When Money Can Buy Happiness

At least, when a little money can buy a little happiness. Like this . . .

One of the extremely irritating places to me in my house is the pass-through. This is a spot where there were windows in the original trailer that became, well, glassless windows that lead into the added-on living room. 

There is a shelf there, and that is where our landline phone lives. Also the pencil sharpener, pens and pencils, tape, stapler, calculators, etc. It's basically like an office desk, which I do not have. 

That stuff was always all over the place on that shelf. Calculators spread out all around the phone, random pads of paper, pencils that had fallen out of the repurposed honey jars . . . It was a mess. All the time. And it drove me crazy.

Finally, and why this took me so long I do not know, I bought an organizer for this spot. I knew what I wanted to put in it already, so I looked for one that had the appropriate number and size of compartments. 

It cost me $25 and fifteen minutes to go from this:

Yuck.

To this:

Yay!

Of course, keeping it that way will require constant vigilance to put things away as they get taken out, but at least now I have somewhere to put them that is not just the general location of the shelf. And that is $25 very well spent.

Snapshots: Driving and Messes

Starting right off with a candle . . .

This one looked like a mushroom as it started to burn down, much to my amusement.

I spent much of Thursday driving. I was already planning on going to a basketball game, but then the meat processor called to tell us we could pick up our beef. This was not on the way to the game, at all, but rather directly to the east of the game. 

Our house is sort of the point of a triangle between the two towns I was going to, so I went first to the northeast to pick up the beef.

Over 100 miles of this . . .

To pick up this. I covered it with two sleeping bags to keep it frozen for the next six hours until I got home.

Then another 90 miles of this, due west.

And then about 60 more miles of driving after the game, but it was dark and I didn't take a picture.

I drove around 300 miles this day and never went through a town bigger than 3,000 people. The American West really does have some very empty places.

It's been warm the past few days, and I didn't even start the woodstove yesterday. It was nice to have a break from the mess.

Constantly sweeping up bark under the wood holder in the dining room.

And ashes from cleaning out the stove every couple of days.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Frozen Egg Product, Yum

Friday

Short version: Chicken and vegetable soup, omelets, crepe cake

Long version: While I was pulling everything out of the big freezer in preparation for defrosting and cleaning it, I found a carton of Egg Product.

Goodie's Frozen Egg Product, to be specific.

This was an extra commodities thing. I can't remember how long I'd had it, but certainly long enough that it was well past time it was used.

I tested it first by cooking a bit of it plain in a pan, to see if I needed to disguise it in baking. It was unpleasantly grainy looking when I put it in the pan, but after it was cooked, it was just like, well, scrambled eggs. Since that is pretty much what it is.

So I used some of it this night to make omelets. Those also had cheddar cheese and ham (from the freezer) in them.

I had made the soup with the leftover chicken thighs and bones, simmered to make stock and then I used the meat, too, of course. Also in the soup was some of the calabaza I had cooked and pureed this day.

 A gallon of it went into the freezer first.

The soup also had finely chopped collard greens, carrots, potatoes, tomato paste, frozen peas, and frozen corn.

Everyone got a bowl of soup and some of the big omelet I made. A slightly random combination, but it worked.

The crepe cake was the last two crepes in the refrigerator, layered with sweetened whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam. 

Saturday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, concessions food

Long version: I left the house at 12:45 p.m. with the basketball player for his game and didn't get home until almost 9 p.m. That's because Poppy was cheering for the varsity games, which were after our basketball player's games. I made a Spanish tortilla with the rest of the Egg Product, plus potatoes, ham, salsa, and cheese, before I left. Those at home had that. The children who came to the games with me bought various things at the concession stand. I think two had nachos and one had a smothered burrito.

I brought the rest of the chicken and vegetable soup in my Thermos and had that in between games. Plus some of the Spanish tortilla when I got home.

Sunday

Short version: Cottage pie, baked fruit dessert

Long version: Standard cottage pie, with the addition of some of the pureed calabaza and finely chopped collard greens that have been so handy to have in the refrigerator.

To make the dessert, I used one quart jar of canned pears and one of canned apple slices. I didn't add any extra sugar to that, just cinnamon and cloves. The topping was oats, brown sugar, flour, butter, walnuts, spices, and some oatmeal I had made the day before and oversalted. This made a topping that wasn't exactly crisp, but it was tasty. 

Dinner and dessert in pans.

I pretty much made that dessert just to use up that oversalted oatmeal in a palatable manner, which it did. Yay, me.

Monday

Short version: Sausage patties, pinto beans, chicken-y rice, collard greens or raw bell peppers

Long version: I used the Great Value sausage to make the patties. The pinto beans had just already-cooked onion, the last of some roasted garlic I had in the freezer, a little bit of chicken stock, and tomato paste in them. I didn't even have to chop anything to make them, which was handy.

The rest of the chicken stock was used to cook the rice.

Dinner on the stove.

This was the meal we ate by candlelight, because it was Candlemas. There was nothing particularly liturgically significant about the foods, but the candlelight was fun.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover cottage pie

Long version: I got home from First Communion class with Poppy, microwaved the leftover cottage pie, and that was it.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork, leftover rice, leftover beans, leftover collards, frozen corn

Long version: Another of the big pork shoulders, plus a bunch of leftovers. And frozen corn for the children.

Very brown.

Thursday

Short version: Burritos. etc. at home; Frito pie, etc. on the road

Long version: I went to an away basketball game in the afternoon. I left a mixture of pork, leftover beans, salsa, and spices for the ones at home to make burritos.

Before I went to the game, I went to the grocery store. In an attempt to get something relatively healthy that would tide me over until I got home, I bought an individual cup of Greek yogurt.

I assumed all Greek yogurt is full-fat. This was not. It was actually non-fat. Boo.

It was okay, but it would have been better with the fat.

When I got home, everyone was eating ice cream. I made myself some eggs. The basketball player wanted one, too, so I made him one. And then his brother wanted one, so I gave him one of mine. And then they each had a piece of bread with butter, too.

Refrigerator check:

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

A Day for Candles

I have talked a lot about my candles this winter. They have also featured quite frequently in photos here. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of those candles I've made from the stubs of blessed candles collected at church.

So imagine my delight when I discovered that yesterday was a day all about candles!

Specifically, it was Candlemas. I had no idea about this until A. and I showed up for daily Mass* in the village and we were handed candles for a procession before Mass started and told it was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

Okay . . .

I had to look this up. Turns out, this feast is always forty days after Christmas and it commemorates, as the name says, when Jesus was presented at the temple by Mary and Joseph, as was the custom for Jewish boys at the time. When that happened, Simeon, a man also at the temple that day, called Jesus "a revealing light to the Gentiles."

And that is where Candlemas comes from. It's all about light. In some countries, it's the end of the entire Christmas season. It's also a day when priests would bless candles. 

I didn't bring any candles to be blessed, since I didn't even know what day it was. But I already have blessed candles in my house, thanks to the ones I made. So I decided it would be fun to have a candlelit dinner to celebrate Candlemas.

The children were very enthused about this. They thought we should turn off every single light in the house so it really would just be the candles illuminating the table.

A., however, really dislikes dim light at the table. The idea of eating by just candlelight was not really to his taste. I compromised by leaving lights on in the living room and kitchen and just having candlelight in the dining room.

And then I had double the candles for the bookcase in the living room.

I'm not sure I'm going to remember this every February 2, but it was fun this year, anyway.

* It's not actually daily, because we only have one priest to cover a lot of churches. So the "daily" Mass is only Monday and Wednesday mornings.

More Rime

I woke up yesterday morning before the sun, as always, and as I was putting my very curly hair into a bun, I thought, "Huh, my hair seems poofier than normal."

That would be because we were in the middle of a frozen cloud. Again. 

I got great amusement out of the fact that my hair is a barometer for humidity.

That cloud stayed around almost all day, unusually, which meant a rather gloomy day. Good thing I have so many candles to burn in the living room now!

See how the top half-inch of that candle is lighter than the majority? I did that on accident when I melted purple wax but didn't have quite enough to fill the molds, so I put some more white candles stubs in with the remaining purple wax to melt and then poured that on top of the wax already in the molds. By the time I got the lighter wax in there, the darker wax had solidified enough to make layers.

I don't know that I care enough to do it on purpose, but it was kind of neat. 

I go to bed as soon as I read books/pray/etc. with the kids at 8 p.m. They stay up to read until 8:30. This means that I go to sleep before my children. The other morning, I woke up to find that they had apparently been throwing the furniture around while I was in bed.

Come on, now.

That folding table is right next to the spot where the one boy typically reads with his feet up. I guess he just knocked it over, and all the books on top of it, on accident with his foot. Which, okay, but the question of why he didn't pick it up was the obvious one, and the one I put to him when he got up in the morning.

No satisfying answer was forthcoming, but he did pick it all up in the morning.

Incidentally, here's the backstory to that cheap wooden folding table. In 2002, I moved to New York with A. I left my job at the Arizona State Senate when I moved, and my co-workers there gave me a gift card to Bed, Bath, and Beyond as a going-away gift. I used that gift card to buy that table, which was our telephone table and one of the very few pieces of furniture in our first apartment for a long time. 

That makes that table 24 years old. It's lasted longer than the actual store it came from, because I think Bed, Bath, and Beyond closed all its stores a few years ago.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Soup and Sandwiches to Start

Friday

Short version: Chicken sandwiches, baked beans, carrot sticks, baked rice pudding

Long version: I simmered one of the roosters still in the freezer until I could pull the meat off. For that meat, I made a vinegar-y barbecue sauce and served that in sandwiches. 

This plate was A.'s brother's plate when he was a toddler. Poppy still uses it.

I had cooked a pot of pinto beans in the morning and used some of them to make baked beans. They were in the oven with the rice pudding. 

I was mostly making this for the son who had the flu. He was down and out with a fever all day, and in the end ate nothing but a little of the rice pudding for dinner. The sick boy prefers his rice pudding without raisins. I had actually made a triple recipe with no raisins in my 10"x15" pan, and then made another double recipe in a 9"x13" pan to which I did add raisins. 

That is a LOT of rice pudding. We had leftovers, for I think the first time ever. So I guess I just need to make a quintuple recipe every time, right? Yeah, right. My family wishes.

Saturday

Short version: Beef and bean chili, cornbread, leftover rice pudding

Long version: This was a very cold day, and chili seemed like a good meal for a very cold day. I make mine with ground beef and pinto beans, plus a lot of pureed calabaza to thicken it. I used some of a container of lamb stock from the freezer in the chili, too. 

Sunday

Short version: Ham and potato soup, leftover cornbread, leftover baked beans, raw bell peppers. chocolate fondue

Long version: This is not typical of my Sunday dinners, which tend to be more elaborate than this. I just couldn't come up with anything I was really enthused about cooking. I did have a lot of rooster stock on hand, though, and some ham I had frozen last time I cooked one. So, I made the soup and then just supplemented with the various leftovers.

A leftover kind of Sunday.

I wasn't motivated about making a dessert either. My fall back in such a situation is chocolate chips microwaved with a bit of coconut oil to make a dip for marshmallows. I had some peanut butter cookies in the cookie jar, too, which are also good dipped in the chocolate, so everyone got to choose.

Monday

Short version: Pizza grilled cheese, more baked beans, carrot sticks, chocolate chip cookies

Long version: My plan had been to make actual pizza, but the dough was rising too slowly in our too-cold kitchen. So instead, I used the grated asadero cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni I had out to make grilled cheese sandwiches. These are actually delicious, so it wasn't too disappointing.

The chocolate chip cookies--which also had peanut butter and oats in them--were this week's snack cookie for the younger children at school, but no one minded eating them at home, either.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork chops and gravy, mashed potatoes, collard greens, still-frozen peas, crepe cake

Long version: The thin "assorted pork chops" are definitely much better when dredged in an egg wash and seasoned flour and then fried. And served with gravy. But then, what isn't?

Gravy is delicious, but it is not photogenic.

In advance of the very cold weather last weekend, I harvested the rest of the collard greens. It took me a over an hour to get them all harvested, washed, chopped, and in the freezer.

Ready to freeze.

Now I have lots of prepared greens ready to go, though. I still had some of the liquid from A.'s Asian-ish pigs' feet in the refrigerator, which is very good for cooking collard greens. Greens are always good with any kind of pork product, and this particular liquid is slightly sweet, which helps to balance the slight bitterness of the collards.

We had quite a few crepes left when A. made them after church last Sunday. I used three of them to make a crepe cake by layering them with sweetened whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam. A nice treat for a random Tuesday.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken thighs, roasted potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, green grapes

Long version: I went to Walmart this day, where I bought a package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Those I salted heavily a couple of hours before dinner. This helps with the texture and flavor of store chicken, which is definitely lacking. Then I coated them in a spice mixture of more salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, chile powder, and brown sugar before roasting them. Potatoes in the oven with the chicken.

We often only get sad, soft grapes at our end-of-the-supply-chain stores, so I always try one in the produce section before I buy them. These were good, crispy grapes. I bought them, and the children were happy.

Thursday

Short version: Beef and bean burritos, raw bell pepper or cooked collards

Long version: I had just about a cup of cooked ground beef that needed to be used up. I combined it with a can of black beans and used that, with cheese and salsa, to make toasted burritos in flour tortillas. This was enough only because one child came home from school with a headache and an upset stomach. Boo.

Refrigerator check:

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

A Thing I Learned

I discovered something interesting during this latest period of cold weather: I have touchscreen gloves.

I have to admit that I didn't even know these were a thing. I knew my usual gloves don't work on my cell phone to take photos of whatever, but I had no idea why. And I also have no idea where I got these gloves that do work with a touchscreen.

Gloves of mysterious origin. With hay on them, because I was feeding animals.

Poppy saw these gloves and asked me why some of the fingertips were white. I had no idea. But then, when I went out to walk the dogs* and wanted to to take a picture of the rime, I found that the white fingertips of these work on my cell phone screen.

Photo taken with gloves on.

As was this one.

This got me wondering why these gloves work with a touchscreen. What is it about a bare fingertip that registers with a touchscreen, but a typical gloved fingertip does not? And these gloves did?

A. theorized that it was the light color on the gloves' fingertips that the phone was picking up on. Eldest, however, looked it up, and it turns out that touchscreens pick up on our skin's natural electrical conductivity. So there's actually a charge going from fingertip to phone screen, which is blocked by normal gloves.

Touchscreen gloves, however, have conductive material in the fingertip to continue that charge from fingertip to phone. You can even make your own touchscreen gloves by sewing conductive thread into the fingertips of whatever glove you want.

I just thought that was cool. Always nice to solve a mystery, however small.

* When we have very cold periods like this, we move the dogs' crates from the sheltered but unheated shop into A.'s minimally heated office. They're not in there all the time, but enough that they have to be walked out of the property for potty breaks occasionally. This means that the only time we have to walk dogs is in the very worst weather. It's very dramatic.