Friday Food: In Which I Can't Take the Heat

Unfortunately, I couldn't entirely get out of the kitchen, but I sure did my best to stay out of it as much as I could.

Friday

Short version: Life-saving pork, rice, broccoli

Long version: We got back to Blackrock at 5:30 p.m. after our arduous moving experience at our rental house to find that the MiL had prepared dinner. She had marinated country-style pork ribs in soy sauce and fresh ginger, then baked them with chopped garlic scapes.

The rice was plain, the broccoli was steamed, and that meal pretty much saved me and A. Both of us needed some strengthening after a whole lot of physical labor and not a lot of food in a 36-hour period.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, leftover rice, cucumbers with vinegar and salt, mashed winter squash

Long version: Yes, we had winter squash in June, and no, I do not live in the southern hemisphere.

See, what happened was, the kids went into the Secret Stair as soon as we got to Blackrock, as children will always do with a secret stair. In the Secret Stair, Charlie discovered a Jarrahdale pumpkin the MiL had stored there last fall and then forgotten about.

That tends to happen on the Secret Stair, as I well know myself.

It looked remarkably good, so the MiL halved it and cooked it in the oven before we entered our Hell Week of temperatures over 90 degrees every day. Unfortunately, she was gone in the evening when it was done, so I took it out and apparently it was slightly underdone. And then we didn't want to run the oven for a long time again, because Hell Week had begun. Oops.

So I put some of it in a Pyrex dish with a lid and microwaved it with a little added water and bunch of butter. It was fine.

I ate the leftovers cold on Sunday morning, which sounds like it would be gross but was actually very satisfying on a hot, steamy morning when hot food is very unappealing.

Sunday

Short version: Tuna salad, tortilla chips, green salad, rolls

Long version: It was hot. Tuna salad is not. Neither are tortilla chips, salad, and the rolls from the communion bread the MiL had baked for church the day before. The perfect meal for imperfect weather.

And here we have the perfect baby. Well, except for that whole "teething and not sleeping" thing. I could do without that.

Monday

Short version: Too hot. Much, much too hot.

Long version: My plan was for Italian sausage and fried potatoes, but it was 98 degrees that day and it rained right before dinner, which only caused the kitchen to feel as if it had been transplanted to the tropics. And not in a good way. I refused to stand over a skillet that was spitting grease for half an hour.

I made scrambled eggs, microwaved some tortillas with cheese, cut up some of the white carrots* Charlie had picked out at the farmers market, and called it dinner. No one complained.

This one might have some complaints about her shirt. Luckily, she can't talk yet.

Tuesday

Short version: Italian sausage, fried peppers/zucchini/onions, crispy garlic scapes with starchy peas, boiled new potatoes, salad, raw pepper and cucumber for the boys

Long version: It was really still too hot to be frying things, but the sausage needed to be cooked and it was at least not as hot and humid as the day before. The vegetables were all bits of things I found in the refrigerator. Not a lot of any one thing, but taken together they all made a satisfying dinner.

The peas were starchy because they were the last pods the MiL gathered before pulling the plants in anticipation of the heatwave. They were fine stir-fried with the scapes, though. I guess that cooking method is better than steaming or boiling for overly mature peas.

One benefit of the excessive heat is that I don't have to worry about under-salting my food, as the sweat dripping down my face at every meal provides plenty of seasoning right there at the table. So convenient.

Wednesday

Short version: Fried eggs, fried leftover potatoes, carrot sticks, leftover vegetables

Long version: Jack and I were the only ones eating, as the MiL was going to a party, Charlie was sick, Poppy still refuses anything but Mother's Milk, and A. and Cubby were in New Mexico.

I had considered making pasta, but thought better of boiling a big pot of water in an already-steamy kitchen.  Eggs again it is, then!

I let Jack help me stir around the potatoes in the skillet and also cut the eggs on his plate with a butter knife, so he didn't notice that this was a total cop-out dinner. The Klondike bar he had for dessert helped, too.

A festive Fourth of July porch picnic for breakfast, before Charlie wilted and the rest of the day kind of sucked.

Thursday

Short version: The heat won.

Long version: Once again, Jack and I were the only ones eating. I had taken a ham steak out of the freezer, but when the moment of truth came, I just couldn't make myself turn on a burner and start cooking. So we ate crackers, and summer sausage, and bread and butter, and yogurt with black caps, and it was fine.

Today is the first day in a week that we don't have a heat advisory. It's going to be a chilly 74 degrees. Maybe I'll actually manage to produce something worthwhile in the kitchen. Here's hoping.

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

* Which never fail to make me think of Bunnicula, and thus always amuse me.

Scenes from a Blackrock Summer

Eating snow peas picked from the garden . . .

Playing in the woodchuck wading pool (a.k.a., the utility sled) . . .

And trying desperately to stay cool.

Some Relief

Man, yesterday was a challenge. After the last-minute rush of getting A. and Cubby on the road by 9 a.m., the MiL and I took the remaining kids with us to the dump and then to the farmers market.

I was so exhausted from the previous two days of moving and not sleeping that I kept just dozing at random times throughout the day in whatever chair I was sitting in at the time. Also, yesterday was the first day of hot weather, and I sweated all damn day, often with one or more children on my body who were also sweating.

But!

I turned on the upstairs air conditioner in the afternoon and took a shower after I (fiiiinally) got the children to bed. Poppy was up a few times last night, but because I was able to get to bed before 11 p.m.--unlike the previous two nights--and stay in bed until 6 a.m., I actually got some sleep.

The MiL took Charlie and Jack to church with her this morning. Poppy fell asleep about half an hour after they left. I made some yogurt, hung up my laundry on the clothesline, and am now sitting in the air conditioned parlor eating a stir fry I made entirely of leftovers I found in the fridge (pork, garlic scapes, broccoli, rice, and the sauce from the pork).

I am cool. I am clean. I am somewhat rested. I am eating an uninterrupted and delicious meal. And it is quiet.

A balm for the soul. Amen.

Keepin' It Rollin'

The Great Western Move of 2018 continues.

When you move, you really want to get all your stuff in the back of the truck, drive to your new house, and unload it all. Even that is a challenge, but you add in an infant, two pit stops for more unloading and loading, AND a nail in the moving truck's tire, and you have one hellish move.

The nail was in the tire when we picked the truck up from Enterprise. A. noticed the soft tire (but not the nail yet) and asked them to check on it before we took the truck. They filled the tire, but didn't see the nail. A. saw it two hours down the road when we were stopped at a gas station.

Four hours later (nationwide chains are not my favorite), we finally had a new tire. This meant that instead of getting to our house in the north at 2 p.m. to load the truck, we got there at 6 p.m. And then spent the next five hours loading the truck (mostly A.) and finishing packing the house, plus cleaning (mostly me).

For those keeping track, that meant we worked until 11 p.m. And then Poppy inexplicably decided she was done sleeping for awhile exactly as we moved the mattress into the living room to sleep at 11:05 p.m.

So basically, there was no sleep on Thursday night.

At six the next morning, we were back at it, finally finishing up in a mad rush at exactly 11 a.m. The truck was completely full and not all that carefully arranged*. We booked it back to Blackrock (no nails this time, hooray), getting back at 5:30 p.m.

After a life-saving dinner the MiL had made--food was not the priority during our northern moving blitz--we started unloading a third of the truck with things that are staying at Blackrock. But first we had to take out all the miscellaneous things that had been piled in front of the rugs and beds and A.'s work papers that had to come out. And then we had to put all those miscellaneous things back in.

I say "we," but it was mostly A., while I dealt with our frankly hysterical children and tried to direct A. regarding what was staying and what was going.

He finished at 9:30 p.m.

At 9 a.m., he and Cubby started off for their drive to New Mexico. They're due to stop in Wisconsin at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning to pick up furniture at my aunt and uncle's house, before continuing to New Mexico.

I will not be there to help with the unloading, obviously--and I can't say I'm sorry about that--but I contacted the secretary at the school to ask if there were any high school kids who might want to earn some money helping A. with the furniture that requires two people. She gave me the number of our neighbor, who has both a husband and a son who can help.

Yay for small towns.

So the moving continues, although my part of it is over for now. Until we get to New Mexico and I have to unpack all the very-hastily "packed" boxes and bags, and find places for it all.

But I won't think about that now. I'll think about it then.

Godspeed, A. and Cubby. May the road rise up to meet you and the nails stay out of your tires.

* One reason it was so full is because when you move from a rural area, there is no leaving things for the trash collection or for free for neighbors. Not enough neighbors and no trash collection. It all, including the bags of garbage, had to go in the truck.

Friday Food: The Moving Edition

Friday

Short version: Grilled Italian sausage and onions, grilled bread, green peas

Long version: I had already done the serious scrubbing of the stove, so I was trying to minimize kitchen cooking. Grill to the rescue!

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, tortillas with cheese (and deli ham, for those who like ham), carrot sticks

Long version: Cooking until the bitter end, yes. This was our last family dinner in our house up north.

Sunday

Short version: Car food

Long version: We were driving at dinnertime, so everyone ate some combination of the peanut butter bread, cheese, apples, peanuts, cashews, carrot sticks, Fritos, and lollipops I had packed for the car trip. Thus, no one was hungry for the ham, rice, and (garden!) peas the MiL had waiting for us when we rolled up to Blackrock at 7:30 p.m. Although Cubby did manage a plate of rice and peas at about 8:30 p.m.

He's a good eater, that Cubby. Also, bedtime? What bedtime?

Summertime rules for kids.

Monday

Short version: Steaks, potatoes, crispy garlic scapes, green salad

Long version: Three broiled steaks, a big pot of boiled potato chunks (purposely making enough for leftovers), and a big mess of garlic scapes sauteed in olive oil until they were a little crispy.

Crispy garlic scapes are a happy thing. So, so good.

The salad had lettuce from the MiL's garden, and beets and cucumbers she got from the farmers market here. It's nice to be back in the land of easily obtainable vegetables.

Tuesday

Short version: Signature skillet casserole, leftover steak and rice

Long version: Can I claim to have signature skillet casseroles now after outlining my famous chicken skillet casserole*? Sure I can. This one was diced onion, leftover ham, carrots, leftover garlic scapes, rice, and cheddar cheese. Tasty.

The leftover steak and rice was for Charlie, who is not a ham eater, but then A. ended up finishing all the leftovers of both meals, so I guess it was a good thing we had both.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, fried leftover potatoes, cucumbers

Long version: We were supposed to tag along with A. for errands in the Small City and then eat at the Chinese buffet (gross, but everyone but me likes it). But then Charlie wasn't feeling great, so A. went and we stayed home. Thus, last-minute food it is.

Thursday

Short version: Grocery store rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh mozzarella

Long version: A., Poppy, and I left Blackrock at 7:30 a.m. to pick up the moving truck and drive up to our house up north to load it up.

The moving crew at the optimistic beginning of our journey.

We were supposed to arrive at the house around 2 p.m. Thanks to a nail in a tire (I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT), we didn't make it here until 6 p.m. We stopped at a grocery store on the way to get the store-prepared chicken and potatoes, plus the mozzarella for A.

The food wasn't very good, but it was far from the worst part of the day.

We're still up north, and we still have things to put in the truck. I have some anxiety that it's not all going to fit, though I suppose it will just have to. Allll the fingers are crossed.

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

* Famous because someone (hi, Linda!) actually made it based on the sketchy description I gave of it, and, even more amazing, actually liked the result. I'm pretty sure the Food Network will be calling me for my own show any day now.

As If We Never Left

Laundry on the clothesline . . .

Deer bones on the front porch . . .

Mulberries on the tree (and Charlie's face) . . .

Squirrels in the attic . . .

 And children on the lakeshore.

Yup. Definitely back at Blackrock.

Here's the Plan

The house is mostly packed up. I even brought most of the stuff out to the barn already, so we can just back the moving truck up to the barn and wheel it all up the ramp. Theoretically. I know there will be a few boxes of randomness that I'm gonna just throw in at the last minute, but hey! I mostly did it, while working around insane end-of-year school craziness and four little kids and all their incessant needs.

Where's my medal?

So here's what's going to happen*.

Today I got all the suitcases packed with the clothes we will need for a month at Blackrock.

Tomorrow morning we're going to get the cars all packed up and ready to go before church. After church is over at noon, we'll come back to the house to pick up the geriatric collie and then hit the road for Blackrock in both our cars.

We'll be at Blackrock until Thursday, during which time I will be packing up yet more things that never made it up to this house.

Early Thursday morning, me, A., and Poppy will leave the boy children with their Grandma and pick up the moving truck to bring it up north, load it, clean the house, and go back to Blackrock on Friday. (That all sounds so simple in that one sentence. It will not be simple.)

At Blackrock, we'll unload the things that belong there (mostly rugs), load up the things I packed from there, and A. will--we hope--leave somewhat early on Saturday to start the drive to New Mexico. Possibly with Cubby along for company.

He'll make a pit stop at my aunt and uncle's house in Wisconsin to pick up some furniture that my grandfather made decades ago and that no one else in the family is using at the moment, and then continue driving until he arrives at our new house.

He and Cubby will unload the truck, then turn around and drive back to New York in the truck, arriving within ten days of picking it up. (This ended up being cheaper than a one-way truck rental and airfare.)

And then, sometime at the end of July, the whole family will drive out to New Mexico together for good.

This is not the most uncomplicated move, but we wouldn't want to make it easy on ourselves or anything.

Okay. You ready for this? Me neither. But the only way out is through, so here we go!

* As if this matters for any of you. But it makes me feel better to write it out.