Boy what a week it’s been!

You’ll recall from last week how Peeps and I were both having mother issues – his mom came through her surgery just fine and is feeling well enough to, well, she’s kind of giving the hospital staff a rough time, so I guess that’s a good sign, right?

My mother had her procedure, too, and, fortunately she didn’t have to be admitted to the hospital, and both my parents spent Friday evening and Saturday morning with us before heading home.  And of course, Saturday morning included a trip to the Public Market – I not only got my regular produce and eggs, but I got a flat of cute little violas for this year’s window boxes (Mother helped me pick them out).

I do still have to get a few more plants – some hangy stuff and maybe something a little taller. . . then I’ll get everything properly planted.  But for now, aren’t they cute?

The perennial portion of the herb garden is, well, it’s perennial, huh?  I did divide the thyme and the oregano a couple of weeks ago, and next year, I may do the same to the tarragon and the sage.  Maybe even the lavender.

Meanwhile, the new stuff – dill, basil, rosemary, and a couple more parsleys – are settling in nicely, so I guess we can have plenty of fresh herbs to look forward to this summer.

We came home from visiting Peeps’s mom Saturday evening, and we were TIRED and HUNGRY – it had been a long day (week) and it was well past dinnertime.

As it happens, one of the things I picked up at the market was a package of romaine hearts, and the current issue of Cook’s Country featured a grilled Caesar salad which sounded quite good.  While the recipe includes homemade dressing (and, of course, I had to make the mayonnaise before I could make the dressing!) anyway, I’m sure a decent bottled caesar or creamy parmesan dressing would work just fine.

The deal was – you cut the lettuce in half, leaving the core in to hold it together, and then brush the cut side with dressing before slapping it on the grill.

That’s right – grilled lettuce.

Trust me.

AND, since we had some leftover roasted chicken breast, I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to give a couple of slices of that meat the same treatment – brush with dressing and reheat it gently on the grill.

It was the perfect late, light dinner, and, even making the dressing from scratch, it came together in well under half an hour.

I do still plan to get rid of that gosh-awful linoleum tile in the front entry – even though I have no idea what kind of shape the hardwood will be in when I do.

Since it’s such a cruddy job, and my discretionary time seem to be somewhat limited lately, I’ve decided it may work better to just clean up a dozen or so tiles at a time – I have to scrape the tiles off, then remove what appears to be a double-thick layer of some sort of adhesive, then I need to thoroughly clean up the solvent that actually softens the glue.

Someday, the floors will need to be refinished anyway, but for now, I think I much prefer the spotty, paint-spotted, and scratched hardwood to the awful plastic tile or, even worse, that fugly old blue carpet.

And I think Jar agrees.

And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan.  We still don’t know what the Peeps’s Mom Situation will be, so we’re going to try to keep things as manageable as we can.  Although it’s looking to be a spring-like week, it’s also looking like we may see a bit of rain, so . . .

Monday - Between a late day at work, forgetting to pre-prep the meal, and hospital visits, we ended up putting off last week’s falafel, so we’re going to remedy that right away.  The falafel mix is made and in the fridge, as is the dough for whole-wheat pitas.

Tuesday - While we were rummaging in the freezer looking for shrimp (which we did NOT find), we did come across one last package of Chinese pork, all cut into cubes and ready for a batch of fried rice.  Okay.

Wednesday - And since we’re pre-cooking rice for Tuesday, we’ll do a little extra for some (meatless) veggie burgers we noticed while thumbing through the current Bon Appetit magazine.  And again, the dough for honey-whole wheat burger rolls is also made and in the fridge.

Thursday - Seasonally warm weather notwithstanding, while we were digging in the freezer, we found a smoked pork shoulder that Peeps had put aside for his favorite meaty beans – that’ll probably also be another future dinner and several lunches, I’m sure.

Friday - And as always, it’s pizza night.  At this point, we don’t know what the head count will be, but I’d imagine that even if Peeps’s mom doesn’t make it over for pizza, she’d probably not mind some delivery!

Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.

Something with a “day” in it, anyway – I know that.

You’d never know I took a couple of vacation days this week, would you?  I mean, I should have the house spotless, fancy meals, flowers planted, and, of course, blog posts written.   Quality blog posts, even.

Of course, Sunday was Mother’s Day, and I started my day with a text message to the Boy:

Hey, where’s my flowers at???

I like to try to be hip when I talk to the younger generation, you know?

Of  course, the fact that I didn’t even attempt to phone MY mother until later in the afternoon is completely irrelevant.  I just assumed she was busy, what with 3 other kids AND several grandchildren . . .

And then, when I DID remember plan to call her, well, the phone rang and it was Peeps’s mom calling me.

See, Peeps’s mom was scheduled for surgery this week, and she’s been gradually getting more and more freaked out about it.  It seems that, just because something’s “routine surgery” – well, that doesn’t mean it’s routine for the person getting cut open.  By the time I got off the phone, I guess I’d had enough mothers for one day.

That, and I completely forgot to call my own mother.  On Mother’s Day.

I did call her the next day, explained WHY I hadn’t called, and apologized profusely.  But still.

So, I took a couple of days off so I could take my time planting the garden, rather than trying to get it all in the ground at once.

And all weekend, through Monday, it was cold and rainy, and I was NOT about to play around out in the dirt in that kind of weather.

Then we woke up Tuesday morning to a nice, sparkly frost.  Dandy.

Fortunately, though, I hadn’t actually planted anything finicky yet, so the tomatoes, basil, and green beans were all safe, so I spent the better part of Tuesday morning planting the entire garden in one day.  We’d better not get any more frost, that’s all I’m saying.

Peeps’s mom had her surgery, and she came through it just fine, though she’s pretty uncomfortable – between the stitches and the fact that, as of last night she still had to be escorted to the bathroom, well, let’s just say that she’s NOT a happy camper.

At all.

Oh, and speaking of bathrooms.

Yikes – the the Big Lug seems to have picked up some sort of stomach bug or something.  We typically go through this once or twice a year.  I guess that’s what happens when he’s such a delicate little flower, huh?  We had him at the vet’s office last week, and all was well, then we started him back on his flea treatment (which he gets every month during the warmer months, so I doubt it’s that) and we changed his antihistamines (poor thing, he’s a mess in the spring!), but THAT shouldn’t have anything to do with anything.  And I know he hasn’t eaten any dead things on our walks, because we’ve gotten the “drop it” cue down.  He “drops it” like a pro now – even squirrel jerky!

Or course, that’s not to say he didn’t grab something small and single-bite-sized at some point, or even find a stashed bone in the back yard that might have been a little past its prime. . . regardless, after Peeps came home from visiting his mom in the hospital on his way home from work to find an “accident” – well, after that, we decided that he could fast last night.

Do you know difficult it is to fast a dog when it’s dinnertime and he’s following you around the house pointing at the clock and reminding you that he hasn’t eaten?  So he got a piece of bread, soaked in chicken broth, and THAT was IT.  And this morning, he got half kibble, half plain white rice.

So far so good. . .

Oh, and speaking of fasting, I’m back on the weight-loss thing.  I was doing so well before, and, I don’t know, I guess I lost momentum.

What really happened was that I got darn sick and tired of tracking every stupid bite of food.

But anyway, I’m back, and I’ve been losing about 2 pounds a week for the past, er, two weeks.

It’s something.  My doctor set me up with an appointment with a nutritionist next week – oh goody.

Oh, and speaking of doctors.

My mother has an appointment at the hospital here in town tomorrow, and she may or may not end up being admitted.  Hopefully not,  because it’s not even the same hospital that Peeps’s mom is in, and I’m sorry, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere – I am NOT visiting TWO mothers in TWO different hospitals in the same day.

Of course, you know I will if I have to, but I won’t like it.

So . . what’ve you all been up to?

Since I’m actually writing this on Sunday, I want say “happy Mothers Day”  - at least to anyone to whom it applies!

Remember how we bought that little live Christmas tree last year?  Well, the weather finally got nice enough that Peeps put it in the ground last week – it’s been close to a week, and it seems to be adjusting nicely! I’ll probably prune it next year, once it’s had a chance to get used to its new home.

Have I mentioned that that silly cat comes scooting out to the living room almost the minute the dog goes out on his afternoon walks?

It’s almost like she’s staking out her territory – either that, or checking to make sure he hasn’t hurt anything.

The other day, I actually caught her on the bookshelf!

I wasn’t sure if she was planning to start poking around in my sock yarn, but then, when I caught her trying to drink out of my water glass, I knew what she was up to.

Just so you know, it’s not like she doesn’t have her own fresh water – apparently she prefers people water.  Iced people water.

So we went to the pubic market this weekend – it’s the first week of Flower City Sundays.  Rather than produce and other foodibles, the vendors during this time have plants and flowers.

Although I wanted some nice perennials and some pretty annuals for the window boxes, I didn’t really see anything that struck my fancy.  Except hostas – I found a great deal on some hostas, so I grabbed them. I’ll get flowers next week.

However, flowers aside, the REAL main reason I was at the market this weekend was to finish getting plants for the garden.

I got plenty of tomatoes – my Beloved JetStars, a few heirlooms, some cherry tomatoes, and a few Romas, as well as basil, parsley and marjoram.

Now I just need it to stop raining and get warm again so I can get them all in the ground!

And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan.

Well, I guess, here in upstate New York, when it comes to nice weather, it’s easy come easy go, huh?  The past couple of weeks have been warm and sunny – and now we’ve got some chilly, rainy weather to look forward to, at least for the first part of the week, and, as always, we plan our menu with one eye on the forecast.

Monday - Chilly and rainy – plus the last of our leek sausage, some fresh leeks, and a new pressure cooker cookbook.  We’re going to try risotto in the pressure cooker. . . .wish us luck!

Tuesday - I’m hoping it’s going to clear up enough to fire up the grill – the newest Cook’s Country came last week, and we thought the grilled meatloaf burgers sounded good.  Don’t they?  And as long as the grill is going, we can grill some potatoes and either toss a salad steam some broccoli.

Wednesday -  We also just got the newest Cooking Light magazine – and we have leftover roasted chicken to use.  The Peanut Chicken Soup sounded quite nice – light and flavorful AND different and exiting.

Thursday - While digging around in the archives looking for something meatless (we DO try to do meatless once a week!), I found the Chef Mom’s falafel.  If I remember, I may make some kind of yogurt-tahini sauce or something for it.  And what, salad?

Friday - Ah, the end of the week, and it’s Kong and pizza night.  Not sure, yet, what we’ll do.  Can you tell I’m starting to get a little anxious for my garden?  Boy, once those tomatoes come in, it’s all tomatoes all the time!  For now, though, I guess I’ll go with maybe cheese and whatever fresh herbs I can scrounge out of the garden at this point.  It’ll work.

Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.

However, I did read an article the other day that made me stop and think about whether I’d pay more to support a local business.

Like most people these days, we generally try to be as budget-conscious (read: frugal) (re-read:  cheap) as we can, although, again, like many people, we each have our, well, shall we say indulgences?

Currently, my biggest indulgence seems to be sock yarn.  For every Christmas gift project I buy yarn for, I seem to be buying enough extra, “undesignated” yarn for at least a couple of pairs of socks. 

So naturally, when the question was posed, I did stop and think – quite a bit.  In this age of big-box stores and internet sales, it’s often almost impossible to get the “best price” locally anymore, unless you count the Walmart down the street as “local business,” though I don’t think anyone really does, do they?

I do realize that I’m fortunate to have access to our great Public Market – where farmers and other vendors gather year-round.  Ah, but the key there is “vendors” – they’re not all local farmers!

Um, obviously not, if I can manage to bring home artichokes and citrus, huh? 

But many of the vendors are local farmers, and in a number of cases, I’ve made a deliberate choice to support the small businesses – but not in all cases.

I’m not going to pay $4.00 a  dozen for “organic free range” eggs, when regular old eggs are half that at the supermarket.  However, I’m happy to pay an extra $.50 for DIFFERENT eggs that are cage- and antibiotic-free.

I just can’t see paying $10 a pound for homegrown beef at this point, though it’s under serious consideration once the freezers are emptied.

Asparagus – last week, I paid DOUBLE for asparagus that had been picked locally the day before in preference to the stuff that had been picked who-knows-when and shipped in from Mexico.

Okay, so the food thing is easy – locavore, fossil fuels, blah blah blah.

But there’s a little more to it, isn’t there?  What about stuff that’s not made, grown, produced, whatever, locally?

Say. . . what about that sock yarn that I’ve been so in love with lately?  There are not a lot of superwash sheep grazing around the greater Rochester area, let me tell you!

So what about that?  Things we need (let’s just agree that we need sock yarn, okay?) but must be imported from SOMEWHERE, in SOME manner.

I’ll be honest – THIS is where where I really had to do some honest soul-searching – when it came to my sock habit.  How sad is that?

Sure, I could probably hunt out some old lady who spins yarn from her own homegrown sheep – I guess.  And quite possibly, not RIDICULOUSLY far away.  There are both Amish and Mennonite communities within a couple of hours of here.  I’m probably not gonna do that, though.

Then there are local yarn shops – there are two that are easily (the most minor of detours) on my way home.  And the people there are SO nice.  SO helpful.  But MAN, the yarn is expensive.  And truly, the selection, well, they can’t stock everything, can they?  And apparently socks aren’t even the only thing people knit!   But I am reasonably confident that, if I ever had a question on anything I was doing, there would be someone here, in one of those shops,who could help me out.

There is, of course, the Big Box option – and, even worse, the online Big Box – what an individual store may or may not stock, I can certainly get from their online versions, if I wanted to.

This is my dilemma – shopping at the local shop is the most expensive, cost-wise, but it also provides the best service, AND it does the most to support my community.  But WOW, it can be expensive.  

Shopping at the Big Box, while the product may be a bit (or a lot) cheaper,  customer service is virtually non-existent, AND any profits will end up far, far from here.

BUT that Big Box does, at least, employ my neighbors.    Hmmmm. . .

While those aren’t the ONLY two options, they’re certainly the most local ones.  There’s also the online mom-and-pop shops – stores that do mail-order that are, in fact, local yarn shops, just not local HERE.  But their profits stay in their community, rather than going into the corporate pockets of some multi-national conglomerate.

What’s a gal to do?

What about you?  Do you prefer to shop locally, even if it means spending a little more, or would you rather save the money?

Ah, a glorious weekend, with a wonderful trip to the Public Market!

Although I’d planned to wait a week or two to start filling the garden, I did pick up the seed potatoes I’d ordered a couple of months ago – and then I could not resist a couple of plants for the herb garden – but the bulk of my garden plant buying will take place next weekend.

One thing I was THRILLED to find was fresh, local asparagus!  I’ve been seeing it for several weeks, but it’s all been shipped in.  I prefer to wait for the local stuff that was picked the day before I bought it – and who can blame me?

Yay – roasted asparagus this weekend!

Well, I had a bit of a lull at work, so I took a couple of days of vacation time – goodness knows I’ve needed it!

I mostly puttered around, got my hair cut, had a doctor’s appointment, that sort of thing.

But, with the absolutely stellar weather we’ve been enjoying, I did make time each day to pour myself a frosty beverage (usually icewater) and sit out on the deck for a while and just knit.  Although those Christmas socks aren’t going to knit themselves, I’ve got half a year for that.  For now, I’m working on a pair for myself.

Judy, aren’t you proud of me?

The kale and lettuce that I planted last week?  Yup, it’s up.

I started some celery seeds, too, in the house, but I’m not so sure about them.  They’re up, but I think I was a bit late starting them – like a couple of months.  And I think celery takes a little more fussing than I realized.  I don’t know what they’re going to do.

Anyone out there ever (successfully) grow celery?  Or should I just put peppers in instead?

Several years ago, a friend gave me a few ferns that she’d dug out of her back yard.

All I really know about ferns is that they like shady, damp spots, so I planted them along the edge of under the deck, the idea being that, eventually they’d spread  and fill in that area, and we’d remove the skirting.  (The operative word being “eventually.”)

Well, they spread all right – right into the herb garden!  I have no idea how they got there, or WHY they thought they wanted to live with the tarragon, but we dug two baby ferns up and transplanted them back to their under-the-deck home.

They survived the night, anyway.  I do think they’ll be much happier there, too.

Minerva Kitty had herself quite the adventure this weekend!

Peeps had the back door open, and she scooted out and made a run for it!  She does that about once a year – I think she goes out, plays Jungle Kitty for an hour or so, then has enough and hangs around until someone lets her in, though we do worry about her while she’s gone – she’s not as young as she once was, you know!

So anyway, she ran outside, hung around underneath the neighbors’ camper playing  Jungle Kitty for a bit, and came back in.

Whew!

I spent a bit of time imposing order on the herb garden this weekend, too.  I finally dug up about half of the oregano and moved it over to the other side of the yard.  Basically, I don’t care what it does over there – if it survives (as if anything will kill it!) it’ll make a perfectly fine (and fragrant) ground cover around the holly bush.  And meanwhile, the remaining oregano now has room to grow again.

I thinned out the thyme, too, and trimmed the sage.  I also gave the mint a good warning.

And I put four (FOUR!) dill plants in (they came in a 4-pack, so why not) and a couple of rosemary plants.  Still to go – 4 more parsley plants, a few basils, and a couple of marjoram plants.  That should do it for this year..

A couple of years ago, I picked up this cute little chest at a fundraiser.  I think it was supposed to be a toy chest, but, well, I really don’t need a place for toys, and I’d planned to use it to store hats and gloves and such in the front entry.

Well, I never got around to finishing it, and with the new bathroom and closet out there, there’s just not a good spot for it.

So I’ve decided that Jar needs a new elevated feeder. His current one, well, I hate it.  It’s ugly, it’s not sturdy, and have I mentioned that I don’t like it? So I cut a couple of dish-sized holes in the lid, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sanding (a LOT), priming, painting, then polyurethaning this little chest.

I can’t wait to get it done!

And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan.    After the chilly, lame spring we’ve had, we are LOVING this gorgeous stretch!  I mean, will you LOOK at this? Truly, does it get any better?

Monday -  We watched a recent episode of America’s Test Kitchen, where they grilled a turkey.  On the actual grill!  When we saw that, we had to ask – how easy would it be to grill a chicken the same way?  (Answer:  I’ll let you know!)  A little steamed broccoli, and some sweet potatoes that we have hanging around in the freezer, and we should be set!

Tuesday - Jar’s got a vet’s appointment so we want dinner to be reasonably quick.   I picked up some nice whole wheat rolls at the public market, so we put together a small batch of Italian sausage – and I think there’s  some provolone in the fridge, which will be perfect.  We also made some coleslaw with some cabbage that was knocking around and the last of the mayo.

And because I can’t get the Tuesday Afternoon appointment out of my mind:

Wednesday -  Since we were making sausage, we took the rest of the pork shoulder and hacked it up, some of which will go to make souvlaki.  I’m going to try pan-braising some potatoes with lemon and herbs – I’ll let you know on that, too.   We are also going try making some pitas with Peeps’s baguette dough.  Fingers crossed.

Thursday - Have I mentioned that one of the things I do on our morning walks is listen to podcasts?  Yeah, and one of them is The Splendid Table.  One of the guests discussed Indian food, specifically dal, which is, apparently, not just lentils!  This particular recipe sounded really good (and easy!) and call for split peas, which  we happen have a surplus of from last fall.  I also hope to get ambitious enough to make some naan.

Friday - As always, Friday night is pizza night - if there’s something leftover that will go nicely on pizza, it’ll be on mine, otherwise I think I’ll go with roasted artichokes and provolone.   Peeps and his mom usually opt for the basic pepperoni and cheese.

Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.