Resistance Training

When I go to Walmart for my infrequent grocery shopping, I end up with a completely full cart every time. As I wheel it around the store, filling it with twenty-five pounds of flour, five gallons of milk, ten pounds of cheese, ten pounds of ground beef, and on and on, the cart gets progressively heavier and harder to manage.

By the time I reach the produce department at the end, the cart is so heavy and unwieldy that I can't even turn it without going around to the front and hauling it around to face the direction I need to go. It's also quite difficult to get going again from a full stop and requires some real effort to keep under control so I don't let it get away from me and mow down one of the many senior citizens that like to stop and chat next to the bananas.

This could be classified as a weapon.

Last time I was there and struggling with this behemoth, I was wondering--with some envy--why no one else seemed to be having to expend so much effort just to get around the store. There was a lady in front of me in one aisle whose cart was just as full as mine, but she was pushing it with only one hand. In contrast to me, with both hands on the handle and my legs and core fully engaged in shoving this great weight through the store.

And then I realized that her cart mostly had packaged things in it. Things like cookies, crackers, and bread.

Light things.

And what's in my cart? Meat, dairy, vegetables. Things with very high proportions of water weight. And in great quantity. I don't know how much the contents of my carts end up weighing, but it's got to be over a hundred pounds.

This is why by the time I do make it to produce, I just park the cart and leave it there while I take my purse with me to gather the last few things. I suppose it's possible someone might try to walk off with it, but none of it has been paid for yet. And whoever tried would probably injure themselves trying to make off with it. 

This Walmart actually has a pick-up option, so I suppose I could order everything online and then just sit in my car while it was loaded for me, but then how would I get my workout in? 

Snapshots: Changing Seasons (and Decorations)

As soon as we change back to Standard Time in November, plunging us back into blackness at dinnertime, I put up my Time Change Lights.

They look a lot like Christmas lights, except it's not Christmas, so that's not what they are. (And I don't know why my camera changes the lighting all photos so much. These are much more yellow in real life.)

I wind them around the decorative iron divider between the kitchen and dining room. They brighten that area up considerably. That's also where the woodstove is located, so it becomes an oasis of warmth and light in the middle of the house.

The heart of the home, you might even say.

Anyway.

The younger kids went to our elderly neighbor Ms. Amelia's house to stack firewood for her, and she sent them home with this truly bizarre Cheetos product called Bag of Bones. They're cinnamon/sugar flavored corn crisps, I guess? Cheeto texture, but definitely not Cheeto flavor. Very weird.

Also, they're in the shape of, well, bones. The boys just crammed them into their mouths. Poppy made this.

Cheeto skeleton.

The Halloween decorations have been taken down, and the Thanksgiving decorations--such as they are--have been put up.

The flock of turkeys in the living room.

And the bonus turkeys, which include two one-eyed turkeys. I call these the Odin turkeys.

I made the 90-mile drive to Walmart on Tuesday.

Still lots of snow, but thankfully not on the road.

I had been charged with buying deodorant for the boys. They told me what kind they wanted, and that is why I actually bought something that looked like this:

Hmmm.

I must note that when I got home and showed this to A., he said, "That's cool." So I guess Old Spice knows what they're doing.

I had a busy morning in the kitchen on Thursday.

Cookies, chocolate syrup, and Yorkshire Jane's green tomato chutney.

Also Aunt Belva's pickled beets, chicken broth, and pureed roasted tomatoes.

There are still some tomatoes in the box of ripening ones, but that's it for fresh garden produce.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: The Bull is Done

Friday 

Short version: Bull enchilada casserole, kohlrabi

Long version: I did it. Just over four years after we butchered our neighbors' bull, I have finally finished all the meat from it. The reason it was so challenging is because it was so lean and tough. It needed a lot of processing to be edible, and had to be used in the right preparations.

But I finally finished it. YAY, ME.

The kohlrabi was one my sister got at her farmers market in Colorado and brought to us. It is HUGE.

Paring knife for scale.

When I showed it to the kids and told them is was a kohlrabi, one of them replied matter-of-factly, "No, it's not." Like, OBVIOUSLY, you're punking us, Mom. 

They all thought it was a cabbage. It is actually the size of a cabbage. But it is definitely kohlrabi. A very good kohlrabi, too. Thanks, sis!

Saturday

Short version: Tuna/salmon patties, garlic bread, pickles, pumpkin roulade

Long version: I had been planning on having leftovers for dinner, but those all got eaten at lunch, so opening cans it is. Two big cans of tuna, one of salmon, made into many patties.

I had made the garlic bread when I was baking bread the day before, figuring I'd find some use for it. And this was it.

I made the pumpkin roulade--also known as a pumpkin roll--just because I had been meaning to try one for like two years, after one of the teachers at school mentioned it's her favorite cake. I had never heard of it before she said that, but I do make a chocolate roulade every Christmas, so the idea of a pumpkin one was intriguing. Lord knows, I have enough squash on hand at all times.

That teacher has now taught three of my children--Poppy is currently in her class--and her birthday was Friday, so I figured I could make it and give some to her at church.

I used Ina Garten's recipe, and I actually doubled it and made two. I had to substitute cream cheese, sour cream, and more whipping cream for the filling, plus I had no candied ginger, so I just left it out. 

I thought it was too sweet. Almost everyone in the family loved it, though. The only abstainer was the one child who doesn't like pumpkin desserts of any kind.

Making two of these was incredibly messy, mostly because of the powdered sugar.

Powdered-sugar-coated towels, waiting for the cake part.

I didn't cut these very cleanly, and the lighting is terrible, but there it is.

I gave half of one to the teacher and we ate the other half of that one this night.

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, butter-swim biscuits, maquechoux, roasted carrots, the other pumpkin roulade

Long version: We had a guest with us for dinner this night, so I put a bit more effort in than I typically do. Serving pork ribs--a notoriously messy meal with my children--was maybe not the wisest choice on a night when we were joined by someone coming to our home for the first time, but she's a very sweet lady who likes kids, so it was fine. And the children were very careful.

I tried something new with the biscuits, in an effort to avoid the continual passing around of butter at the table. I used this odd recipe for buttermilk biscuits (except I used yogurt in them, instead) that have no butter in the actual dough, and instead are baked in a pan with a ton of butter melted in it. They were very good, although the texture was much different than my standard baking powder biscuits. More dense, almost like cake. Everyone liked them, although some declared allegiance to the lighter biscuits.

Also, after some discussion about the name, which I thought was very nice, the children somehow decided they should be called "butter-bloat biscuits." I do not think they have a future in marketing.

I haven't made maquechoux in years, but I did have some peppers and tomatoes from the garden still, and some frozen corn. It's not quite as good with frozen corn, but still delicious. Although the combination of the fatty ribs, butter-bloat biscuits, and the stick of butter in the maquechoux made for a very heavy meal.

The carrots at least were just roasted in olive oil. I used some of the blanched and frozen carrots, which worked, but they take a really long time to brown. I guess because of the liquid that comes out after thawing. I should dry them off more thoroughly.

The second pumpkin roulade for dessert.

Monday

Short version: Daddy burgers, leftover maquechoux and carrots, rice pudding

Long version: The last time A. went hunting with one of the boys, he bought ground beef, American cheese, bacon, ketchup, and white bread, and made bacon cheeseburgers every night for them to eat while they were camping. He wanted to re-create that at home for the other children, so he bought all the same stuff and made them at home.

Very exciting for the children to have a giant sandwich for dinner. 

I had made the rice pudding the day before while cooking the ribs, just because when the oven is on that long, I always try to cook more than one thing. And it was a nice treat for the basketball player, who started practices this day and loves rice pudding more than anyone else.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover ribs, chicken drumsticks, rice, carrots, rice pudding or jello

Long version: I went to Walmart this day, and I had been planning on getting a rotisserie chicken, as I usually do mostly so I can eat the drumsticks on my long drive home.

Except they didn't have any. Boo. So I didn't have anything to eat on the way home, and I had to buy raw drumsticks to cook for dinner.

The children had the drumsticks--and roasted and coated in this barbecue sauce--and A. and I had the ribs, because we don't much care for drumsticks.

There was just a little bit of rice pudding left, and also some of the lemon jello I had made for a sick kid.

Wednesday

Short version: Beef and bean burritos, kohlrabi, peaches and cottage cheese

Long version: I saved about a pound of ground beef on Monday for dinner Wednesday, just combining it with cooked pinto beans from the freezer to make burrito meat. This made juuuust enough meat for everyone to have burritos. And some people who were still hungry had the cottage cheese and (store) canned peaches for a second course.

Thursday

Short version: Battered fish fillets, roasted potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, cookies

Long version: We had a taste-test this night between the store-brand Food Club fillets and the fancy Gorton's fillets. 

The contenders.

I didn't tell everyone which was which. Three people liked the Gorton's fillets. Two liked the store-brand fillets. And the people who liked the Gorton's ones better said it was just because they weren't as crispy. So maybe they just needed to bake longer. 

I guess I'll be buying the store-brand ones from now on.

I didn't vote, because I didn't eat any. I don't like fish much.

Refrigerator check:

Quite full.

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

The End of an Era

Okay, that's an awfully portentous title for what is actually not that big of an announcement: I'm going to buy a clothes dryer.

Some of you may not have been aware that I don't have one, but I don't. I haven't had one for about four years now. This is absolutely doable in New Mexico, where it's sunny and dry almost all year. Even in the winter, the sun is strong enough to dry clothing on the line during the more-limited daylight hours.

Easy line drying in the summer.

Except not always. 

Several times a year, we have weather that makes it very difficult to get clothing dry outside for a week or so. Sometimes that's because of rain. Sometimes that's because of snow or ice. There is also the incredible wind in the spring, which can be strong enough to actually rip the clothing where the clothes pins hold it to the line. 

An example of a winter clothesline.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the best days to hang clothes outside. Should I hang them on the pasture clothesline, which is more exposed to sun and wind, or the backyard clothesline, which is surrounded by a board fence for protection from the wind, but where the woodsmoke drifts in the winter? Also if I have to work that day, can I get them hung up before I leave for work, or should I leave them for A. to hang when he gets back from the bus run? And if I leave them for him, will they have enough time to dry or will I end up having to hang them around the woodstove to get all the way dry overnight? Which clothes are the ones I should wash first? Who's out of pants? Who has a uniform that has to be dry by a certain day?

It was all starting to contribute too much to my mental load, which feels kind of heavy most days anyway at this stage of my life.

So, one day while I was sitting at work, looking at the weather forecast and thinking about all these things, I decided that the time had come to buy a clothes dryer and silence this continual mental plotting.

This will most certainly not be the end of my line-drying our clothing. I will still line-dry most of the time, even in the winter. But it's a nice thought that when there is literally two feet of snow on the ground, I will not have to put on my snow boots and dig a path to the clothesline to hang laundry.

Luxury, indeed.

Snapshots: So Much Snow

First we had a brief little blizzard on Monday afternoon that only dropped a couple of inches. Enough for a very pretty sunrise while I was on my way back from dropping off the eldest kid at his church confirmation class.

Sparkly.

The big storm started Wednesday night. The wind was howling all night, which meant some impressive sculpted drifts. I woke up to this on Thursday morning.

The autumn window decorations my sister brought us seem out of place in this scene.

It kept snowing and snowing, for two days. Because we knew this storm was coming, our school was online Thursday and Friday*. One boy's teacher told them they could build a snowman for extra credit.

Done.

The snow finally stopped around 2 p.m. on Friday. It's hard to say exactly how much we got, because of all the drifting, but at least a foot. It was heavy, wet snow, too. All of our vehicles were snowed in in the driveway. There was a funeral scheduled at church on Saturday morning, for which I was supposed to be taking care of the church, so I started digging out the Honda.

I shoveled for half an hour or so before calling on my crew to take over.

Many hands make light work, right?

Well, maybe not light exactly, but lighter.

A. came out at the end to finish shoveling out to the road. It hadn't been plowed, but a couple of trucks had been down it already, so there were some tracks to follow. 

Tracks in the morning light. You'd better not try this in a low-clearance vehicle, however. That ridge in the middle was at least a foot high.

And if you want to go the other way out of our gate, too bad.

Saturday morning featured a lovely sunrise as the sun rose in a clear sky over the snowy pastures.

Wintery.

Also frozen water troughs that needed to be broken out.

I used a shovel (and wore A.'s boots).

The sheep will eat snow, but they wanted their hay.

A. actually drove me to the pavement on the main road--only about a quarter mile--which was completely cleared, just to make sure I didn't get stuck. Then he walked home and I brought one of the boys with me to church for the funeral. He was altar server, and also helped me shovel out the church.

Thankfully, the village plow guy had mostly plowed the front of the church clear, so we just had to do a little shoveling in the front. Then I shoveled a path from the sacristy around to the front door of the church, so our priest could process down the aisle.

I made it only one shovel-width, so they had to be careful not to go off the path.

Despite the wintery weather, it is still autumn.

Pumpkin and apricot leaves in the snow.

There you have it! My (extra-snowy) life, snapshotted.

* We don't typically have school on Fridays, but we had to make up for Election Day, which the state of New Mexico this year required be a day off for every school in the state.

Friday Food: Snowy Days

Friday 

Short version: Chili/rice skillet, toast

Long version: We had our All Saints Day Mass at 5:30 p.m. and we had to leave early and stay after since I'm Church Lady this month.

That's why we ate early, at around 3:30 p.m. I just heated up leftover rice and chili with cheese for our before-church meal. And then when we got home around 7:15, the kids all had some toast before bed.

Saturday

Short version: Christmas in November

Long version: In an attempt to make a meal that would result in leftovers, I pulled out a whole ham from the freezer and baked that, along with a pan of scalloped potatoes. This is typically what I make for Christmas dinner, but there's no law that says I can't make it other times, I guess.

The worst part of scalloped potatoes is cutting all the potatoes thin. There's really no easy way to do this, but I've decided I'd rather use my knife than the mandolin blade on my cheese grater. I hate that thing.

Anyway. It made a lot of food.

It also made some really awful dishes to scrub, which is the second-worst part of scalloped potatoes.

This was not actually Christmas, however, so our vegetable was just pickled carrots. And I did not make a dessert. Heaven knows there's been enough sugar consumption in our house since Halloween.

Sunday

Short version: Pizza, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: One full half-sheet-pan of pepperoni, one cast iron skillet of cheese.

And no Sunday dessert. The kids had been eating from their personal candy bags all day. They definitely did not need a dessert.

Monday

Short version: Ham and rice skillet

Long version: We actually got home two hours early from school thanks to a snowstorm, so I could have cooked something more involved than my planned leftovers in a skillet+cheese. But I stuck with my plan, which was just to dice leftover ham and fry it in lots of butter, then add leftover rice, frozen peas, some onion powder, and grated cheddar cheese.

This then gave me time to crawl into bed and hibernate for an hour or so while the wind blew snow and sleet against my window. Way better than sitting in my office listening to that and worrying about the state of the roads. Hooray for early release on a snowy afternoon.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb ribs, baked potatoes, pickled carrots

Long version: We really have very little meat left in our freezer, which is why I'm now unearthing and using things like lamb ribs. I just marinated these in olive oil, vinegar, salt, and garlic powder, and the cooked them covered at a low heat for awhile. 

I didn't even try to cut them into individual pieces, which is only possible with a cleaver and some aggression. A. had cut them into pieces of about four or five ribs each when we were butchering, and I figured that was small enough for everyone to gnaw the meat off.

The potatoes went right in the oven with the ribs. And the pickled carrots are popular with everyone. I guess I should've made a bunch more jars of them when I was dealing with the avalanche of carrots. Next time.

Wednesday

Short version: Sloppy joe sandwiches, potatoes, cucumbers with ranch dip

Long version: I went directly from work to the parish hall to set it up for a funeral reception, which meant I didn't get home until about 5 p.m. Thankfully, I already had some buns I had made when I was baking bread on Sunday, as well as ground beef in the refrigerator. So I made sloppy joe meat with the beef, already-cooked onions from the freezer, and ketchup, vinegar, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce (I don't have any ready-made barbecue sauce on hand at the moment).

There were a few servings of scalloped potatoes left, and one baked potato. So I chopped and fried the baked potato and apportioned out the various potato preparations to bulk up the sandwiches a bit.

The cucumber was the last Armenian cucumber from the garden. Well, except for the several jars of pickled cucumbers in the refrigerator. 

Thursday

Short version: Leftover lamb ribs, hamburgers, baked beans, cornbread, pickles

Long version: There were quite a lot of lamb ribs left over, which I re-heated in the oven while I was baking the cornbread. This time I put some barbecue sauce on them, too, which A. tells me I should always do.

I had just enough ground beef left to make four small hamburgers, so those of us who are not enthused about lamb ribs had those.

I made the baked beans from pinto beans mostly because it was snowing and blowing all day. It seemed like an opportune time to simmer beans for a long time. And then I baked them while the oven was on to bake gingersnaps.

I'm leaning kinda heavily on the pickles-as-vegetable thing lately. These were cucumber pickles.

Refrigerator check:

Pickles on display on the bottom shelf: sauerkraut, carrots, and cucumbers.

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

A Non-political Poll

We have a poll of great import today, and it has nothing to do with the presidential election. It may be divisive, however, so I'm asking everyone to please remain respectful. 

The question at hand: What is the best Halloween treat? 

I am of course thinking about this because we've had the Halloween haul in our house for the past week, and it's always interesting to see what everyone chooses to eat first.

So much to choose from.

One son goes right for the Skittles.

One will allow no one to touch his Reese's.

Another can't choose and eats indiscriminately.

And Poppy? Her favorite was this weird novelty thing that looked like a paint roller and was rolled over the tongue.

A. has a great fondness for popcorn balls, which are a packaged thing I had never seen before moving here. He will also eat all the sour things, chewy things, and generally non-chocolate things that I always considered the garbage candy. He even likes Laffy Taffy, which is sort of inconceivable to me.

As for me, I'm mostly with the Reese's kid--particularly Reese's Pieces, although they are rare--but I do love Hundred Grands, which don't really seem to be a thing anymore. I don't think any of the kids got any this year.

Luckily for me, I seem to be particularly sensitive to chocolate that picks up the taste of other candy, which happens when they're all jumbled around in a bag. The chocolate will taste a bit like the lollipops or whatever, which I find disgusting and which keeps me from eating it. No one else seems to notice this, though, so I guess that's just me.

So tell me: What is your favorite Halloween treat? And bonus question: Do you notice that weird flavor transfer to chocolate in a mixed bag of candy?