Busy Day

Oct. 16th, 2018 09:29 am
lydamorehouse: (crazy eyed Renji)
 Today has started out busy and is going to remain that way.... a lot of it is a GOOD kind of busy, but still busy.

This morning, after dropping everyone off at their various locations, I rushed home to meet our Rainbow Tree arborist, Lieben, who I was consulting regarding some of our "trash trees" in the back.  One of them, an elm, has decided to grow over where the power line connects to the house and over our garage. We would never want to trim that close to a power line ourselves, but this is made extra difficult for WHOEVER undertakes it because our garage roof is deeply unstable. Plus, since he was coming, we're going to have him trim back some of the maple tree branches that are brushing up against the house. 

Rainbow Trees folks remember us because, when they accidentally over trimmed our front maple tree, Shawn called them in TEARS. Trees are very important to Shawn. She doesn't come off like a tree hugger, but she really actually is. 

So, this was a very intense, serious consultation, because they DO NOT WANT Shawn to call in hysterics about her trees.  

Then, I had to quick run to Kowalski's after Lieben left because last night at around 8 pm, Mason informed me that his robotics team was having a potluck and we were on the hook for something. I offered vegetarian chili, and so, after Naomi and I go to the farmer's market, I'm going to whip that together and bring it over in a crock pot around 3:00 pm.

Of course, when I was at Kowalski's, I forgot to pick up cash, which I will need for the farmers market. The days are numbered for the market and I want to be sure to get some good veggies--I particularly love farm fresh potatoes. My family doesn't much eat veggies, but I still like to put them on the table for myself, if no one else.  

After all that, tonight, Shawn and are are headed into downtown Minneapolis to meet up with Shawn's cousin, Kerry, who Shawn hasn't seen for about 20 years. We're going to have a late night dinner with her, since she's in town for a conference.  Shawn two brothers--Greg and Keven, who both also live in town--bailed.  So, it's going to be the three of us (we're leaving Mason to subsist on his pot luck food and a ride home from his GF, Rosemary.) Shawn did a tiny bit of cyberstalking on her cousin, so we'll see how the registered Republican rolls with the married lesbian couple. :-)

lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
 We're all sitting around at home waiting for the pizza delivery guy to show up from Davanni's.  It's a pseudo-celebration (also no one liked my dinner plans for tonight, which were going to be potato soup and popovers*) because we stopped off at the Science Museum to get Mason's paperwork done. He came home with an official KAYSC lanyard and badge. His first official day of work is Saturday. I can not WAIT to hear how it goes.

Besides that, the most interesting thing that happened today was that Naomi and I went to the Farmer's Market. We actually go fairly regularly on Tuesday mornings.  There's one in Roseville in the parking lot of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church that runs from 8 am to noon.  I try not to go overboard when I shop there, because my family is not super crazy about veggies. But, I couldn't resist the green beans, jicama (which I was meant to share with Naomi, but she forgot her half), potatoes, lettuce, and a bouquet of flowers for Shawn. I should really bring my camera next time, just because I think half of my impulse buys are based on how pretty everything looks.  Maybe if I took pictures I could resist spending money on food that only I will eat.  I think I still have leftover daikon, sweet potatoes, green onions, and a lovely giant eggplant from two weeks ago.

This was always the problem with the CSA, too.

I'll eat it all eventually, but my family will ingest very little of it, alas.

I think I'm talking about all this mundanity because I can't stand to think about the travesty of justice that is the whole nomination process of Brett Kavanaugh... especially since resistance really feels futile in this circumstance. The Republicans have stopped pretending like they care and we're in the minority.  I just don't see how this isn't going to end up as a done deal and it's making me feel helpless and soul-crushed. If anyone out there has some advice for survival techniques let me know? I was looking through volunteer opportunities thinking that maybe I might feel better if I were somehow more engaged in triage--stuff on the ground that will make real world/real life differences to people's lives. Yelling on the internet isn't cutting it for me. 

Probably we'll get through this, but I sure would like the revolution to start soon.


---
*I should note, this will likely be tomorrow's dinner. Everyone was just in an "tonight?" mood about it.


lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
 Look, don't judge, okay?  Sure, it's 9 am, but I've already been up for four hours and borscht looks really good to me right now.  I'm sure there are places in the world where stew for breakfast isn't _that_weird. In Japan, I could have miso first thing in the morning and no one would blink.

When I have borscht again for lunch in another few hours? THEN you can judge me.

What can I say? I really like beets. And cabbage.  But, especially beets. Borscht is one of the few times in my life where I look at a stew and think: "Are potatoes REALY necessary???" (If you knew the depths of my love of potatoes, you'd be pretty shocked right now.) I've also accidentally made this particular borscht recipe without cabbage and I still loved it.  I don't even put beef in my recipe, so it's just kind of a giant mess of beets and spices.  

Okay, I'm judging myself: pathetic beet lover.

If you're curious, I got this recipe from the St. Paul Farmer's Market Produce Cookbook, 2005 edition. It's from Evelyn Kaiser, and it goes like this:

5 cups of water
1 1/2 cups beets, peeled and diced
1 cup potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup carrots, peel and diced
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp utter
1 onion, chopped
2 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup of green cabbage, shredded
1/2 put of tomato, chopped (or one can of diced tomatoes -or- one can of tomato sauce. Not being a huge tomato fan, I use either of these.)
1/2 cup beet, peeled and grated
1 tsp. dried dill (and a sprinkling of fresh, if available.)
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
salt and pepper (I add a beef bullion or two instead of the salt, because I like the meaty undertone that gives. Plus any bullion is super salty so I can skip any of the added salt.)

The rest reads:

Bring 5 cups of water to boil ad add diced beets, potato, carrots and salt (or bullion, in my case).  Reduce heat an cook covered over medium heat for 30 minutes or until vegetables are soft.*

In saucepan, heat butter and sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add the cabbage and sauté for 3 minutes. Sir in tomatoes, grated beets, and remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add sauté mixture to boiled vegetable. Simmer for 10 to 20 minutes until vegetables are tender. 

*adding the potatoes at the same time as beets often ends with completely mushed potatoes. I would recommend dropping them in 10 minutes later or so, IF you want firm and not completely pulverized potatoes. I suspect this is why the recipe suggests peeling them. I'm usually throwing things into the pot that I've gotten from the farmers' market THAT DAY, so it seems silly to peel the potatoes.... until I forget i should have waited and end up with mush attached to skin. The other option is to skip them entirely, of course, though, despite all this, I rarely do that.  Probably because I feel guilty admitting that what I really want is a giant bowl of boiled beets and the potatoes makes me feel like I'm making a stew.

:-)

I have served this to others and have been met with mixed results. Beets and cabbage are definitely an acquired taste.  It's hard for me to tell if this recipe is as good as It think it is, since literally it could read: peel and dice beets, boil until tender, add salt, and I'd be like WHAT IS THIS WONDEROUS CONCOCTION??

Milage may vary.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Mason has started taking swimming lessons again. He had a breakthrough this last summer, when he spontaneously figured out how to back float on his own. He's had lessons on and off throughout his life (starting in a baby class when he was only six or eight months old,) but he's now got a certain amount of confidence that may have been previously lacking. He was FEARLESS with the kickboard/back float they had him do on Saturday morning. I could hear him shouting from across the pool, "I can do it on my own!" And he did. He was so good, in fact, that the instructor, who follows along for safety, had a hard time keeping up with him.

Of course, this was the first and only time Shawn skipped. The nice weather has been playing havoc with her sinuses, sometimes triggering migraines, so she stayed home at my insistance when she said she was feeling a bit under the weather. Of course, wouldn't you know it? Saturday was also the day that they let the kids jump off the diving board... in the deep end!

Mason has been doing cannon balls off our friend Gerriann's dock all last summer, but the diving board was a bit more intimiating. Even so, he did extremely well. Only a little hesitant, and no one had to push/drop him in. I'm only sorry Mommy missed it, and I didn't think to bring my camera (what? Usually they do the same stuff over and over again! How was I supposed to know?)

I had to take the cat, Deliah, to the vet after swimming class where we got the startlingly good news that the diet seems to be working! My personal theory is that the cats so HATE the dry food that they only eat the 1/4 can of wet they get every day... with only a few nibbles of the dry when they're desperate, but hey, if it works, this is good.

The rest of Saturday was spent preparing some furnature my folks brought up on Friday. I spray painted a foot stool -- it was a dingy brown wicker, and now it's shiney white! Yay! Shawn stained a battered wooden cabniet, and I picked up some fun drawer pulls from Menards (shape of... a frog! Form of... a leaf!) I also took advantage of the nice weather and mowed and did a bit of yard work. We topped the day off with a cook out of brats and hotdogs!

Sunday I hung out with Eleanor as part of the St. Paul Art Crawl. Wyrdsmiths purchased a table, but, it turned out, none of us really wanted to staff it all weekend. Eleanor would have been able to do it, but, by chance, she had family in town until Sunday. So we compromised by agreeing to just have the table on Sunday and not bothering with a reading or anything else. I misunderstood the time things started and showed up about forty-five minutes early, so instead of hanging around twiddling my thumbs I wandered over to the St. Paul Farmer's Market. Of course, I ended up buying fresh dill and cucumbers, as well as some handcrafted soaps. I don't think we had many visitors to our table, but it, for me, at least, turned into a very nice afternoon.

I was very impressed with the St. Paul Farmer's Market. I'd never been. (I know, for such a stalwart St. Paulie, you'd think I would have.) I think I was expecting the chaos that is the Minneapolis Farmer's Market and so shied away. I wish I hadn't waited so long! It's really quite managable. I think even Shawn, who has been known to faint in large crowds, might enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere of the St. Paul Farmer's Market.

Otherwise, I don't know much. How's by you?

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