MORE KINDNESS

 

THE COOKING SISTERS

My Mom always made cooking fun!  And that was before microwave ovens, crockpots, air fryers and pre-made meals (and no dishwasher machine at our house).  While construction worker Dad preferred meat and potatoes at 5:15, she managed to get him to be a little more adventurous as the years went on.

During the summer, some of the six of us would play restaurant.  We made little menus, served colored milk (your choice of color) or colored water.  Once in a while we would serve Mom and Dad dinner by candlelight.  All of us enjoy cooking and even the four brothers do ALL of the cooking at their home.

Janet and I still enjoy talking about cookbooks and sharing recipes.  She has progressed into mostly ethnic food and I'm sort of back to The Joy of Cooking family style stuff.  Due to lack of space, I often go to the library to keep up with her phase ....

Lots of easily scaled back in size for one or two ... 

I was inspired to do a few of the recipes and have bought a few specialized items that I will continue to use ... hot and sour soup is my favorite and so healthy!

I love that she shares photos!

Citrus & olive oil baked sockeye salmon w herbs, and winter citrus salad. Mango, blueberry & grapefruit salad  for dessert!

Crispy seared salmon, fennel & asparagus w pine nuts, celery-date-almond salad. Blondies in muffin form w milk chocolate chunks, coconut & roasted pecans (sorry, I didn't add the muffin photo)

Sichuan stir fried cucumbers, fish fragrant eggplant (totally veg), and gung bao chicken.

I have never heard of stir fried cucumber or oven roasted radishes and most of the other interesting sides.  But she (and dinner guests) rave about them.

Occasionally I send her a photo ....

WHAT WAS THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU LAST WEEK?  

I am re-reading a wonderful historical romance set in the early 1800's in England.  I'M READING!!!

  

SIGNS OF THE TIME

 

SOFT SLIPPERS, NOT PARTY SHOES

Leaving my House Mouse phase is tougher than I thought it would be.  It does take a bit of effort to begin to reconnect in person.  Yet I did manage to meet my "boss" from the Food Pantry for coffee on Monday.  New coffee shop but not strong enough for me.  It's the first time we'd ever seen each other without masks!

On Thursday I had the BEST pedicure ever!  About 5 blocks from home.  Spendy but my sister sent me a gift card a few Christmases ago and then Covid came.  So extra sweet for it to be FREE.  No more callouses on the sides of my big toe and my feet are as soft as a baby's behind.

I think I have mentioned that I can’t read books, which started after Mr. Ralph’s departure.  My blogger friend, Misadventures of Widowhood, had the same thing happen.  A few others as well.  I read this article in NYT and think I will try the plan that Jean suggested.  Re-read some favorite books from way back.  Listen to some current books.  And hope that this passion returns!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/opinion/reading-grief.html

As I was running a few errands (yes, including the library!), there was a section on NPR that caught my attention and I am going to mimic them.  

WHAT WAS THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU LAST WEEK?

I made chicken soup for the family, cooking the carcass all day and let each person choose rice or noodles to add to their own bowl.  The Little Guy came over to me to say "this is the most delicious soup EVER, Gramma.  Thank you"

Your turn!

KINDNESS

 

Awesomeness ...

A BIT OF THIS, A BIT OF THAT

I finally got a haircut although she thought it looked great long!  It grew out perfectly, still in layers.  So it was more of a trim and a few more layers, air dry part way and then some curling goop.  Love it.  Sorry, I didn't take a pic.
 

The next day I had a follow up visit with gyno (actually, she is a urogynecologist and about 18 years old).  My first ever visit with her was in November at her office within St. Vincent's hospital, which is about 14 miles away.  I was scheduled for the end of January but I postponed due to Omicron.  I probably blogged about my inability to reach a human being so I sent her a USPS letter and requested that I change locations to a bldg less than 4 miles from me.

When I arrived 10 minutes early, the reception person was having trouble and called over a helper.  Apparently my appt was at the hospital location ... and they suggested I could dash over and not be too late.  GRRRR.  After getting up early (for me, shower, etc) I left mad, bought myself a Starbucks and went back home.  I sent a note on my chart/portal and will be sending another USPS. She's a great doctor but need new staff ...

I think I hate driving and hopefully will stop soon.  So many distracted people out on the roads AND the highways!  It's unbelievable.  No one gives themselves a five or ten minute cushion so the speeding is terrifying.  Going that 4 miles I had a heart attack 5 times!  Also the joy of watching one speeder get pulled over.

The whole week was spent on the computer.  

1. Fraud charge on a credit card.  
2. Storage unit price (increases every October) sent me notice of NEW, $60 increase as of April 1. After talking to the kidults, they are willing to MOVE everything to a bit smaller unit for less than half cost!  As soon as I set it up to get the new one (plus one month free!), they sent an email offering the $510 unit for $350!!!!  I've been there for ten years you'd think they would reward loyalty!!   So poor kidults will spend a few days moving everything (hopefully paring down as I knew there is still baby furniture in there and our baby just turned 8)
3. Lots of creative work for the food pantry newsletter.
4. Cancelled two streaming services that I signed up for temporarily to watch things.
5. Changing Braeden's math tutoring from 15 visits a month to 10 visits and "pausing" July due to vacation and December as the family gift is a trip to Disneyland.  SSSSSHHHHHH
6. Tweenager (Braeden) wanted to create his own CD of music.  What a learning process for Gramma!  I probably invested 10 hours figuring that out.  But now I can show him a straightforward way to buy songs, build a playlist and burn a CD.
7. I decided to postpone my dental cleaning (going back to twice a year) and they emailed back saying it had been six months.  I checked my online calendar and showed I went in December.  Oh yeh, sorry I missed that one.  I hope I don't get dementia ....

I called all my siblings this week.  When I had to leave a message for Cheryl (SIL), my dead brother's voice greeted me and brought me to tears.  Actually had to leave messages for everyone but two did call me back!

In my Pollyanna way, the good news is my mad hatter coffee was paid for by the people in front of me!

NUMBERS of INTEREST

Did you know .....

$5.87 billion is the total forecasted spending on St. Patrick's Day this year in the U.S. That's an average expected spending of $42.33 per adult. (National Retail Federation)

$276 is how much extra inflation is costing the average American household per month. (Moody's Analytics)

27% of American adults earn money from "gig activities" like food delivery, ride sharing, selling items online, and house cleaning. (Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households)

11 is the number of recessions the U.S. has experienced over the last 70 years. The most recent recession was also the shortest in history, lasting only 2 months and ending in April 2020. (National Bureau of Economic Research)

54 is the number of Super Bowls it took before an NFL team played and won on their home field, from the original game in 1967 through 2020

WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR??

 Sorry, Putin.  I think you've made a big mistake.  The World is not with you.  You are a bully.

Ukraine and Russia’s conflict goes back at least to 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces took over parts of southeastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.  On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “special military operation.” But the scale of the attack shows this is a war.

Over the past week, the United States and its allies have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with some unprecedented actions of their own. Instead of engaging militarily, they have struck back at Russia’s economy.   Even Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country.  This is big news as Switzerland has remained neutral in every military situation in the world since the Napoleon era.

I'm learning more about this war than any other as our 11 year old is extremely interested in history.  Every day I print him a one page war recap of the day.  It's more bad news that I'd rather not review but  it's important as both boys ask a lot of questions.  Dad and I take the time to Google the information to answer.

I admire the world wide media support and I shared on Facebook a BBC message giving Russians a "work around" for being able to access news since Putin has blocked most sites.  

And Elon Musk?  Moscow rid itself of its independent media after Putin imposed a new law that subjects journalists to jail time if they report "fake" news about the war, meaning anything that contradicts officials' statements about Moscow's war in Ukraine.  Within 48 HOURS Mr. Musk had sent Starlink dishes for internet access.

SpaceX's Starlink system is a satellite megaconstellation designed to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband internet access to regions all over the world, with a focus on remote or underserved areas.

Ordinary people are doing extraordinary things to help Ukraine and its citizens.  

Hooray, sunflowers!

CASUAL THURSDAYS!

 Maybe Thursdays will be fun and funny blogs!  

An orphaned hippo and an orphaned rhino become best friends!