The Five and Dine - Cold-weather Cooking Recipe

This is today.

I talk often with my Story Circle Network online sisters about simplifying our lives, eating locally, and matters of aging. Those topics have me thinking about daily meals, and how we cook in this household. Hubbs and I both love to putter in the kitchen, and we're both pretty good at food prep, but we tend to get maybe a bit too global and elaborate sometimes. It's really not necessary to have Sunday meals every day of the week just because you like recipes and food. So we've been trying to downsize our menus, and we actually do have quite a few recipes that are one-pot and with limited ingredients. Here's one of our favorites that we had today:

Cabbage and Noodle Stir-fry

1 lb. fat egg noodles boiled and drained according to package instructions

1 lb. hot Italian sausage, bulk or removed from casing, then fried in a hot wok

1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced, added to sausage in wok, continue frying

1 small head of green cabbage, cored and sliced, add to sausage and onion in wok, keep cooking

Add boiled egg noodles

Soy sauce, Braggs, or even Teriyaki sauce to taste (it will take quite a lot - just splash away!)

There you have the basic five ingredients and instructions. Easy peasy. Now you can adapt to your own taste with different vegetables (adding sliced red bell pepper is nice for color and flavor, for example). The addition of garlic or fresh ginger can also add a tantalizing layer of taste. The magic in this recipe, of course, is the savory flavor of the hot Italian sausage, which marries so beautifully with the more bland noodles and vegetables. If hot isn't your thing, or if you have children, mild is also fine just not as zesty. Be forewarned that this makes a lot, but freezes very well for future fast meals.

If memory serves me, the recipe comes to me via my mother from a German magazine decades ago, and has long been a family favorite. Great on a cold snowy day like we're having!

What's cookin' on your stove today?

Temp: 10/-14 windchill advisory -25 Brrrrr
Started: A blog book tour for Little Pickle Press
Finished: A knitted watch cap for my nephew
Word count: 100

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

~ Max Ehrmann

Peace on Sunday.

Sad day in the news

It's been an awful day in the news with the attempted assassination of U.S. Representive, Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona. Giffords was one of several people shot at a Safeway supermarket in Tucson, AZ where she was meeting publicly with constituents. Six people have died including a federal judge and a 9-year-old, but Rep. Giffords survived the surgery. A bullet pierced her brain. Federal and Arizona law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Jared Lee Loughner, 22. Sarah Palin's website target map, which included the representative's name and location, was quickly pulled. The Internet is abuzz with this angle, and I'm in agreement that out-of-control hate speech is party to nut-case behaviors like this. People have been hurt and Palin is as culpable as anyone else promoting dissent and violence. I can only hope it's ended any of her unrealistic political aspirations. It was a hell of a price to pay for some return to public sanity, if that turns out to be the result. She's a self-serving narcissist. I guess that's redundant.

More about the blog book tour tomorrow. I'm giving up for the night. Have a serious case of writers block, and that's saying something. I never have writers block.

Temps: 47/16 Winter Storm Watch
Started: Nothing
Finished: Hanging new drapes
Word count: 0 on real work

Hoop House

I want one! Here's more information and a video about the White House project and the USDA pilot program:




Here's the link for more information - nrcs.usda.gov

Temp: 40/17 with 5 inches of snow on the way
Started: More writing than I can think about
Finished: Holy Moley Cookies
Word Count: 500

Boinga Boinga

Weather forecast coming up.

And that's how it's been most of the winter with these wild swings. My trees hate it. It was over 50 degrees today and about the same tomorrow before a winter storm moves in over the weekend.

Enough is a feast. ~ Buddhist Proverb

On the menu yesterday and today was Commander Bailey's navy bean soup - one of my favorites from the It's a Wonderful Life Cookbook. Hubbs made biscuits to go with and I have to say this kind of a meal suits me better than just about anything these days. Soup, bread, a few olives, and maybe a bit of fresh fruit. Or a dab of honey on half the bread. It sits well with me. What did you have for supper today?

Temp:  See above
Started: Cleaning pantry, deleting and moving emails, a new book
Finished: Kicking myself for not finishing something :)
Word Count: 500+

Taxing Times

I got to thinking about my old job as a public accountant today. January and tax season always bring up those memories. I don't miss that work, but I learned a lot and still use the experience and knowledge I gleaned from those years.

When I was doing the work decades ago, we didn't use computers. I know that's hard to believe! I worked for a CPA firm in Denver at the time, and I had about two dozen small business clients. Every month they would bring me their checkbooks and tax forms, I'd write up their journals by hand, balance the bank accounts, post and balance the general ledger (again by hand) and to the penny, file the assorted tax returns, and draw up financial statements if requested. I usually completed two sets of books per day.

My quarterly load was larger, and tax season larger yet, when actual tax returns for businesses and their owners had to be submitted. Then things really became intense, with long hours, and lots of meetings, and more stress than I could handle today. I loved the bookkeeping but hated the complex tax accounting. Oil and gas accounting and futures trading were nightmares.

I don't even like to think about doing this kind of work now. I'm kind of a slob with my own accounting, mostly because I keep it so dead simple, I can put off the actual drudge work for months on end.

But thinking in accounting terms is second nature to me, and I find myself examining situations based on numbers involved without consciously thinking about it. I can have a conversation with someone in a grocery story and still keep a running tally of my bill and be within a few dollars. When I'm on my death bed, I'll probably be calculating the cost of my own funeral. And nail it within pennies right before they nail my coffin closed!

It's not a bad thing I guess.

I figured I'd written about 500 words today. Actual count 525. See what I mean? It's second nature.

Speaking of taxing times, don't forget to check out our CafePress Shop and see the Aunt IRiS Wants You mug and other merch. Designed by the hubbo and very cool. All sales help pay my taxes!

What about you? Are you any good at the numbers game?

Temp: 41/12
Finished: Starting a Business is Kidstuff
Started: Open Season by Maryann Miller
Word count: 525

Trying to catch up

I'm almost breathless today trying to get ahead of the game - mostly I'm a bit behind on writing. If you're interested in some recent projects, head over to the Little Pickle Press blog for three days of Starting a Business is Kidstuff. It's the basics of a workshop I put together several decades ago, and then tucked away in a file. I'm thinking of turning it into a workbook for adults with a bit of tweaking. And maybe some decent artwork. That mind map is pretty rough.

Oh, and the blog book tour for Your Fantastic Elastic Brain starts next Monday. Make a note: do not try to plan anything during high holidays. Nobody wants to work. This is the first year in decades I haven't taken December off. Next year I'm going back to the old schedule. I'm still looking for blog hosts with Google ranking of 4 - preferably teachers, librarians, or child psychologists.


Gorgeous day today - probably around 40 degrees and sunny. We drove the Beetle and got the first part of the engine break-in done. Beautiful! Now if we can just figure out why the brake lights don't work. I'm ready for a trip to the city and want to take her for that longer spin.

Temp: 37/6
Finished: Nothing
Started: Nothing
Word count: 680+

Visiting With Old Friends

We had a nice lunch and visit with an old neighbor from the city today. He was here in the outback doing energy audits for the regional gas company. Jack is an architect and is very enthusiastic about this job,  because the company offers such generous incentives to improve energy efficiency - up to 70% rebates on caulking and insulation, for example. I'm halfway thinking we should hook up a gas water heater just to participate.

Have you checked what your energy company offers for this sort of home improvement? It's not just the cost that's important here, but actual reduction of fuel use. Can you imagine how climate change issues would improve if nobody had to heat or cool their houses? It's a huge environmental burden, especially in developed nations.

Other news: Mom fell down the stairs yesterday, but nothing was broken except maybe her pride. She sounded good on the phone, but this is the second visit to the hospital in a month. There's a good luck expression in German that says, "eine gutes Rutsch in Neues Jahr" or " a good slide into the new year". Don't be so literal, Mom!

Gorgeous sunny day again! But cold. Seed catalogs are calling though! I wish the snowdrifts would melt so I could get to the beds nearest the house. Salad greens, my mouth waters for thee!

Temp: 33/2
Finished: Tomorrow's blog posts
Started: Cleaning my desk!
BIW word count: 4 pages

Another New Day

A friend just shared this and I want to keep it as a reminder:

This is the day you grow another year wiser.

This is the day you forget what you know to be impossible. . . .

Sweep your grudges out,
scatter them to nothing.

Scrub your wishes pure,
Wash your heart clear.

Open your windows wide,
Let the new year begin.

from a poem By Janet S. Wong

This morning was bright and sunny - and much warmer. That's always a nice way to start the day. I uploaded photos from the digi and was astounded at the progress of the '71 VW Beetle which is my Birthday and Christmas present. As soon as the snow melts, I'll get to break in the new engine. Makes my heart go pitter-patter! Look at that beauty - Poppy is her name and efficiency is her game!

Here are the paper-whites for my birthday. Hubbs always gets me some sort of flower and these are a special favorite in winter. They did exceptionally well and grew to blooms in only a few weeks - I think the key to forcing bulbs is to keep a good portion of the bulb above soil, and then well-watered. Couldn't have been lovelier! I just wish they lasted as long as orchids. They're so ephemeral. But maybe that's what makes them even more special.

A hand-delivered gift basket from my siblings.Those crazy brothers of mine drove all the way out here to deliver this basket of goodies that my baby sister put together for us. They didn't ring the doorbell and we had no idea who left it when we opened the door on Christmas Eve. Crazy guys - I suspect having four hours to yack and cut-up without anyone else around was half the fun. Thanks kids!

Way too much fun with hubbs on Christmas Eve! Have some more eggnog!

More parts for the Beetle - be still my restless heart - and a year's worth of tune-ups from my live-in mechanic. Gotta love a man who can do just about everything, and I'm not exaggerating!

And finally on New Year's, the lovely bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé champagne (straight out of a snowbank and crispy cold) sent by the chief executive pickle at Little Pickle Press. It paired marvelously with the Shrimp Jambalaya, and its dry, herby tones ensured NO headache from too much of the bubbly. Lovely!

I'm definitely starting the new year off on the right foot! Such wonderful memories.


Temp: 40/-1

Finished: Monday blog posts

Started: Prep for the first Book-in-a-Week of the year which starts at 8AM tomorrow

Happy New Year 1/1/11

May the year be as fortuitous as the date. After six years, we're still on the wide, windy high plains and I'm just now thinking I should write about our time here. So this blog will now become a look back as well as into the future. It's my public lifewriting journal, and I'll be sharing blog links to my friends at Story Circle Network on a regular basis. If you don't write about your life, maybe now is the time to consider it. I believe the world, and we on a tangential level, are in for some big changes in the near future. Let us pull together from day-to-day. Wishing you health and happiness however you define those terms!

Temp: Cold, residual snow 22/-9

Finished: A pair of wrist warmers for Mom. All the ironing.

Started: A watch cap for my nephew. A new journal.