's ever been.

So I could say a lot of things here about following your passion or marching to the beat of your own drummer. But mostly I want to say that I admire my son for the courage he had to change the course of his life despite the unknowns. I also admire him for listening to what he really wanted and needed and not to what others wanted for him. Those are things I don't do easily. I hope that I can remember Theo's example then and again and make my life fit better who I really am.

Is change hard for you or are you excited when you try something different?

A Second Look--January 28, 2014

We continue to have cold winter weather (and yes, I do need the "cold" modifier for "winter". It's colder than normal this year.) but the critters are still out and about. The juncos provided entertainment around the bird feeder with large numbers of them hopping and flitting around on the ground and in the air. For variety, a few other birds like cardinals, titmouses, wrens, and nuthatches frequented the feeders also. And to break things up, a squirrel dashed by then and again.

I hadn't been to the "lower forty" for a couple of weeks, so I bundled up and took a walk around to see what I could see. The ground was covered with crunchy snow that wasn't too deep anymore. The crunch of the snow was almost as satisfying as the crunch of the fall leaves. And to be honest, I didn't see too much because I didn't spend much time looking. I spent more time paying attention to the cold and the wind than I did other things. However, there was a standout among everything else--deer tracks. They were everywhere. I know we have deer in the area, but I didn't realize how much they traverse every part of the yard until I saw their tracks.

Some things I saw this week during my Second Look.

Although we haven't had much snow this last week, we haven't had much sunshine either.

The deer tracks pretty much crisscrossed the entire backyard.

The cows were closer together than normal. I assume to keep warm.

Dark-eyed Junco

Female Cardinal and Junco

Tufted Titmouse

Female Downy Woodpecker

Visionary Arts

Do you ever have one of those times when you just want to get out of the house and do something different? Ward and I had one of those days this weekend. We needed a change of scenery, so on a whim, we visited the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, MD. We had visited this museum a couple of times before and it is a favorite of ours.

Before my first visit, I didn't really understand what visionary art was. At first glance, it looked a little like folk art. But on second glance, was it something far different. Folk art is passed down from person to person, but visionary art comes totally from within the artist. It is more about the process of making the piece than about the finished product, and it comes from an emotional level. The artist usually has no formal training and often comes to creating their art later in life. At this point they have lived enough that they are less concerned about what people think and more concerned about their creation.

Whatever it is, I like it. The artists ranged from people who spent their life in mental institutions to a plantation child. There were paintings, sculptures, and mechanical pieces. Much of it was whimsical and some of it was disturbing.  As you can tell, it is really hard to categorize.

 The interesting thing for me on this trip was how I came alive in the OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) room. The artists in this room worked with very small detailed pieces (large match stick sculptures or lots of tiny dots). There was also a lot of symmetry in their pieces. I knew that I liked detail and symmetry, but I didn't realize how much. Ward's favorite part were the wooden moving toys. And much as we don't want to admit it, we both enjoy the section on flatulence.

A visit to the Visionary Arts Museum always gives me a new outlook on life. I look at things with a new found appreciation for their creation. And I always think that I want to create a visionary art room in my house. Everything has a story, I want to tell some of mine. Who knows? Maybe someday I will do just that.

Unfortunately, as with most museums, we couldn't take any pictures inside. I did snap a few on the outside while bracing against the cold wind. You can see a few of them below.

Thankful Sunday--January 26, 2014

I am thankful for warmer temperatures.

After several days of single digit temperatures along with snow and ice, we warmed up to freezing yesterday.  With the record breaking cold temperatures we have been having along with most of the rest of the US, this was a welcome change. For this I am thankful.