Category Archives: Food

Daily Snippets, Food

Really Ready

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Today I did something kind of funny but kind of scary at the same time. I decided to fry an egg for a late breakfast, so I put a pan on the stove and turned on the heat to start warming the pan. Then I went upstairs to get a pair of slippers because my feet were cold. While I was upstairs I found a basket of clean towels that needed folding. Of all the laundry, towels are the thing I hate folding *least*, so I thought to myself, “what the heck, might as well fold these towels while I’m up here.” As I was folding I was thinking about how cold I’ve been feeling, and remembered that we had an electric blanket stored in the hope chest near our bed. So, I decided to dig that out and give it a go, bring it downstairs to see if it still worked.

And that’s when I smelled it. It was very subtle, but I have a keen sense of smell so I pick up these things. It was a definite smell of HEAT. Oh, dear lordy I left the stove on!! In a near panic, I headed down the stairs – cautiously but quickly – to be sure there was no catastrophe (i.e. FIRE) going on the kitchen.

And thankfully, there was no fire. Not even a scorched-to-hell frying pan. Just a really hot, really lonely, really ready for the egg, frying pan. I turned the stove off, removed the pan from the hot burner, and headed back upstairs to finish with my derailed train of thought activities.

It turned out fine, but I really need to be more careful. New rule: Stay in the kitchen while I’m cooking. That, or just stick to fruit smoothies. Far less dangerous!

Deafness, Domestic Engineer, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Visually Impaired

Why the crockpot is my new best friend

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This is not to diminish the value of my friendships with real people, because I have a lot of pretty amazing friends, but by golly, I am really loving my crockpot this year (I’ve had it a whopping 16). The internet holds a wealth of information and ideas for what you can make in these things, and I’m finding plenty of healthy, tasty meals.

But here’s why I’m really learning to love the crockpot – it allows me to work around my fatigue and still manage to feed my family. The fatigue that MS causes has really been kicking my butt hard this past month, and by 1 pm (even after a morning nap) I’m pretty slogged (not sure if that’s a word but it sounded good). By 4 or 5 pm, after getting the kids from the bus stop and handling the flurry of that excitement, I’m close to non-functioning. Which makes dinner prep rather difficult.

Case in point: It is almost 7 pm. We ate dinner already (tacos!!) but I’m feeling the munchies so I went into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal (granola, actually). I pulled the granola from the cupboard, the milk from the fridge, and set both on the counter. I then got a bowl and poured the granola into it, and proceeded to put both the granola back in the cupboard and the milk back in the fridge.  Notice anything missing?? I walked all the way back to my bowl of granola, ready to eat, and discovered I had forgotten to pour the milk.

It’s really frustrating, feeling so… I don’t know, lacking in ability to perform simple tasks, I guess, and pretty damn powerless to change it. But I’ve been faced with lots of things, big things, that I cannot change. If I have learned anything from these big, unchangeable things, it’s that I do still have a choice. And that choice is to accept it, adapt, and move on.

The crockpot means I can prepare a delicious, healthy meal for my family early in the day, before I get fatigued. I refuse to give up and feed them frozen pizza every night. So, for what it represents and for what it allows me to do, the crockpot is my friend. The thing is old enough to drive now (a wedding gift), but I suppose using it for a ride to the store would be asking too much. We’ll just stick to food preparation for now 😉

Food, Funny story, Kids

I hate cooking

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Today my daughter stopped coloring to read a book. While that was happening, I was in the kitchen preparing potato soup for the crockpot – thoroughly *enjoying* dicing the potatoes. I was seriously relaxed through the whole process and was mildly disappointed when I ran out of potatoes.

And then I’m pretty sure I saw a pig fly just outside my kitchen window.

Books, Food, Piper

Shalom

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I have done almost nothing today. I mean, no real work or housekeeping or other responsible adult type of activities. Here was my day so far:

  1. Morning preparations: fed the kids breakfast, packed lunches, made coffee
  2. Took the kids to the bus stop – get this, it’s a 2 minute walk. TWO!
  3. Read a book while Piper slept at my feet. (Piper is the dog, in case you’re new here)
  4. Fixed my morning smoothie with banana, strawberries, and blueberries.
  5. Took Piper outside and played fetch.
  6. Had lunch – made a sandwich on buttered toast with leftover tomato, green pepper, onion, and fresh basil. It was surprisingly yummy!
  7. Finished reading the book (a Grisham novel…The Racketeer. Not his best work but it still kept me entertained).

Mixed in with all of that was some Facebook browsing and texting with a friend. Not much else. So it’s been a long overdue lazy day, I guess. I still have an hour before I’ll leave to meet the kids at the bus stop, and I haven’t decided how to spend it. Getting bored is kind of unnerving for me. I think I’ve forgotten how to relax.

Now, lest you get all envious of my luxurious life of no job and no responsibilities (sort of), I feel like I should remind you that what I have here is a trade-off. Multiple sclerosis, sudden deafness, visual impairment. So while it is nice on days like today to be home, I still have my regular struggles. I am extremely grateful to be home for my family and I am also extremely grateful to be able to rest when I need it. Today was a day of rest. Shalom.

Food

Frittata First

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Since moving in to this new house, I’ve used the stove and oven for simple foods a couple times, but tonight I did some real cooking for the first time. Now real cooking for me is nothing compared to what my dad and sister can do with food, but I can do some meals well enough. Tonight was a frittata, made with bacon and green pepper. These ingredients were just what I had on hand, but they also happen to be my two favorite pizza toppings. Needles to say, I found it delicious. Hubby was happy too, but the kids didn’t care for the green pepper (shocker).

It was different using an electric range, because I’ve used a gas stove (and loved it) for well over a decade. This one that came with the house has a glass cooktop, which looks nice but is a pain in the rear to clean. It also takes longer to heat up, and may not cook as evenly, but it wasn’t enough of a difference to bother me. The real test will come when I bake my famous chocolate chip cookies!

Food

Frittata for the win!

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Tonight I made a frittata for dinner. If you don’t know what that is (I didn’t, until my sister described it to me) it’s basically an omelet, but without the tricky flipping. It’s eggs, milk, cheese, meat and veggies if you want ’em. It cooks in a pan, and is then finished off in the oven (or just put a lid on it and keep it on  the stove), and it kind of ends up looking like a breakfast pizza (incidentally, two of my favorite things… breakfast and pizza). I usually just use what I have on hand, so today’s frittata had sautéed red pepper and green onion, and ham and cheddar cheese. Simple, delicious, and fairly healthy!

This happened to be my third attempt at a frittata, but it was the first time I did it without incident (i.e. I didn’t scorch my hand pulling the pan out of the oven). It was also the first time I made it for my family to eat, so I was a tad nervous, since they all tend to be their own brand of picky eaters. Guess what? They all loved it! They weren’t necessarily begging for seconds, and Luke didn’t care for the red peppers, but the fact that no complaints were made (Luke was happy to pick out the peppers and continue eating) and my husband went back for seconds are both good signs of a winner in my book.

I just wish I had taken a picture for you 😦 Maybe next time!

Decluttering, Food, Memories

Cookbooks galore

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Declutter project #1 – Cookbooks!! This should be an easy one. I barely used cookbooks when I could see well, and with the loss of vision I have dropped off the cookbook wagon. There is a wagon, isn’t there?

Out of all these cookbooks shown below (list to follow for those who care), we only use one: The Mrs. Field’s Cookie Book (image #2). We use it on a regular basis, and mostly just for one recipe, chocolate chip cookies. However, my son has developed a love for baking, and he has tried a few different cookie recipes from the book on his own. Just yesterday he made peanut butter cookies. So yummy, and so worth keeping the book. As he gets older I expect him to get a bit more adventurous and try some of the fancier cookies. Because Momma loves cookies.

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These books are going bye-bye:

  1. DeWitt Community Cookbook (Girl Scout Troop 183)
  2. Favorite Recipes of Hartford United Methodist Church
  3. The Four Ingredient Cookbooks (Three Cookbooks in One!) – this has a crap-ton of simple, yet dated recipes. Who eats “company beef”? It doesn’t even sound good.
  4. Saving Dinner – This includes meal plans and shopping lists, and I actually got quite a bit of use out of it in the early years of marriage, before the kids came of course 😉 It introduced me to meal planning, which I still do, only now I use the internet with websites such as Cozi, Allrecipes, etc..
  5. The  George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine Cookbook – I don’t even think we have the grill anymore. I’ll find out soon enough when my decluttering project moves to the kitchen cupboards!
  6. The Color Book of Cheesecakes – is this mine? Where did this come from??
  7. Betty Crocker’s New Dinner for Two Cookbook (1971) – clearly an antique. Could I donate this to the historical museum?
  8. Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola – I used to be a collector of all things Coke, more on that later…
  9. Coca-Cola Cool Recipes – again, remains of the collection
  10. Campbell’s Simply Delicious Recipes – I used this a lot, and it has some great tasting, easy recipes, all of which you can find online now.
  11. Easy Cooking with Brand Names – I have no comment here. It’s pretty, but I don’t think I ever used it. It’s just a nice looking book.
  12. Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook – Everything You Need to Know to Cook (1996) – this was a wedding gift, I believe. I must have used it once or twice, because I have a post-it note flagging the page with the banana bread recipe: “stick butter, buttermilk”. Crap, now I opened it to read the note and felt an overwhelming nostalgia that’s urging me to keep it. The struggle is real, folks. Must… let… it… go!
  13. Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook – I think this one actually belongs to my sister. Yup, there’s a note just inside the cover. Definitely not mine, and definitely doesn’t fit in my kitchen. It’s huge!!

That’s my list, and I wrote far more than I anticipated. I have other things to do, like feeding the children. It’s time for lunch!!

Coffee, Food, Kids

Donuts in the park

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Monday the kids and I walked to the local Quality Dairy for coffee, hot cocoa, and donuts. It was a leisurely mile long walk. Natalie had her vanilla frosted donut with sprinkles, Luke picked a glazed knot of some sort, and I chose the apple fritter, leaving the custard filled long john for another time.

On the way back home we stopped at the defunct elementary school and sat on a picnic bench in the shade while we ate our donuts and finished our drinks. We had nowhere to be, the whole day ahead of us. We chatted about the week ahead of us as we scarfed down our pastries. It was a beautiful morning, just getting warm but with a nice breeze. The kids were happy, I was happy, we were all happy just enjoying each other. It was beautiful. A memorable day for sure.

This school, which is less than a half mile from our house, is the school Mike attended as a child. The building is not used as a school anymore, but they still hold community events there, and they keep the grounds clean and groomed. There are swing-sets, basketball courts, tennis courts, monkey bars, and more. All this time we have lived here I have not become very familiar with the school, but I plan to this year. This year I am healthy and lucid enough to take the kids there, and the kids are at the perfect age to enjoy it. I plan to spend many more summer hours there with the kids, this year and hopefully every year after. We can go in the morning before it gets too warm, we can go around lunchtime and have picnics, and if it gets too hot, we can just walk on a little further to the Quality Dairy and get ice cream to cool ourselves down. It’s perfect, really. I can’t believe I’m just now discovering it, but I’m not going to waste it now.

Food, Kids

Taco night

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Growing up, my family had our own traditional way of preparing tacos. It was one of my favorite things. One of the unique things about our taco nights was that we would fry our own corn tortillas in hot oil on the stove. Not great for the arteries, but super delicious.

My husband and I both love tacos. We made tacos “Selleck-style” for years, but soon grew tired of the mess. Also, babies came along. Those babies are now young children, and have grown to share in our love for tacos too.

Along the way we’ve created our own tradition of using the leftovers (meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, sour cream) to make nachos the following day. Taco Night is therefore always followed by Nacho Night. Knowing this, I always prepare the fixings and put them in plastic, re-sealable containers. It makes clean-up a breeze, and makes Nacho Night that much easier. It’s my little stroke of genius, and it only took me a year to come up with it.

This last time we had tacos, after I finished eating, I asked everyone if they had had enough to eat. They all replied yes, so I began putting the tops on all the food containers. As I was snapping the last one into place, this exchange occurred:

Natalie (shouting): NOOOO, I want another taco!!!
Me (sighing): Really??
Natalie (now calm and collected): No.

That girl. She loves to make a joke, and her timing is impeccable.

Food, Miracles do happen, Photos

C is for cookie

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I have always loved baking. When I got sick and lost vision, I stopped. It broke my heart, really. But patience and courage prevail! Every day I’m improving, and every day I’m taking tiny steps toward regaining some independence and enjoyment in life.

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Hence, the cookies! Chocolate chip cookies, made with love. Yesterday’s batch using old secrets was terrible, so today I tried something new. And you can see from the photo, I couldn’t wait to try one. It was perfection. Simply perfection. Got milk?!