Dinners This Week

Some of the people in my circle are expecting heat-advisory level heat waves this week, while others are hunkering down to face a winter storm warning. Good times.

I’m on the It’s Too Hot side of the summer weather spectrum, so my approach to dinners this week is avoid using my oven if at all possible. Even in the dead of winter, I start shedding layers and my face grows damp and tomatoey every time the oven fires up and that sounds downright unbearable when there’s no snowy porch to escape to. We have a crockpot, a grill, an air fryer, and (reluctantly) an Instant Pot, so I should be able to accomplish this.

What are your favorite no-cook meals? 

Dinners for the Week of June 17-23

• Garlic Lime Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Something Green: If you dislike cilantro, look away. But if you are cool with it, this marinade/sauce is going to be your new bestie. The recipe is way more finicky than it needs to be; I think it’s fine to marinate a whole pork tenderloin (or protein of your choice) in the lime-y, garlicky liquid and then throw it on the grill.
• Teriyaki Chicken with Chopped Salad: I love this salad, and the idea of adding fresh cool things like mandarin oranges, edamame, and red bell peppers makes me very happy. I am going to buy a ginger dressing from the grocery store and use store bought teriyaki. I will probably add chopped up cashews and some crunchy chow mein noodles as well.
• Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos: Would I ever turn down an excuse to make tacos? No, I would not. The only heat I like are the kinds you find in the bedroom or in a bottle of sriracha.
• Birchie’s Chickpea Salad: What’s a better no-cook idea than FINALLY jumping on the Birchie Bandwagon and trying one of the chickpea salad recipes she’s been recommending? I wonder if I can get away with serving my husband a meat-free meal? Or maybe I could supply him a store-bought chicken breast on the side?
• Street Corn Salad: Speaking of store-bought protein options, maybe I’ll snag a couple of chicken breasts and a salmon filet or two (or grilled shrimp?) and throw together this amazing street corn salad one night.

For lunches, I’m sticking with cherry smoothies and green peppers with cottage cheese.

Stay cool, or warm, out there Internet.

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Cherries, Spectacular Summer Salad, Dinners This Week

First things first: I use frozen cherries in my cherry smoothies. Listen, I love fresh cherries as much as the next gal, but no way am I pitting cherries every morning to feed my raging smoothie habit. Also, have y’all seen how expensive cherries are?! Right now, they are $8.59 a pound at my local grocery store. Frozen, already-pitted cherries, however, are $7.99 for two pounds. I usually turn to Costco for my cherry needs, though, because you can get a five-pound bag for under $15. 

Am I enjoying a luscious cherry smoothie as I write this? Yes, indeed I am. 

Okay! It is Monday and we are already speaking of food, so I will go ahead and ask that you please do me a favor and make my favorite honey chipotle summer salad this week. It is my favorite salad of all time. At least, my favorite SUMMER salad of all time (wouldn’t want to make my favorite fall salad jealous). When I make it for myself and my husband, I make a double portion so I can feast on leftovers for lunch all week.

So many veggies!!!!

And vegetarians! Please do not look away just because this recipe includes chicken! The chicken is incidental to the spectacularity of the salad. What you need is anything that can be marinated and cooked, so that you can bask in the spicy sweet richness of the sauce, which I use as a second dressing.  

This salad is an amalgam of things, so please bear with me. First, I marinate my chicken (or WHATEVER) in the marinade from this recipe. Then I throw it in the oven at 450 until the chicken is cooked and/or the sauce is bubbly and caramelized. 

At some point in the preparation process, I make crispy quinoa, black beans, and a dressing. Sometimes I make the chili lime dressing from this recipe, which is simple and slightly sweet. More recently, I am enamored of this cilantro vinaigrette, which is such a fabulous creamy contrast to the chipotle sauce. I also wash copious amounts of lettuce (I store it in my salad spinner in the fridge with a paper towel on top; it keeps for a few days) and prepare other veggies (usually bell peppers, red onion, avocado, corn, and tomatoes for people who like that kind of thing). (I wrap shucked, washed ears of corn in damp towels and microwave them for three minutes. Then I scrape off the kernels into a bowl and put them in the fridge so they cool off before I put them on the salad.) Then I throw everything together and drizzle with some of the caramelized chipotle sauce. It is a rich, garlicky, spicy-sweet addition that I imagine is similar in some ways to chili crisp (which I have never tried), and it takes the salad to a whole other level.

Well, it doesn’t look like much. But it is SPECTACULAR.

Now that I have fully salad badgered you, let us turn to dinners. 

Hmm. I need some simple and flexible things for this week’s meal plan because it is a call week. 

Dinners for the Week of June 10-June 17

• Some Sort of Chicken and Asparagus: Depending on the weather, we could grill this or roast it in the oven.
• Ground Beef Tacos: Easy, plus I have been making the taco meat in the crockpot lately, so it’s very hands-off and can be prepped in advance.
• Oven Baked Pork Chops with Broccoli: I can prep everything ahead of time and throw the pork chops in the oven when my husband leaves the hospital.
• Panang Curry: My husband LOVED this the last time I made it, so maybe I will make it for him on Sunday? (It was highly successful on the stovetop, by the way. I used an entire tin of curry paste and added in about two cups of chicken stock, which wasn’t part of the original recipe.)
• Chickpea Bowls: It’s been awhile since this has been on the docket, and it’s always a good option. As usual, I will probably make a chicken breast for my husband to slice into his bowl, and I will add tons of sliced bell peppers to the sauce to amp up the veggie factor.

That seems like enough options to keep me busy! What are you planning to eat this week? (Please say honey chipotle summer salad.)

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Dinners This Week

We have rain in the forecast and we have sun, and I my summer plan for dinners is to use the grill as much as humanly possible, so that’s what we’ll be doing on the dry days. 

Dinners for the Week of June 3 – June 9

• Panang Curry: I plan to make this in a wok or on the stove rather than in the Instant Pot. Seems to me like I’m over the Instant Pot. We did transport the Instant Pot with us from the old house, but it’s lived in the basement ever since the move and this is the first time I’ve even considered an Instant Pot recipe. I know some people swear by theirs, but a) I’m afraid of it and b) we don’t really have a place to store it for Regular Use and c) I can get along just fine without it. 
• Jalapeno-Onion Smash Burgers: My husband found this recipe in the June issue of Food & Wine (it’s very similar to this recipe). We made these burgers for Memorial Day and they were amazing. So I am jonesing to make them again. We use a cast iron pan on the grill and they are super easy.
• Grilled Fish Tacos: We haven’t had fish tacos in a hot minute and they sound so good. For the first time in my life, the cilantro I’ve planted is flourishing, so I plan to harvest a bunch and make a yummy cilantro lime crema.
• Whole Lemon Grilled Chicken with Zucchini: Nothing simpler than chicken and veg on the grill! This recipe sounds different and yummy.
• Grilled Veggie Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette: What can I say? I love lemons. Perhaps I will make extra chicken from the previous recipe so my husband can have some with this salad.

I am also buying and eating all the berries. They are so good right now! What are you planning to eat all summer long?

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Dinners This Week

Thank you so much for your well wishes, both in terms of my progress toward my to-do list, and in terms of my health. The former is going better than I anticipated (the electrician AND the furnace person have been here since I posted! yay!) and I got a call back from 2/3 of the pool people I left a message for. (The first one left a message and I need to call them back. The second person called, I spoke to him and got some details, he asked me to text him to see if I was in his service area and if I wasn’t he would recommend someone who was; I texted him and he never followed up.) 

I am feeling so much better, but also I am pretty sure I have a sinus infection. (By the way, Word is insisting that “sinus” is misspelled. I really don’t think it is, but that little red underline is making me question everything I thought I knew.) A sinus infection is typical for me, when I have a cold. Alas, even though I feel like I recognize the symptoms, it’s one of those things where you have to wait for at least ten days before you can call the doctor, or they will say, “Well, colds can linger. Give it at least ten days and then give me a call back.” No way am I making ONE MORE CALL than I need to. Especially because today I also need to call the orthodontist about a loose bracket and try to convince them that they should see Carla after school and not in the middle of the school day, even though they seem completely baffled every time I suggest the latter. 

Carla did end up calling the hair salon to make an appointment for my husband. She did a great job. The only mildly amusing thing was that the scheduler didn’t question her AT ALL. Just said, “Oh, you’re making an appointment for your daddy? What’s his name?” and then went through with scheduling the appointment like it was totally normal for a ten-year-old to be in charge of her father’s calendar. Maybe it is! I am not complaining! I just thought she might get some gentle pushback, like, “Oh, is your daddy there helping you make this call?” or something. I don’t even know. Perhaps since there have been multiple times when people have asked me, a grown woman, whether my husband is there to give his permission for me to talk to them about things for which we share joint ownership, I thought it might be a little more difficult for a CHILD to make an appointment not that I am bitter or jaded or anything. 

Oh right, we’re supposed to be talking about DINNERS. What are you in the mood to eat, Internet? I’ve got nothing. And yet I cannot have nothing, because it’s part of my job to plan the meals! 

Time to scroll my endless lists of meal ideas… 

Dinners for the Week of March 4-10

• One Pan Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Broccoli: It’s a sheet pan meal kind of week, I think. Plus, I already have broccoli in my fridge and chicken in my freezer. Maybe a sweet potato will materialize on my car hood tomorrow morning. The thing about sweet potatoes is that I always WANT to like them and then don’t like them in practice. But this dish sounds really good. So probably this is the one time when I WILL like them. Right? Right.
• Lentil and Chickpea Salad with Feta: I’m in a lentil state of mind lately. I plan to eat this alongside some roasted salmon, but will make a chicken breast for my husband because I don’t want him to hate his life.
• Crockpot Balsamic Pork Tenderloin: We haven’t had this in a hot minute! Yum. I could eat a big pile of this tangy shredded pork right now. (We serve it over rice with caramelized onions, feta, kalamata olives, and sundried tomatoes. Look at me, dual-purposing the feta rather than putting half a block in the fridge until it liquifies.)
• Fish Tacos: You know tacos are one of my love languages. Let’s be honest. I will probably use fish sticks instead of buying and cooking wild cod. Wild cod is EXCELLENT, but fish sticks are EASY. 

Because I spend too much time ogling recipes on Instagram, I have also been influenced to make this three-ingredient yogurt cake. There is no way it will actually resemble Basque cheesecake right? That is just a pipe dream? But if I can persuade Carla to try it, it will feel like a win. A high-protein win. We’ll see. 

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Sunday Randomosity: To Do Lists and Birthday Plans Edition

This snow person has nothing to do with anything, but I found it on a walk recently and it is a real vibe.

A person can both Not Really Want, At All sweeping romantic gestures and glittery jewelry and giant bouquets of flowers and fancy heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, while still feeling a little disappointed to then not get those things. It is illogical, but such is the human heart. This past Valentine’s Day, I managed to override whatever part of my system feels sad and melancholy over not having the Hallmark Version of the holiday, and instead feel pleased about a) sending Valentines (although they ALL seemed to reach their recipients MUCH TOO LATE; note to self, start MUCH EARLIER) and b) making cookies and c) delivering said cookies to a few dear local friends and d) buying flowers for myself and e) supporting Carla in her desire to paper the house with hearts. It worked, truly, and I felt pleased and cheerful rather than resentful and pouty. 

Today: I bought myself some yellow tulips that I am hoping will open up as the day goes on. I do love a cheery yellow tulip. I am making vanilla cupcakes with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting because, as Engie noted, why would I pass up a perfectly good opportunity for a baked good?! Also, I am using boxed cake mix because the cupcakes always turn out better than homemade, PLUS they are easier. I am also making tacos for dinner and I am going to have a GIANT MARGARITA, maybe two! with the tacos. Probably not three, because I do need to wake up tomorrow to take Carla to school, but we’ll see where the night takes us. I don’t plan on doing a single dish, although that means I may have extra dishes tomorrow, but that’s okay! It is worth it! (We’ll see if I can truly go to bed with dirty dishes piled in the dishwasher.) 

Today is supposed to be both sunny and warm, so I plan to take a long, leisurely walk. Maybe I will even start a new audiobook instead of forcing myself to continue listening to the book I am reading with a couple of friends. (I am nearly 70% of the way through it, and it’s just not my favorite. Although it is improving with time. I suppose for a five-book series, I should give the author a little time to solidify the world around me before throwing in the towel.) 

ANYWAY, despite all these happy things to look forward to, my husband is at the hospital and I am sort of feeling sorry for myself anyway so let’s skip right into some Sunday randomosity!!!!!!!!!! Aggressive exclamation marks!!!!!!!!

Edited to add: Turns out all I needed was to chat with you and pull a couple of fragrant pans of cupcakes out of the oven and my mood is considerably brighter. Onto the less aggressive and self-pitying randomosity!

Waiting to be filled and frosted!

1. My dreams have been highly stressful lately. Uncomfortably explicit dreams about people from my past. Not-finishing-the-assignment dreams. Last night, I dreamed that I worked at my old company, and got paid every month, but wasn’t actually doing any work. And there was an assignment due that I hadn’t yet begun, and I was kind of hoping everyone at the company had forgotten about me completely. But I was also feeling super guilty about getting paid for doing nothing. In the same dream, there’d been an Unknown Incident that resulted in needing to build a special room for my oven, but the room was in a tiny nook up several flights of stairs and it was 90 degrees in that space at all times. I think this last dream at least has some easily identifiable sources: a) I get hot to the point of needing to step outside every time I turn on the oven and b) my to-do list keeps growing and I keep not doing any of the things.

2. There are so many unappealing things on my to-do list. I think I’m going to try the thing where I list them out here, and the embarrassment of stating them publicly will spur me to do them. Come on, internet magic! 

• Call the electrician. How many times am I going to mention this particular pressing task before I DO IT? The reason I have not taken care of it yet is because the electrician has both a weirdly specific estimate process and a weirdly complicated scheduling process. My husband suggested I find a new electrician; that would be WORSE, because these people have already done a whole-house evaluation and I cannot stomach the idea of researching a new electrician and having them come out and give us an estimate and then schedule a real appointment. I CAN’T DO IT. Also, we get a discount with this particular electrician which has to count for something, no? 
• Figure out how to fix the doorbell????? Perhaps the electrician could give us some thoughts, if I ever get him back out here? I am seriously considering becoming an electrician myself because it seems like it would be easier. 
• Email or call the landscaper. The reason I am balking at this one is because I ignored the landscaper’s calls and emails for MONTHS before we were finally ready to sign a contract for next summer. Apparently, all you need to do to get me to spend money with your company is to badger me, politely but at regular intervals, for several months???? Anyway, now I feel like I can’t suddenly Be Available to talk about new things we want to do with our yard. Also, while I DO want to do new things with our yard, I don’t know what they ARE and I am not ready for that conversation (or the price).
• Schedule a work call. This should be the easiest on my list, I think. The only thing holding me back is that I already reached out to this person and they didn’t respond, which always makes me feel like I am pestering. 
• Figure out who will take care of our pool this summer. Talk about a Champagne problem!!!!!!! But getting a person whose purported livelihood is pool care/maintenance to call me back and then agree to have me pay them to do the work they purport to do is extremely difficult for reasons I don’t understand and I am avoiding it like whoa.
• Put last year’s earnings into my retirement account. (Another Champagne problem. I am so lucky that 99% of my problems are this variety.) WHY is this hard? It should not be. And yet. 
• Schedule Carla’s next dental appointment. The hygienist wanted to schedule it for me, but I didn’t know when Carla’s first day of school was, so I said I would call back once I knew… but then I looked it up while the hygienist was finishing up, and so I could have easily made the appointment, but didn’t because I didn’t want to bother her?????? So now I have to make a phone call. Yay. 
• Put a check in the mail to the orthodontist. We get a small discount on the price of braces if we pay in full in cash. I did not have my checkbook (why?????) when I signed the braces paperwork, but the office manager kindly told me she would give me the discount anyway, if I just sent in the check by the end of the month. She even gave me a self-addressed envelope. Why have I not simply WRITTEN THE CHECK and put it in the mail? THIS is the easiest item on my list. Just do it, Suzanne! 
• Figure out what kind of person addresses what looks like rot in the wood siding of my house. Probably I just need to google this. And then I will need to begin the rigamarole of calling people and having them come over and give estimates. Why did we buy a new house again? Who thought that would be a good idea?

• Fulfill the giveaway I offered on my blog. Wait a second. THIS is the easiest task on my list to fulfill! Guess what?! J is the winner of the paperback giveaway! Congrats, J! I will reach out to you for your address and send you a copy of the second book in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend series. 

3. You know how, in TV shows and movies, someone will cough ominously and then three scenes later they die of consumption? Carla is upstairs and I can hear her coughing and it is filling me with foreboding. We went to a school event the other day; I volunteered while Carla ran around in a howling pack of other children. Already one friend has texted me with the unsettling news that her kid just woke up with a fever. We have so far avoided the bulk of the Winter Illnesses that have felled nearly everyone else on the planet… but based on the frequency of the coughing, I suspect our time has come. 

4. There’s no way to correct someone’s misimpression about your birth date without making them feel bad and/or stupid, right? There is a person in my life who very sweetly wishes me happy birthday every year… the day before my birthday. And now their spouse is doing it, too. And it’s very thoughtful and getting it on the actual date really does not matter – TRULY – I am now forty-three years old and it’s unexpectedly lovely when people remember your birthday at all, let alone get the date right. This is just a charming quirk I should love for as long as it lasts, right?

5. The best article I’ve read in awhile is this profile of Jodie Foster. I love Foster – most recently in True Detective. What resonated with me most is the idea of simultaneously craving privacy and connection. I wonder if it resonates with you, too, if you have a blog. The idea of having someone I KNOW – even though that’s a silly categorization, because I know YOU so much better than so many people I see out in the three-dimensional world day-to-day – read my blog gives me hives. And yet I thrive on the connections I find here, in bloglandia, via our (in most cases) text-only relationships. It was validating and comforting to read about Foster, who seems to have a similar personality and a similar struggle with finding the balance between being known and being understood.

6. Instead of doing literally ANY of the things I need to do (which also include larger, longer-term projects that I did not list in bullet #1), I decided I would put together an old-school blogroll. And I DID, based on the very haphazard and unreliable methods I use to check blogs regularly. But then I could not figure out how to create a new page in WordPress. I mean. I think I *DID* create a new page in WordPress, but I don’t know where said page LIVES on my blog. So then I tried to add the new page to the menu, and got very confused, and this is all to say that I did not accomplish anything except a Word document listing many (but probably not all) of the blogs I read. SIGH.

7. In addition to cupcakes, I am contemplating another baked good. I recently enjoyed one of these muffins at a friend’s house. Subsequently, I found myself thinking about the muffin with such longing that I asked my friend for the recipe. But I have yet to break down and BAKE the muffins. So far. 

8. Swimsuit season is creeping ever closer. I will be spring breaking in a place that requires a swimsuit, so I am fretting abstractedly about swimsuits. I own a swimsuit, a black two piece that includes a top and a skirted bottom. To be honest, that is probably the swimsuit I will continue to wear. But I always find myself pining for a NEW swimsuit. It’s tough to find a suitable suit, or at least a suit I find remotely flattering, when I am self-conscious of my rather lumpy lower half. It’s not just that I’m a pear shape, although the top part of the pear grows ever wider with the passing years; it’s that my hips are not a nice pleasing curve from hipbone to thigh: there’s a divot in there. I believe the young people call it a “hip dip.” I have become convinced over the years by body positive Instagrammers that this is not, as some might say, my fault; this is how my body is shaped, and I cannot control it no matter how many squats I might do or how little I weigh. (The latter, I know for sure; I remember being a 100-pound active high school student and worrying about my “saddle bags.”) But my body shape still doesn’t lend itself to a lot of the more pleasing bathing suit styles. ANYWAY, we all have our Things, and this is (one of) mine. I guess I am just wondering, what does YOUR swimsuit look like? And what swimsuit are you ogling, in case the one you own suddenly bursts into spontaneous flame? 

9. My parents took me out to lunch for my birthday! It was SO DELIGHTFUL. I cannot remember the last time I celebrated my birthday with them?!? (Okay, yes I can; it was before Carla was born.) It was just the three of us and I felt very spoiled and loved and I cannot believe how lucky I am that they LIVE NEARBY. What a gift. I think we have settled into a good rhythm of seeing each other while allowing one another to Live Our Lives (although I would like to spend more one-on-one time with my mom). I hope I never take our time together for granted. 

Pile of presents from my family!!!! Plus Carla and I have been talking about our Future Hypothetical Cat, and decided that we want to name him Wallace and he will wear a monocle and will have coloring that makes him look like he’s wearing a white ascot and a brown or black suit jacket. Hence the picture she left for me this morning.

10. My holiday cards are still up. I don’t want to remove them, although my husband is making gentle noises indicating he is growing tired of them. I had enough this year to line the entire kitchen. I affixed them to the wall above the windows/doors and they make me so happy! We also still have hearts on all the walls, which also make me happy. Seeing as it’s still February, I don’t really feel a lot of pressure to remove the hearts. Perhaps I will take everything down right before Spring Break.

11. I have never really been a big Branded Handbag type of person. I don’t even really USE a handbag that much anymore. But I have recently found myself coveting a high-end handbag for myself. I blame this new desire on my choice to follow Class of Palm Beach on Instagram. Are you a handbag person? If you could get any fancy bag in the world, what would it be? A Birkin bag seems like the obvious choice, especially because they are considered a better investment than gold (!!!!), but it also sounds difficult to get your hands on one. (Please also keep in mind that there is no way I would ever buy a Birkin bag. This is pure idle fantasy.) 

Tulips! You can also sort of glimpse the hearts AND the holiday cards in the background.

Okay Internet. Tell me your favorite type of cupcakes and/or muffins. And please share all your magical body altering swimsuit choices with me as well. 

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A Bit of Christmas Angst + Dinners This Week

I seem to have fallen off the blogging wagon entirely, after NaBloPoMo. Well. Writing is like that, isn’t it. Sometimes the words flow freely; sometimes the well is dry. As the prolific Louis L’Amour said, “The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on,” so I am sitting here at my computer with my fingers on the keys, hoping something will come out. 

Part of the problem, maybe, is Christmas in all its impending vastness. I feel like I have done NOTHING, nothing at all to prepare for the holiday which is nonetheless marching toward me at a steady pace. The only piece of Christmas décor I have up (still) is the wreath my mother sent me the day after Thanksgiving. I have also been receiving a few holiday cards, here and there, and have been arranging them on the molding above the doors and windows in the kitchen. I like the way this looks, but the cards keep falling down and the door frames are very tall so I am spending a lot more time on my tiptoes than I would otherwise prefer. My husband and I finally sat down and got presents squared away. I ordered the roast for Christmas dinner, and my mother and I figured out our plans for getting together (they will come to us for Christmas Day, but we get to go to their house for Christmas Eve! I am so excited!) and settled on a menu. So maybe I am in better shape than I feel like I am??? But I really feel like I am in very poor shape indeed. 

Well. Writing does not make any sort of dent in the Christmas chaos. But I can at least use a blog post to help me figure out what to eat this week. Because, of course, we need to eat despite the many other things that require attention. 

Dinners for the Week of December 11-17

• Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tacos: I feel like someone suggested this recipe to me; was it Birchie? In any event, this sounds delicious and simple and I plan to make extra so that we can have leftovers. 

• Lemon Chicken (inspired by Elisabeth): YUM. Some sort of green vegetable will accompany this. Maybe some leftover latkes as well.

• Short Ribs with Wine and Cream: My husband and I had a little getaway a few weekends ago, to celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. (FIFTEEN YEARS OMG.) We went out to dinner and each ordered a dish that purported to be beef stroganoff. But it was unlike any beef stroganoff I’ve ever had – cream based, with a lot of rosemary flavor – and was so decadent and delicious that I have been thinking about it ever since. This recipe sounds like it could be similar? Although I’m not sure about the capers. Well. Maybe worth a try.

• Ground Beef Tacos: Yes, this means two different kinds of tacos on the meal plan this week. But I could (and sometimes do) eat tacos every day, plus I am trying to plan a playdate for Carla and a friend this week and I think they will both eat tacos. I am TERRIBLE at planning playdates, but Carla assures me that “kids who are almost teenagers, like me,” do not need a mommy to plan some sort of activity for the kids to do. They will just “have a dance party or do a fashion show,” she informed me. Excellent. I am wildly in favor of that kind of playdate. 

That seems like enough meals to get us through. We can have Ham Sandwich for the other three nights I haven’t accounted for. (In my case, leftover tacos.)

Are you suffering any holiday angst, or do you feel like you’re in good shape? 

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Random Reminiscences, or Some Things That Have Improved Since the 1980s

Carla and I have had such an exciting week (no). Yesterday, for instance, we went to the dentist and the library AND the thrift store (to drop off donations, not to look for anything fun), and then we waited for someone from the security company to arrive (he came an hour early) and for someone from the roofing company to arrive (he came an hour and twenty minutes late). 

But the dentist visit and the library visit, at least, gave me a chance to indulge in a little nostalgia. 

Carla, by the way, is so much better about the dentist than she used to be. It was once a source of tremendous anxiety. I can empathize with this, because I too get extremely anxious when I go to the dentist. (Sidebar: I recently was having some tooth pain that was severe enough I was afraid I would need another root canal. And my biggest fear about seeking treatment was not the root canal itself, but the fear of enduring the cold test that they use to diagnose the issue. That was the worst pain I have ever endured, and I was shaking and teary just thinking about the possibility of facing it again. I wondered if I could just… get a root canal without the diagnostic test [probably not]. Anyway, the happy but also deeply disturbing outcome was that I somehow had a piece of aluminum foil stuck in between my teeth that was causing the pain. Once I figured that out, the pain miraculously evaporated. I can figure out how to avoid the cold test another time, huzzah.) The hygienist used to have to wheedle and finagle Carla into doing anything. Brushing her teeth with the weird gritty polish was always A Process that involved lots of negotiation and Mean Mommy Voice. She actively and vehemently resisted the fluoride application, thrashing around and refusing to open her mouth. Our hygienist really got a workout, back in those days.

But! Now Carla is very nonchalant about the whole thing. I asked her in the car if she wanted me to walk her through what to expect, and she said yes. Then she decided in advance which kind of tooth polish she would prefer (grape, or mint) (she ended up choosing cookie dough; gag me). Then I told her that if fluoride was an option, we were going to do it. She still hates the fluoride. 

The thing is, fluoride treatment is so infinitely better than it used to be! She has it so easy! The hygienist gets out a teeny little tub of fluoride (seriously, there must be 1/2 teaspoon in there IF THAT) (and each tiny tub costs $40 out of pocket; our dental insurance – which we are extremely lucky to have, I know! – only covers one fluoride treatment a year, even though our dentist recommends it every six months) and paints it on her teeth and she’s good to go! The only restriction is she can’t drink hot liquids for an hour. That’s it!

When I was a kid, the fluoride treatment was a nightmare. The hygienist gave me a teeny cup full of caustic red liquid and I had to put ALL of it into my mouth and swish it around for a full minute. A full minute is like a million years when you are six or ten or however old I was! And the hygienist always cautioned me to not swallow any. I am a rule follower and also a catastrophizer, so I imagined that swallowing even a teeny amount would kill me. I hated it so much! 

Image from Reddit. Apparently some schools offered fluoride to students??? Did this happen in your school? I only ever got fluoride at the dentist.

There was a fluoride innovation at some point in my youth. Instead of the swishing liquid, my hygienist started carrying a fluoride foam. She would put the foam into the channels of a two-sided flimsy foam U, and I had to bite down on the U so that my teeth would be submerged in foam. Then I had to hold it there, not swallowing for a full minute. This was slightly better because the foam was sweet instead of caustic. But the foam would get all over my face, and by the end of the minute it would be dripping down my chin. Plus, once again I was afraid that even swallowing a teeny amount would result in my immediate death. 

Image once again from Reddit. I can practically taste the fake cherry flavor.

Fluoride treatments were the worst! And my parents had no sympathy for me, just as I have no sympathy for Carla. Because I know how it used to be.

(I mean, I have a little sympathy for her. I know it’s bitter and sticky and annoying. But I’m not going to let her skip it, as she pleads for me to do every six months.)

After the dentist, we went to the library. There was a mesh box on a desk in the kids’ section with three monarch caterpillars in various stages of development in it, and another mesh box on a separate table with a real-live chrysalis in it. Next to the second box was a display of books about bugs and butterflies. 

Libraries are AWESOME. I just love that the librarians, or someone high up in the library admin, think about how to engage young minds and make learning fun and interesting. 

Libraries, in my experience, are a whole lot better than they used to be. And to be fair, my library was the only one in my entire hometown, and my hometown was at least half an hour away from any other town. Where I live now, we have dozens of libraries that are nearby and easy to access. I patronize three regularly. (We are going to have a NEW library and NEW library system when we move, and my husband and I took Carla to check out the library early on in our house hunt to make sure that it was acceptable. Also, we looked into whether we could keep our existing library cards – yes – because we adore our library system.) 

There are special displays set up by the librarians – book club picks, books on rotating themes (gardening, DIY, cooking international recipes), books about whatever holiday is coming up, books by famous authors who have recently celebrated a birthday, received an award, or passed away. There are rows and rows of computers. There are glass-walled rooms furnished with tables and computer hookups that you can reserve online for your homework session or writing group. There are innumerable classes you can take and activities you can attend – all for free. The librarians are friendly and knowledgeable and you (Carla) can ask them for recommendations fitting very specific criteria and they will walk you through the stacks and pull out multiple options and reserve several more for you online. You can pre-order books and come inside to pick them up or get them through the drive-up window. There are always crafts you can take home and reading contests you can participate in. 

When I was kid, you had to whisper in the library. If you didn’t, you would suffer the wrath of the librarian. The librarian was also deeply disapproving of the number of books I checked out each week – although perhaps, in hindsight, my lack of proper book transportation device may have been the subject of her disapproval. I tended to leave with a teetering stack of books in my bare hands. 

My local library took up both floors of a two-story building. It had stacks of books. It had a space for reading periodicals. It had an elevator. You could look things up in the card catalog, and you could research old periodicals on the microfiche machine. There may have been a computer or three. It had a lot to offer. But I don’t remember special displays or targeted groupings of books, or librarians who smiled and told you about monarchs. I do remember that if you read a certain number of books, you could win a free pizza from Pizza Hut… but I think that was a program run through my elementary school, and not the library. (Ah, yes. It was called Book It! and it is still active today!)

Image from @LibbyApp on whatever it is we’re calling Twitter these days.

(Another sidebar: I wonder if my love for things like pizza and tacos originated with school reward systems? In addition to Book It!, there were frequently pizza parties we could win for various things that have escaped my memory. The pizza party part was the important part, not whatever it was we had to do to earn it. In high school, people on the honor roll got to go to lunch early, and on Fridays we had Pizza Hut pizza. I loved being one of the very first kids in line to get the pizza while it was hot and the cheese was melty. YUM. But even better than pizza: We could get a free taco for every A on our report card. Is there any better incentive? NOT FOR ME THERE ISN’T. My mom saved all my report cards in my baby book and it tickles me to see the little stamps from the taco place on each A to indicate I’d collected my free tacos.)

I’m not saying that Today’s World is perfect; I know it has deep and terrifying flaws. But in lots of ways, big and tiny, important and inconsequential, my kid has it really, really good. I try not to “back in my day” her very often, but some things are much better these days. Although I do feel bad that she doesn’t get free pizza and tacos in exchange for her grades.

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Do you remember fluoride treatments from when you were a kid? Did you have any food-based rewards systems when you were growing up? What is something that makes you think kids these days have it a lot easier than you did?

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Dinners This Week

The other day, I saw a headline that said something like, “People Living in [My State] Should Expect to See Higher Food Prices in 2023.” That was a head scratcher because we have been seeing higher food prices for quite a while thanks. Can’t wait for the grocery bills to climb more steeply, I guess.

(The container of honey we have is leaking. But it’s doing so in a way I cannot figure out. I have tried having it rest on its top and on its bottom, and both ways seem to leak, but not in any discernible way, i.e. the top isn’t swimming honey. But I am constantly scrubbing honey off our spice cabinet which is not my favorite. Anyway, my husband discovered the honey leakage yesterday and after hearing my explanation his solution was to throw the entire jar of honey away. Um, no???? It is 3/4 full???? And honey costs a million dollars $4.99 on sale???? I will scrub honey off the shelf every day if it means I can delay paying eight dollars for honey by even a couple weeks.) 

That’s all I have in the way of preamble this week, so let’s get to the dinners.

Dinners for the Week of January 9-15

• Brussels Sprouts Tacos: This is a very specific craving I’m having lately, based on the memory of the amazing spicy Brussels Sprouts tacos I ate with a friend at a local restaurant this summer. I like the sound of the one I linked in the headline, but I also think this smoky version with black beans, sweet potatoes, and crema sounds amazing.
• Thai Larb: Last week, my husband and I tried the Lemongrass BBQ from the sampler of Southeast Asian sauces he got me for Christmas; it was delicious. I want to try the Thai Larb this week.
• Beef with Snow Peas: This is one of the simplest stir fries in our rotation, but it is so delicious. And all the peas make it super crunchy and green, two characteristics I find very appealing.  
• Creamy Chicken and Orzo Soup: Yum, this sounds so good and hearty and nourishing.
• Soy Ginger Salmon Rice Bowl: I could probably swap out the salmon for chicken on behalf of my husband. I am just not in the mood for chicken lately, plus if there is an egg shortage a chicken shortage must not be far behind, right?

What are you eating this week?

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Ask Me Anything Answers, Part 2

Thank you so much to everyone who posted questions on my Ask Me Anything form! It is so fun to read what you want to know, and it is also super fun to have built-in blog content! And please feel free to ask additional questions if you like. 

While I plan to turn a few questions into stand-alone posts (because, as you know, I can never give short answers to anything), here is a roundup of some of your fun questions and my answers.

From San of The In Between Is Mine:

I know you’re not sharing pictures of yourself on your blog, but can you give a general description of what you look like so I can have an image in my head? I wonder if am imagining you totally different from what you actually look like. Haha.

Ah yes. I have only ever shared photos of myself once on this blog, and even then my head was missing. Let’s see if I can craft you a self-portrait.

I am Caucasian. I have dark brown hair ( no bangs) that hangs down past my shoulders. It’s wavy/curly, but I straighten it. I have quite a few freckles and pale-ish, burns-easily skin. My eyes are green, although they can be hazel depending on what I’m wearing. (Tangent: I got very affronted once when my mother claimed that my eyes are hazel. They are NOT hazel. They are green. Changeable, yes, but definitely green. Why does this matter so much to me? Maybe because green eyes aren’t particularly common and I am unremarkable in every other way, lol?) While I don’t wear much makeup, I almost never leave the house without mascara on. I am approximately 5’6” with a thick n’ sturdy bottom half. My mouth naturally turns down, so I have pretty severe RBF when I’m not focusing on Looking Pleasant and Approachable. I have a facial scar on my chin/neck that makes me very self-conscious when I meet new people. I like to wear leggings or jeans and loose-fitting but not shapeless tops that cover my rear, and prefer wedges to any other shoe style. I have very sensitive eyes, so I almost always have sunglasses on (and I personally think I look better in sunglasses than without). In one of her Ramona books, Beverly Cleary describes the mother of one of Ramona’s friends as “comfortable looking,” and the instant I read it I thought, yes. That is me: I am comfortable looking. Like a squashy couch.

From Amanda:

Could you make your blog so I can read it entirely in Feedly, not just the snippet?

This is a question I do not entirely know the answer to! My understanding of Feedly is minimal, and I did nothing on my end to enable Feedly to capture my posts. (Maybe a million years ago I clicked something in WordPress that says “enable RSS” or the like? I don’t know.) After a quick Google search, it seems like there IS a way to do this, but it looks like I would need to install a plug-in that is quite expensive. This blog is purely fun for me — I make a few dollars in amazon commissions a year, but beyond that, I don’t make any money from blogging; nor do I spend any money on blogging, aside from the time I put into writing posts and reading comments, so I don’t plan at this time to spend money on plug-ins. That’s a pretty selfish response, I recognize that, and I feel terrible that there are people who aren’t able to read this blog in the way they want to, but I just can’t justify the cost. (Nor do I want to do what it would take to monetize this blog. I feel like that would ruin it for me.) I would suggest signing up for email delivery of my posts, but a) that’s entirely different from going to Feedly and reading the posts you want to read, and b) the emails only include a snippet as well. I’m sorry! If anyone else is aware of a free way to accomplish Amanda’s request, I am all ears.

UPDATE! Kaelyn of Grateful Kae showed me how to fix this! So Feedly should now pick up the full text of my posts.

If you also want to do this, and you also have a WordPress blog, simply go into your dashboard, click on “settings,” and then choose “reading.” Then you scroll down to where it says “For each post in a feed, include” and then toggle the “full post” option.

Thank you so much, Kaelyn!

From Nicole of Girl in a Boy House:

What is your very favourite food? 

Oh Nicole. I have so many favorite foods! If I had to choose one, I would go with tacos. But I also adore pizza and red curry and chicken tikka masala and shrimp linguine with lemon-garlic-wine sauce and filet mignon with bordelaise and garlicky mashed potatoes and many, many other things. 

What is your favourite cocktail? My favorite is the classic margarita, rocks, with salt rim. But I also enjoy a good gin and tonic, or a dirty martini, or a gin gimlet. 

If there is a wedding that you’re attending, what song will get you on the dance floor no matter what? Probably anything from the 90s. Like… “Hit Me Baby One More Time” or “Bye Bye Bye.” 

If you were to karaoke, what song would you sing? “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer, even though some of the register is too low for my voice. Or maybe “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. That’s a belter. But I would never ever do karaoke. I get embarrassed singing along to songs in the car with my husband and daughter!

And do you have a favourite stage of Carla’s? The current stage is always my favorite! When I look back at prior stages, I tend to romanticize them. Like how cute she was when she was a toddler! But then I remember how she had absolutely no concept of personal safety and would just tear down a hallway/store aisle/parking lot if I happened to let go of her hand for a nanosecond, and I think, Nope, this stage is good. 

From NGS of The Time for Change:

How do you make your bed cozy? Fancy sheets, luxurious pajamas, special pillow? I am a hot sleeper, so I tend to avoid cozy for most of the year. In fact, my husband went on a quest this year to find me cooling sheets and a cooling duvet cover so that I would be more comfortable. We haven’t pulled the trigger on the sheets yet (sheets are so! expensive! and yes, I know you use them every day, so it’s worthwhile to spend a little more, but yeesh! so! expensive!), but we did get a cooling duvet cover that I adore. In the winter, we do put flannel sheets on our bed. I enjoy climbing into them, all fuzzy and warm, at night. But then I wake up all drenched in sweat and like them less. 

What is your favorite time of day? Early morning, when I am the only person awake and I have time to do nothing of consequence for awhile. Since Carla is an early riser, these early mornings alone are few and far between, so I tend to really cherish them.

Do you have a favorite pair of shoes? I love all my shoes equally. Well, except my wedges: I love them slightly more. I have fancy black patent leather wedges; I have faux-horsehair wedges in a leopard print; I have light grey canvas wedges; and brownish-grey faux-leather wedges. Plus a couple of pairs of wedge sandals. Wedges are leg-lengthening and sturdy, they go with anything from leggings to dresses to jeans, and I love them so much. Of course, I can’t really WEAR them anymore, what with the foot pain. But I can dream of a day when I will wear them again, pain free.

What’s your favorite hobby (besides this blog, obviously)? Reading! That counts as a hobby, right? If not, I have zero hobbies besides this blog. 

From Colleen Martin of Martin Family Moments:

What are your thoughts on the afterlife/ghosts/Heaven and the like? Wow, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me this before! Because I am not particularly religious, I don’t really feel like I have any sort of belief in the afterlife/heaven. This life is all we have, and it’s a gift, and we should make it count in whatever way is meaningful to us. However… I don’t know. And I am willing to admit that there are forces in the universe that I am unaware of, forces that I cannot fathom or explain, so if there were an afterlife/heaven, I guess I would not be surprised. (Same goes for ghosts. I have never experienced anything supernatural, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.) 

It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San’s blog here.

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Pandemic Update; Memorial Day Weekend Meals

I am sad and my foot hurts and I have too many things to do but instead I keep bouncing back and forth between reading awful news articles and researching gun control legislation, so I am going to distract myself by blogging for a few minutes. 

Today as I was putting away the groceries (this is the THIRD trip to the grocery store I have made this week, which is a testament to how important it is to MEAL PLAN in advance because I did not do that this week and now here we are), I came across a giant five-pound bag of sugar that I bought in 2020 during the height of the sugar/flour shortage. I remember spotting it at Costco, alongside enormous industrial sized bags of flour and snapping it up with glee and relief. It has remained in my basement lo these many years. 

Well, my sugar container is looking a bit wan, so I will use the five-pound bag to refill it. My sugar container does not hold five pounds of sugar, though, so… I’m not really sure what to do with the remainder. That’s what gallon-size Ziploc storage bags are for, I suppose.

(The reason I need to refill the sugar container is because I am making cupcakes. They were supposed to do double duty: 1. They were to be dessert for an evening with friends, who were scheduled to come for dinner this weekend. 2. They were to be a special birthday surprise for our neighbor, who has become one of Carla’s favorite people on the planet; when Carla found out it was the neighbor’s birthday, she insisted that we make cupcakes. Anyway, the friends are no longer coming but the neighbor is still having a birthday, so I am still making cupcakes.) 

Pulling out the five-pound bag of sugar did jolt me back, a bit, into those dark days of the early pandemic. Not that the days have gotten a whole lot brighter, in many senses, pandemic and otherwise. But things are different. We no longer buy two jars of pickles a week, for one thing. I still note that we are getting low on paper towels or toilet paper, but I don’t fret. I raised my eyebrows when I saw that cream cheese was in very low supply (and zero of the Philadelphia brand was available), but I didn’t grab more boxes than I need for the cupcake recipe. The peanut butter shelves were near-empty, but that’s because of the Jif recall, not because peanut butter is no longer available. (Our giant two-pack of Jif was in the affected batch; we’d already eaten one entire jar but the other was unopened.) I have been gradually and purposefully whittling down our supply of frozen meat, rather than rushing out to refill it. 

I know things are still far from pre-pandemic “normal.” The note about “only four packages of baby formula per person” at my Target is a glaring example of that fact. But I do worry less. 

On the illness front: I have given Carla a Covid test before school every day this week. She keeps waking up with a sore throat or sniffles (that do seem to magically disappear by the time we leave for school), and I just don’t want to take a chance. Plus, Covid is rampant in her grade, with four and five cases per class as of last week (except in Carla’s class, so far). We are five days out from the end of the school year, and it would be amazing if she could make it the whole way… but that seems increasingly unlikely. 

My family continues to wear masks in public, indoor spaces. I am accustomed to wearing one that I don’t really notice anymore how many people are or aren’t wearing masks. I haven’t been hassled. My husband thinks that our road trip later this summer will take us through a lot of areas where masking will be non-existent, and I wonder if we’ll be hassled then; we’ll see. Carla’s school went mask-optional a long time ago, and we allowed Carla to make her own choice about whether to wear one or not. She enthusiastically chose NOT. We have been urging her, as cases at school and in her grade have crept up, to reconsider, and I think she IS wearing a mask at least some of the time. But it’s hard to know. When you are eight, it is extremely difficult to understand abstract non-immediate consequences. 

We are in the very, very privileged position of not having any underlying health issues ourselves, and not having any immunocompromised people in our household or classroom/work situation to worry about so we are more relaxed than some. I don’t know much about Long Covid, so that does worry me a little. We are of course willing and happy to take stronger measures if necessary – like I am always happy to throw on a mask if a friend is wearing one, and I don’t insist on going out for coffee when it is perfectly acceptable to have coffee at my house. But I feel like we have reached a level of comfort and regularity with how we protect ourselves. More than ever, it feels like contracting Covid is inevitable. We have been so lucky not to have it (or to have had such mild cases it went through us undetected); that luck is bound to run out.  

We are looking at a nice long weekend ahead of us. I finally got some flowers into the flowerpots in my front and back yard, and that makes me feel much better about things. They were looking so dejected and depressed; now they have little bright spots of color. (Except for the pot that has been designated as Carla’s. She went with me to pick out the flowers, and she fell in love with some black petunias. She would have had all our pots full of black flowers if it were up to her. Instead, I bought her a black petunia and gave her her own pot. And then filled up the other flower pots with purple and yellow and pink.)

I am very disappointed that our friends are no longer coming. We haven’t seen them since February, and they are the kind of people whose social calendars fill up months in advance so the next time they can work us in is August. (In fact, we’d originally been scheduled to have them over for dinner in April, but they accidentally double-booked us and had to back out of that; late May was the first available option way back in March when they realized the issue.) So I am disappointed and cranky about that. Especially because I already bought – literally – ten Roma tomatoes so I can make salsa and five avocados so I can make guacamole. I guess my little family will be feasting on salsa and guacamole all weekend. Perhaps I can coax our neighbor to come over for a little birthday fiesta? 

In my planning for the dinner party, I totally forgot about the long weekend. So this morning I planned out our meals on the fly, mid-produce section. In addition to chips, salsa, guacamole, and strawberry cupcakes, here’s what we will be eating:

• Ground Beef Tacos: Carla squealed with delight when I told her we will be having tacos. Same, Carla. Same.
• Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Chicken, and Goat Cheese: I will be using regular strawberries this time, not pineberries. Also, I like to use a mix of spinach and arugula because I dislike spinach. Also also, I am going to make my favorite balsamic dressing instead of the raspberry vinaigrette. 
• Steak Kebabs: This may end up being steaks and veggies instead because my husband has a very interesting aversion to cooking shish kebabs. Even if I am the one who threads the food onto the skewers AND grills the skewers, he is very… hesitant about it. I am choosing to see this quirk as cute.
• Crispy Slow Cooker Carnitas: This is what I planned to make for our friends. It’s fairly keto-friendly and always delicious.
• Greek Chicken Chopped Salad: Unfortunately, I could not find any fresh oregano so I will need to go to the grocery store YET AGAIN. I will use that opportunity to buy more berries; I cannot get enough strawberries right now.

Salads and tacos. Sounds pretty great to me.

What are you up to this weekend? If you live in the U.S., are you doing anything special for Memorial Day?

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