Snapshots: A Giant Wedding

When I stopped at the dollar store for milk last week, I was highly amused by this contradictory gardening display outside the store.

Potting soil and extremely fake flowers? Pick your type of gardening, I guess.

My own garden, which is very much Not Fake, has been having a rough time of it this year. The complete lack of rain in the spring meant things didn't grow all that well and were still pretty small. Then we got hail a week ago that caused quite a bit of damage. I actually went to Tractor Supply when I was in town on Wednesday and bought some tomato plants. Literally a few hours after I planted those on Friday . . .

Those are the new tomatoes drowning in the row next to the ones covered with milk jugs.

That is a lot of hail.

Despite the beating they took, I think everything has enough growth still on it to pull through. I hope, anyway.

We were all watching that storm Friday night and wondering if the giant wedding we were supposed to go to Saturday was even going to happen. The bride was our agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. Her family owns a huge ranch down the hill, and that is where the wedding was. They invited over four hundred people, so everything was outside, and getting to the spot required driving several miles of dirt road.

Eldest was helping them set up, and he told us in the morning that the wedding was definitely still on, so we got all dressed up in the afternoon and went.

I should note that "all dressed up" meant we were following the dress code of "country formal/cocktail." And THAT meant starch, and lots of it. The boys all wore jeans and button-ups with their boots and hats, which was pretty standard for this wedding. The boys' teacher/bride is very insistent on them ironing carefully for all their FFA events, and middle son did his best ironing in her honor. I helped the youngest do his ironing. He'll be starting FFA next year, so he needs to practice now. Eldest thought he would have time to come home and get himself ready for the wedding, but didn't end up having time, so I ironed his clothes for him and brought them down when we went.

A. didn't wear western clothing, but I ironed his shirt for him, anyway. It was a lot of ironing, which I hate, but I love this teacher, and the wedding was worth it.

This ranch is in a spectacular location, and by some miracle, the extremely threatening storm we could see during the entire ceremony passed to the south of us without a single drop of rain at our location. 

We had to drive through a small river on the way there, but no big deal.

It was beautifully decorated and all the flowers were real.

I appreciated this very much.

I also appreciated the big tents for the reception.

The sun was out when we were eating, and it would have been very uncomfortable to have no shade for very long.

One nice thing about living here is that dancing is still very common. Everyone here learns to two-step, which is a very forgiving kind of dancing. You don't have to be good at it, as long as you can follow the flow of dancing and not get in anyone's way. The result of having a common form of dance that everyone learns is that everyone dances. Little kids, teenagers, adults are all out on the dance floor. It makes for a very fun wedding.

We didn't stay for all of the dancing, because by the time the special dances were done and the general floor was opened up, it was already almost 9 p.m. and we were all ready to go. Well, except Poppy. She LOVES to dance. We stayed for a bit so she could dance with her friend, and then A. and I each did one dance with her before she reluctantly agreed it was too late for her and we should go home.

The view of the party from the parking area.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Car Crisp

Friday 

Short version: Tuna mac and cheese, carrot sticks

Long version: I just made macaroni and cheese and added a big can of tuna to it. The cheese sauce had some of the American cheese we got from commodities, some sharp cheddar, and, at the last minute when I thought it needed more flavor, some Parmesan.

Saturday

Short version: Lamb chops at home, girl dinner on the road

Long version: This was the day Poppy and I went to our last parish church. We went into town before Mass, about 30 miles from the church, to get milk. We got this at the dollar store, and while we were there, we happened to see something called Talenti gelato layers. It looked really good, and Poppy said she was hungry, so we shared it.

We ate the whole thing, and that was our dinner.

At home I left a bag of marinated lamb chops that A. fried. I think they ate them with bread and butter, but I'm not sure about that. I am sure that they had vanilla ice cream, though, because Dad is fun like that.

Sunday

Short version: Salisbury steaks with milk gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen corn or Holy's cabbage, rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream

Long version: I still have quite a few pucks of caramelized onions in the freezer, which are very handy for things like the gravy. I still have a couple of bags of Holy's cabbage in the freezer, too, which are likewise easy.

I feel like this is a very Brady Bunch kind of meal.

I didn't have any strawberries, so the crisp this time was just rhubarb. I used the same topping with nuts and oats that I used on the last strawberry-rhubarb crisp I had made, but got a couple of comments that it's not the best for the rhubarb crisp. Noted.

I made the crisp earlier in the day and wanted to re-heat it a bit before dinner. However, it was in a metal pan, which meant I couldn't put it in the microwave. And it was hot enough that I didn't want to run the oven just for that.

But it was also hot enough for . . .

A dashboard oven. I felt very clever.

Monday

Short version: Beans and rice, leftover vegetables, peanut butter cookies

Long version: I just mixed together the rest of the leftover rice that had been cooked in the ham/bean liquid, plus the remainder of the beans with a bunch of butter. This was a surprisingly popular meal.

Tuesday

Short version: Chicken and rice, green salad with vinaigrette, watermelon

Long version: I took out a bag of chicken leg quarters, three of which I simmered until I could pull the meat off. I used that and the resulting broth, plus a bunch of the frozen caramelized onions, to make the chicken and rice. This has thyme in it also, and every time I make it, someone invariably mentions that it tastes like Thanksgiving stuffing. Luckily, they all like stuffing.

A. brought the watermelon home from town the day before. It was, of course, a watermelon with seeds, and it was very good. Hooray for watermelon season.

Wednesday

Short version: Jalapeno sausage, leftover chicken and rice, porky rice, raw radishes or bell peppers

Long version: I mostly made the rice because I had liquid left from the last time I made a pork shoulder that I wanted to use up. It works very well for adding to the water for cooking rice.

The children who are not enthused about sausage or spice had the leftover chickena and rice.

Thursday

Short version: Cottage pie, green salad with ranch dressing, ice cream with chocolate sauce

Long version: I was informed by my children that they will always eat salad if it has lots of ranch dressing on it. I don't typically make ranch dressing because I am the main salad consumer and I prefer vinaigrettes, but I guess that's good to know.

Refrigerator check:

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

Mission Complete

Poppy and I have been going to all the far-flung churches in our very spread-out parish for the past year. She wanted to see all of them. Most of them are quite old, some are very beautiful, all of them only have Mass once a month.

This past Saturday, we went to the final church. It's not that far from our house--about thirty miles--but it's in quite a dramatic location.

After turning off the paved road.

It's an adobe structure that was sheathed in local cut stone.

This is the only church in our parish that is privately owned. It is also the oldest church in our parish. The family that owns the ranch takes care of it.

Some of the older owners of the ranch are buried right under the church. Their tombstones are under the statue of Jesus there in the center.

Poppy and I climbed up to the rear choir loft, from which we had a good view of the giant pieta at the entrance to church.

Most of the grave markers in the surrounding old cemetery were hand-carved sandstone.

It was a good thing we had time to look around the cemetery before Mass, because this was what was coming towards us as we were going in to Mass.

Dramatic.

The storm hit during the Gospel reading. It was mostly over by the time we left, thankfully, and the dirt road was still passable.

And that's it. Our tour of the parish churches is concluded. It was fun, but I appreciate only having to drive ten miles to our regular church.

Snapshots: Looks Like Summer

Now that summer has arrived with its warmer overnight temperatures, I have to put my bread dough in the refrigerator overnight. And then I have to warm it up in the morning.

Putting it on top of the electric kettle after I've boiled water for my coffee works nicely, if a little precariously.

I cleaned my car out very thoroughly after our roadtrip to Arizona, including wiping down the interior and vacuuming everything. Vacuuming necessitated pulling the front seats all the way forward so I could get at the floor in the backseat. I was amused at how far forward my Honda's seats will go.

This must just be for purposes of access.

We have started getting good rain and everything is greening up, but it was too late for most of the wildflowers. There are some now, though, and I've managed a few small arrangements.

Yellow clover, silver nightshade, and whatever those small pink and white flowers are.

A. has been feeding our friends' menagerie again this weekend, so he brought me some below-the-hill flowers, too.

Despite our early drought, a couple of the rhubarb plants have been growing nicely, and I got a very nice harvest of rhubarb from just those two plants yesterday.

With which I made a rhubarb crisp before freezing some.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Wrinkly Potatoes

Friday 

Short version: Cheese pizza, ranch dip, raw bell pepper

Long version: The older boys were still gone at their FFA convention, so I only had three people eating pizza. That meant I could get away with just one half-sheet-pan pizza. It was just cheese.

Saturday

Short version: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green peas, mango-coconut popsicles

Long version: The quintessential Mom Meal to welcome back our weary travelers.

How you know Mom loves you.

The popsicles were a departure, and were solely the result of my getting an entire box of ripe mangos from commodities. They were very good mangos, but some of them were starting to get black spots on them. 

I used several of them to make the popsicles, which handily also used up the last half cup of coconut milk I had frozen after making Poppy's First Communion coconut cake. The recipe I quickly consulted called for two and a half cups of mango to one cup of coconut milk. Because I didn't have enough coconut milk, I made up the difference with milk, cream, and coconut extract. And then I added maple syrup until it seemed sweet enough.

Popsicles are very easy to make, but there is no way to cut up mangos that doesn't make a huge, sticky mess.

Juice everywhere.

They were very good popsicles, though.

Sunday

Short version: Leftovers, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: I had leftover Italian sausage, meatloaf, and the brisket my mom had sent home with me. I let everyone choose which meat they wanted, and then I portioned out leftover macaroni and cheese from a previous lunch, as well as leftover mashed potatoes. Plus some frozen peas.

I still use this recipe for chocolate pudding, but I double it, use half a cup of heavy cream and the optional cocoa powder, and split the chocolate chips between semi-sweet and dark. This makes a very good pudding. Sieving is also not optional for the best texture. This is unfortunate, because I dislike sieving anything, but it's worth it for pudding.

Monday

Short version: Cheeseburger casserole, leftover peas

Long version: A. came home with a bag of wrinkly potatoes from our elderly neighbor. I put them immediately in a big pot and boiled them whole, figuring if they were cooked, they would get used more readily.

They did. I used about half of them this night in a casserole that also included diced leftover meatloaf, grated American cheese we got from commodities, milk and cream, onion and garlic powder, and all the condiments for cheeseburgers. So ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.

This sounds suspect, but it was actually delicious and everyone loved it.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork, fried potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, rice pudding

Long version: I put a big pork shoulder in the oven early in the morning, along with the rice pudding, and let that cook most of the day. I just broiled the pork with rendered lard and spices, and the fried the rest of the boiled potatoes in more of the lard.

You'd never know they were sad, wrinkly potatoes to start with.

Wednesday

Short version: Ham and beans, rice, garlic bread, carrot sticks

Long version: The very large ham bone left from Poppy's First Communion meal was taking up a lot of room in my little freezer. And we had gotten three pounds of dried pinto beans from a couple different places. It was quite cool in the morning, which meant I could simmer all those beans with the ham bone comfortably.

This ham bone had more ham on it than most, which made for better beans, of course. I also added already-cooked onions, garlic, and tomato paste to them. And then I cooked the rice in some of the ham and bean broth. This made for a very flavorful meal.

Thursday

Short version: Pork fried rice, un-staled cookies

Long version: Leftover pork and rice, plus eggs, already-cooked onion, frozen peas, garlic powder, ginger powder, soy sauce, vinegar, and a bit of maple syrup.

I used all the rest of the rendered lard from cooking the pork in this, which was a lot of fat. Predictably, my family said it was the best fried rice I've ever made. 

Edited to add because I forgot to explain: The cookies were the chocolate chip ones I made before our trip to Arizona. I had thought the boys at home would eat the ones in the cookie jar, but I guess they didn't know they were there. They were a little stale, but perfectly fine after thirty seconds in the microwave on a plate under a damp paper towel.

Refrigerator check:

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

Room to Roam (and Park)

Although there are many things about the place I live that are markedly different from mainstream America, one that I am always reminded of when traveling is parking. 

Parking, you say? How can that be much different?

Well, let me ask you this: Do the places you park frequently have enough room to pull through in a crew-cab truck pulling a livestock trailer? No? Mine do.

Where I park at the bank.

Most places here--including schools, municipal buildings, and everywhere in the village--are set up that way because many people are driving such a set-up at any given time. That sort of thing can't be easily backed and turned, so pull-through parking is pretty much always an option.

I don't ever drive trucks with trailers, but I appreciate having parking set up for them. Back when I drove our 12-passenger van daily, I hated going into town and having to park in a small parking lot somewhere. So nerve-wracking to back that thing up in a tight space with cars hemming me in. But it's not something I have to worry about here.

Wide open spaces for cattle, people, and cars. Just the way I like it.

Snapshots: Desert Living

Of course these are all from our trip to Arizona. Because that's where I was most of last week.

I didn't have a chance to go to the grocery store ahead of this trip, so I didn't really have any particular traveling food. I made a completely ridiculous statement to A. that I could just stop for lunch at a fast food place. There were only three of us, after all. It wouldn't cost that much; it would be so easy; I wouldn't have to bring a cooler . . .

Yeah, sure. I was definitely fooling myself.

That was our lunch stop. We had egg salad sandwiches to use up the last few hardboiled eggs in the refrigerator. I also scrounged up the last of some deli ham, cheddar cheese, Triscuits, half a bag of tortilla chips, carrot sticks and radish slices, and all the candy the kids got on the last day of school. Oh, and the chocolate chip/oatmeal/peanut butter cookies I had made the day before.

It's always interesting to stay in rental houses. I encounter things I don't even know exist.

This is the microwave. It is a pull-out drawer. I was not a fan.

The first morning, I brought my coffee out by the pool.

Warm enough for bare feet, but still cool enough for jeans.

Then I got tired of listening to the humming of the air conditioning units and the frequent burbling of the pool as it cleaned itself and went back inside.

A good coffee spot.

After we got to my parents' house in Tucson, I actually went for a walk before I even had my coffee, so as to take advantage of the only time of day when I wouldn't have to walk in the merciless sun.

Light enough to see, but still no direct sun. Perfect.

Then I moved around the house to the various patios, searching for the best coffee spot.

This was the front patio, but it didn't have a particularly interesting view.

I eventually ended up on the patio right outside the back door, which has a view of the mountains. No picture, though. Sorry.

We spent much of our time swimming in four different pools. And when I say "we," I mean my children. 

Synchronized cannon balls with the cousins.

I don't actually like to swim, and I only got in my parents' pool once, for about five minutes. That was after I accepted a challenge to sit in my dad's cold-plunge tub for a full minute. The water in that is fifty degrees. That is very unpleasant. I did it, but I don't want to do it again.

He also has a sauna, which I also have no interest in.

Our last day in Tucson, we had many exciting events. First, my mother insisted we had to bring my car through a carwash. She said it was because the children would love it. I know it was because my country car covered in bug guts and dust was making her twitchy.

This is the first time I have ever gone through a car wash. It was an experience.

Next we went to play mini golf at a place that has been there since I was a kid. This was also my children's first time playing mini golf.

Golf 'n' Stuff has not changed in thirty years, God bless it.

And for one last new experience for Poppy and her brother, we went to a movie theater.

They were thrilled by the escalator.

And they loved the movie.

It was pretty funny. I enjoyed it, too.

One last lunch on the road . . .

Brisket sandwiches courtesy of my mom.

And we were home again.

There you have it! My Arizona life, snapshotted.