Friday Food: Who Needs the Name Brand?

Friday 

Short version: Pre-made jambalaya

Long version: It was very handy that I had that jambalaya I had made the day before that no one ate. I ended up being away from home during our usual dinner time with one child, so A. just heated up the jambalaya and everyone ate before we got home.

Saturday

Short version: Potato and ham gratin, still-frozen green beans, asparagus

Long version: I had frozen some of the ham from Easter, which I used to make Julia Child's gratin. Except I didn't really follow the recipe very closely, one big change being that I never have Swiss cheese, so I used cheddar. It's a good recipe, though. The worst part is grating the potatoes. I used my food processor, so that I could then use it to puree green garlic, which also went in the gratin. Or maybe the worst part is wringing the liquid out of the potatoes in a dish towel. Little shreds everywhere.

Anyway! A good final product.

Asparagus from the garden? But of course.

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, garlic bread, Poppy's salad, pots de creme with cream

Long version: I had two racks of spareribs that had been in the freezer for awhile, so I pulled those out to cook on a cool day when the heat from the oven would be helpful rather than punishing. I was also baking bread this day, hence the garlic bread.

I felt okay in the morning, but by afternoon, my upset stomach was making me not happy, so I turned over the salad making to Poppy. I already had washed lettuce--from the garden, yay!--in the refrigerator, cherry tomatoes, and already-made vinaigrette on the counter. So all she had to do was tear up the lettuce, cut the tomatoes in half, shake the dressing, drizzle it on, and mix.

She was very proud of her salad and served it to everyone herself. A. served everything else.

Thankfully, the pots de creme had been made in the morning when I was feeling okay, so everyone could just pull their own little bowl of it out of the refrigerator and add cream. This self-serve situation meant that some had as much cream as pots de creme, but whatever. Life is for living, right?

Monday

Short version: Cinco de Mayo chips and salsa, leftovers

Long version: This is definitely the lamest way I have ever "celebrated" Cinco de Mayo, but it was a work day. I did have some tortilla chips on hand, which is unusual, so I put those out before dinner with some salsa and wished everyone Feliz Cinco de Mayo.

And then I heated up ribs, the ham and potato gratin, and jambalaya so everyone could choose their own dinner of leftovers.

Tuesday

Short version: Ham and rice skillet, some ribs

Long version: I ended up subbing at school this day, so for dinner, I diced the last of the ham and made a skillet of food with that, leftover rice, already-cooked onion, and frozen green peas. 

There were a few ribs left, which had gotten kind of dry with re-heating, so I made a barbecue sauce for them with ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.

Wednesday

Short version: Toasted burritos

Long version: Yet another work night, and no more leftovers. I took some ground elk out of the freezer and made lazy taco meat when I got home. This means I don't chop onion or garlic. Instead I dump in salsa and spices. 

This time I had some pureed green garlic in the refrigerator, so I used some of that, which gave some good flavor. And then I used that meat, plus cheese and canned black beans, to make toasted burritos in flour tortillas.

No vegetable. I just didn't.

Thursday

Short version: Archery snacks, clam chowder, rotisserie chicken, Twist and Shouts

Long version: One of the boys has been doing archery with his class all year, and they had an archery party after school so the families could all see what they've been doing, and also try shooting the bows. They had some snacks out--cheese and deli meat, crackers, chips, vegetables and fruit--which the three children with me availed themselves of quite freely.

A. made some Snow's clam chowder when we got home for himself and anyone else who wanted it, which was pretty much all of the kids. 

I had bought a rotisserie chicken when I was at Walmart earlier, and some people had some of that. I had also bought the Walmart store-brand version of Oreos--named, unfortunately, Twist and Shout--to try. They are literally half the price of Oreos, so they would have had to be significantly different to justify buying the name brand cookies. And they weren't. Different, I mean. Except for the fact that the cookies themselves were somewhat smaller than Oreos, I really couldn't tell a difference. Good to know.

Refrigerator check:

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

An Annoying Truth

Remember that little throwaway line I had a couple of weeks or so ago when I mentioned my hands and feet were slightly swollen and painful, so that's why I wasn't running? This caused some concern among the parents--as in, mine and A.'s--because that can be a symptom of some more-serious problems.

What was actually happening was that mostly my hands were tingly and going numb overnight, which was annoying because then I would wake up and have to massage one or the other of my hands back to life. They sort of hurt, too, as did my feet a bit. 

I otherwise felt okay, though, so I did what I typically do with random symptoms like that: I monitored myself--paying attention to my heart rate, energy level, mobility, etc.--and waited to see what would happen, meanwhile mulling over possible causes and ways I could make it better.

One of the things I did was ask A. to massage my hands and feet. You should know that this was a great act of bravery on my part, because A. has incredibly strong hands, and his sort of massage is more like deep-tissue massage than a gentle rub. It is undeniably effective, however, so I gritted my teeth and presented myself for treatment.

Although he did massage my hands and feet, he also moved on from there to my arms, calves, etc. And that is when he found something very interesting: I had bands of muscle reaching from my pectoral muscles--in my chest--to my fingers, and also from my lower back to my toes, that were so tight, he could barely touch them without extreme pain on my part. 

The diagnosis from A. was that stress was causing me to constantly hunch in on myself, curving my shoulders down and shortening the muscles so much that those muscles were pulling painfully all the way to my hands. 

Bad posture also had a bad effect on my lower back, which was tightening the muscles all the way down to my feet, but I think that tightness was more caused by the fact that I hadn't been running. And when I am not running, I am sitting more, which is very bad for my hips, legs, etc.

It had been at least a month since I had been running--or even walking--regularly, thanks to a cold that then turned into a persistent cough. After about two weeks of that, I was definitely out of the habit of running. And once I get out of the habit, it's very easy to make excuses to not go. 

I am not someone who exercises because I love it. But I am, clearly, someone who exercises because I need to do it to be mobile and functional.

And so, knowing that it would be Not Fun to get back into the running groove, I put on my purple shoes and started again last week.

Although they look less purple and more gray here.

That first run was . . . slow. I think the best word to use for it would be "ponderous." The second run wasn't much better. But my body? It is much, much better. About a week of A.'s authoritative massage, consciously straightening myself up and stretching out, and starting to move again has completely fixed the tingly hands and feet.

Running can be painful, yes, but not as painful as not running. So annoying. But true.

Snapshots: Garden, Books, and Candle

Last Sunday, I asked our priest what I should do with the remainder of the Paschal candle that we replaced this Easter. This candle had been blessed, and blessed items can't just be thrown away. They're usually burned or buried. He told me some people take the candle home and finish burning it there. Poppy happened to be with me to overhear this, and she was all about it. Which is why we now have a home altar in our living room.

The flowers were Poppy's touch. Her mother's daughter, that one.

I am now in Watering Season.

Flooding the collard greens.

Odin kept a close eye on me through the gate.

I am also now in Salad Season. Hooray!

Featuring lettuce, arugula, green onion, and asparagus from the garden. And an egg from the chickens. Plus some other things from the store.

Too bad I've had a touchy stomach for a few days that would not be happy with this much roughage. Oh well. Soon.

We are now six for six on voracious readers in the house. The younger children typically read on the couch, which is why the couch usually looks like this.

Literary clutter.

And last, I finally made it to a track meet last week, only for it to be canceled because of lightning after about an hour.

Very dramatic view from the track for that hour, though. Also, very windy and cold.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.