Meal Prep at Our House

A few months ago, Keith and I talked about our girls' kitchen skills. Although they were quite skilled, they just weren't getting a lot of practice. Knowing what makes our 17yo daughter click, Keith decided to turn dinner prep over to her in its entirety--something I'd have had a hard time doing (not because I worry about her abilities, or that I don't want to let go; just seemed like a lot to put off on her--guilt, I guess?). However, I saw the wisdom in his decision.

Last night's dinner--a fruit, salad, and bread feast. A meatless dinner, at Keith's request. (We rarely go meatless.) The preparer, a devout carnivore, missed the meat the most; the rest of us reveled in the feast before us. It was truly delicious, like all the dinners we've been experiencing around here lately.

She now provides gourmet-quality dinners for us almost every evening. (My mother has certain days when she cooks dinner.) She plans menus, adds items to the grocery list that she needs, and prepares dinner entirely on her own most of the time. Among other things, she has grilled, used the crock-pot and pressure cooker, roasted, fried, and often makes bread. Absolutely marvelous food, and a wonderful change from my cooking.

Our 15yo daughter has taken over lunch prep. Granted, lunch is very casual around here. I think the best thing this provides her in the way of skills is to learn to be creative in the use of left-overs and to simply become accustomed to coming up with ideas for lunch. (Lunch ideas are always a problem around here!) Eventually, the girls will probably swap meals. However, with 17yo officially finished with school (although education is never truly over, we hope), she has more time to devote to this effort than 15yo, and since dinner prep definitely takes more time, she's the one with it for now.

Mary Susan

Catching Up

Hot chocolate's served, grocery list is made out, seed blocks are watered, and all's right with the world.

Yes, special hot chocolate was called for this morning, as we experienced a bit of snow. Probably our best one so far this winter, but still not much. Enough for 15yo daughter and 5yo son to scrape together a small snowman. And it continues to flurry, even as the snow quickly disappears on the grass. The hot chocolate I made was "Hot Chocolate to Die For," except that we're about out of cream, and rarely if ever keep half-and-half on hand. (What's the point of half-and-half, anyway??) I made the semi-sweet version, since that's the kind of chips we had enough of. It's incredibly rich, even when made with whole milk! I can remember years ago (even before we had children, I think), when Keith made some with cream, I couldn't even drink a full cup, it was so rich!

We made seed blocks last Thurday for tomatoes, peppers, and a few herbs. We have a few more to make in a week or so, then we'll be done with indoor seed-starting (I think). Today, I noticed a few sprouts of some peppers and feverfew (an herb that, when used early enough, helps with migraines, and of which I'm hoping to have a bountiful crop!!).

My last batch of soap is in full use now, and turned out well. The one I helped a friend make will be ready for use in a few days, and is looking good. (We're looking forward to seeing that family sometime next month!)

A cat has adopted us. She's a young one, and still somewhat small, although from the sounds of her and Scruggs last night, we may well be having some kittens in the not-too-distant future. We really need to name her, I guess. Right now, she's still "the black cat." She seems much more self-sufficient than Scruggs ever has; it would be nice if we could get her out to the barn, and let her and the future kittens keep rodents at bay out there. It would also get the cats away from the kitchen door, where they are a loud nuisance everytime we open the door.

(Not a great picture, but she's something of a difficult subject!)

We're enjoying kefir and kombucha, thanks to friends giving us starters for both. We drink the kefir, usually, with sweetened strawberry puree and a bit of cream--delicious! And the kombucha, we just strain and drink. On my first batch of kombucha, I had to check with the friend I got the starter from: were the brown colonies of gooey icky-looking stuff okay, or had I done something wrong? She said they're actually a good sign, and good to have. She (and we) strain that off, but she said her husband actually drinks that! I'm not that tough, yet, although, as I told her, I've had to change my ideas about what's good and bad in the last few years, as I study and learn more about our food supply and what is truly healthy!

Mary Susan

Daddy's a Bit Riled

My father is one of my "Most Respected Persons." He's quite respected by others of his acquaintance, too, and with good reason. He is also generally a man of few words, and is rarely riled enough to show it (except for those totally effective looks of disapproval I remember so well on occasion when I was growing up!).


However, he has recently met with bureaucracy that has a very personal impact on him and many of his friends. Not government bureaucracy, but, rather, church bureaucracy.

My father is a pastor. He "retired" about 12 years ago, and has served where needed almost continuously ever since, at various churches, sometimes as a fill-in for a day, sometimes for two or three years. His hope is to serve his current charge about another year, then retire (again--although I have a hard time seeing him actually retiring).

Anyway, the church bureaucrats in our region have decided that all pastors must take a certain training course this year, or they will not be appointed to a church for the next year (years beginning and ending in June, in this case). The training is "Personal and Professional Sexual Ethics," and my father (and numerous others of his pseudo-retired friends) uncharacteristically decided not to attend the training. However, he really wants to serve his current church again.

And so, he drafted and sent the following letter to the powers that be and to friends. Loads of folks have read it by now; it was even read at a luncheon of quite a few retirees, many of whom have had to take the course or are going to be in attendance when my father takes it. It has brought many laughs, but also shows the frustration he feels about this.

Dear Conference Committee on Sexual Ethics,

I give up! I surrender! After so many insistent reminders and repeated
threats, I shall try to attend your "personal and professional sexual ethics"
training event next month.

I rather consider an arbitrary rule requiring a seventy-seven-year-old
retired preacher--who is about as apt to engage in sexual harassment as my wife
is likely to try out for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders--to attend a "sexual
ethics" seminar to be the ridiculous, weak-minded, nonsensical, obtrusive,
irritating, absurd, exasperating, silly, perverse, offensive brainstorm of
either a power-hungry bureaucracy or a muddle-headed hierarchy.

However, because next year I hope to serve for one final year as a pastor
in the Tennessee Conference, and because I love the people and my work in the
churches I now serve too much to jeopardize my reappointment, humbly and
submissively I shall sit in on your inescapable training event.

Respectfully yours...

Even though he's being somewhat facetious, these are strong words from my dad! Bully for you, Daddy!


My sister suggested that he might want to take a book &/or newspaper with him to the training. Personally, I think a deck of cards is a good idea, so solitaire would be an option, or, if others need a diversion, some multi-player games could go on. Actually, a number of decks might be needed, so everyone that wants to can have a chance to play some sort of game. Maybe this "training event" won't be so bad after all!

By the way, one of his also-retired friends has requested that he let him know when my mother goes out for the cheerleader position, because his wife wants to go with her and try out, too!

Mary Susan

The day I posted this, I stated in the next-to-the-last-paragraph that my father's district superintendent (DS) had suggested the book/newspaper; I had misunderstood my mother completely! She said Carol (my sister) had said that; I thought she said Harold (the DS)! My appologies for any slander--it was totally unintentional. (You'd think my mother would have suspected I'd misunderstood when she saw my incredulous response: the suggestion seems completely out- of-character for the DS, but not for my sister!) MSB

Miscellany

One of the ladies who was here for our pig slaughtering weekend brought me some new kefir grains and some hands-on instructions from her daughter. She'd given me my originals a a couple of months earlier, but I'd not done a good job with them. Now we are enjoying it much more.

I also made my first batch of kombucha this week; I'm very curious about it, and will try it out tomorrow.

The kids and I spent about an hour in the garden this morning, clearing and cleaning up some, so that 12yo son will be able to mow the area in preparation for spreading compost, manure, and maybe even moving some chickens through. I noticed the other day that where the chickens have moved through the "orchard" (okay...the area with some sticks in the ground), there are healthy, greener patches of grass. So we thought we'd give them a run in the garden after it's mowed.

Yesterday, the kids and I took a day off from regular academics to have time to do a bit of catching up on a number of things and to brainstorm on garden and a few other things. This was a refreshing and much-needed mental change.

The third batch of soap I've ever made, which we made during the pig-slaughtering, is curing well and looks like it will be a good bacth for the lady who brought the kefir grains. We're looking forward to seeing her and her family again next month, and the soap will be ready by then.

Need laughter? Watch a movie with some schtick in it with a 5yo. You may not like schtick, but that doesn't matter; you'll laugh at the 5yo's laughter; it's extremely infectious. Our 5yo had the rest of us doubled over last night as he laughed at the schtick in a movie the rest of us have seen dozens of times.

Cheri has tagged me in a game of blog tag. I'm not sure, but I think I've been tagged before and ignored it. However, I'll give this one a shot (but won't be at all offended if those I tag choose to ignore it).

Game of Blog Tag Rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Some random facts about me (since, of course, I have no weird ones):

1. In August, I will have been married to Keith for 25 years!
2. Not that long ago, I couldn't stand touching raw poultry; even fixed a turkey one Thanksgiving without ever actually placing my hands on the bird. Now I help process chickens--hundreds just this year!
3. Our family is indebted to Joel Salatin and our daughter's camo skirt, because it was at his farm and at least partially because of her skirt three years ago that we met a family from the church family we are now so thankfully a part of. (Okay, it was really God, but maybe He used the camo skirt!)
4. I enjoyed the company of the turkeys and the pigs last summer when I was hanging out clothes.
5. A great pleasure I have is seeing how our daughters are lovely young women, inside and out, and how they can run our home as well as or better than I can.
6. I really like that our 12yo son (and full-time main farmer) can do most things around the house and farm, so that we don't have to wait for Keith to fit so many of them into his schedule. It's like having a man around the house all the time.
7. A persistent cough for the last nine months has caused my laugh to occasionally sound like Muttley's.

I started to do the links to folks I was tagging, but I've got something of a nauseous headache and don't have the patience or the stamina to finish it up, so I'll be a grouch and not tag anyone.

Guess that's about it.

Mary Susan

Speaking of hawgs

Most of you have probably seen this video, on dd's blog if not elsewhere, but just in case, I'll link to her post with it:

http://reformedtngirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/tim-hawkins-on-pig-slaughtering.html

Enjoy!

Mary Susan

Daddy's in Hawg Heaven

My mother made cracklin cornbread with the cracklins I got when I rendered our lard. Daddy's lovin' it.

Mary Susan