On Dad’s birthday, I woke up in the 4:00 darkness. I tried to go back to sleep, but gave up around 5:00 and just got up. Sleeping is not something my family does well, and once we’re awake, that’s pretty much it. I was hoping to sleep in, since it was Sunday and one of [...]

The secret to surviving Thanksgiving – as with most things – is to plan ahead and prepare as much as possible. The jobette very sweetly gave me yesterday off, so I started off by roasting chestnuts (for stuffing) and pears (for the salad). While they were roasting, I dug up potatoes from the buckets of [...]

Before Mark left on his East Coast Adventure, he pretty much emptied his refrigerator into mine. Having been brought up with a horror of wasting food by a father who endured stringent rationing both during and after World War II, it was a challenge to come up with a way to use up the motley [...]

I realize it’s almost this weekend, and I haven’t told you about last weekend yet. Let’s look back, back…a long time ago, about last Friday. It was the first farmers’ market of the year, and it was a beautiful, sunny day. The market was less crowded than it will be when summer really begins, and [...]

This year was about change: getting the jobette; swimming lessons; having to make peace with driving a lot more. Change is good, right? One deleterious effect of working more is reading less. I read 118 books in 2011, vs. 140 in 2010. The favorites of the year were Sue Grafton’s “V Is for Vengeance” and [...]

Guarding the tree You are all familiar with the limitations of my kitchenette. So you probably won’t be surprised that last night I went to bed thinking, “OK. If I start the pie crust while the parsnips are roasting, then I can prep the pears and…” You probably won’t be surprised that I woke up [...]

Cranberry relish in my grandmother’s dish Well, it’s late afternoon, and the turkey breast is in the oven, the green beans are prepped, ditto the Yukon Gold potatoes. Megan volunteered to make the two pumpkin pies. I made about 5,000 pounds of stuffing this morning, regretting my choice of chestnuts about ten minutes after starting [...]

Well, things are pretty much under control here at Thanksgiving Central. Over the years, I have learned that the key to surviving the holidays is to do as much ahead of the Big Day as possible. Which is why I was repulsing myself with the smell of Jack Daniel’s at 9:30 this morning. The smell [...]

Fall Colors When I got home on Wednesday evening, it was so warm that I was just wearing a t-shirt and had the car windows open. The sky was a clear blue. But the whethermen were predicting rain starting at 11:00 that night, so I persuaded Megan to take Miss Scarlett to work instead of [...]

A beautiful day for a fair First things first: happy birthday to Rob! He stopped by this morning and when I wished him happy birthday, he looked surprised. I hugged him and told him I was glad he was born. He took a couple of things to repair and vanished after he hugged me back. [...]

The finished product The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed the frying pan on the stove in an earlier entry. In it was my attempt at one of the vaguest recipes I have ever attempted. It was one of Rose’s, and her daughter gave it to me to try. As one who doesn’t measure much, [...]

On Sunday, my family and I finally had dinner together. It’s been a long time. We cancelled Thanksgiving, Jonathan couldn’t make it for Christmas, and somehow we’ve slipped into the new year without dining en famille. It’s been harder than ever to make our schedules match up since I started the jobette. So it was [...]

Hey! I just found something else I can’t do: bake cookies! Notice that I didn’t say “make” cookies. My incompetence is even more impressive when you take into account that I was merely cutting pieces off logs of dough (made by my sister), applying them to a baking sheet, and putting them into the already [...]

Kitten proof Christmas tree! Yesterday morning, I heard the pantry door close and went to investigate. It was around 8:00 in the morning, so I figured it was Rob. But it was Megan, bearing bags of Christmas groceries. We divided up the list on Monday, and on Tuesday I braved the crowds to get my [...]

A winter scene: fallen leaves, sprouting mushrooms beside my house Mushrooms are as much a sign of winter around here as the advent of robins. Most of them are not as scenic as this one, which is rumored to be poisonous or possibly merely hallucinogenic. I left it alone after I took its picture. We’re [...]

Before After It took me over a year, but I finally have country-appropriate footwear. At least for winter. In the second image, you can see my hard-won sneakers which cost as much as my beautiful Manolo Blahniks (in the first image) did in a consignment shop about 10 years ago. I just bought some pull-on [...]

We’re up to 20.5 inches of rain for the season. See above! After last week’s meatapalooza, I went vegetarian – and possibly even vegan – this week, with: Curried Lentils 1 medium onion, finely chopped 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 teaspoon ground cumin [...]

Well, the meatloaf was a big hit. “Three thumbs up” from my sister. I’m definitely adding it to my repertoire. Last night’s dinner featured a guest star, our brother. He usually has fire meetings on Thursdays, but decided to duck out on this one to have dinner with us and bring us up to date [...]

Mushrooms and art in my garden Mushrooms are as much a sign of winter around here as the appearance of robins. The poor saps come here for the winter, if you can believe it. The wiser whales, however, have already begun their majestic migration to Mexico. Guess which species has the bigger brain? Today I [...]

Friday sunrise Those of you who were perturbed to hear about our non-Thanksgiving will be happy to hear that we had dinner with a friend on Friday night. No turkeys were harmed in the production of this dinner. Our friend/nephew Jarrett lives about a four hour drive from Hooterville. We have known him since he [...]