What's For Dinner?

Fall is getting closer. When my alarm goes off in the morning the bedroom's still a bit dark, and we're turning on the lights in the family room earlier in the evening. However, Summer's decided it's not quite ready to leave the area yet. The forecast for the rest of the week is hot (pushing 100 degrees) and humid. Tony and I decided if the tropical weather was going to linger, we'd pretend it was still the middle of the season. We're taking advantage of the last extended admission day of the year at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The kitchen was last-day-before-payday empty, but I managed to put together a picnic to take with us. The planned homemade pizza morphed into calzones (which are easier to transport). I started the dough in the bread machine, then went on a search to see what I could put in them. I found one leftover chorizo sausage in the freezer, which I thawed, skinned, and crumbled in a bowl. I chopped green and red peppers from the garden, then added them to the sausage along with a can of mushrooms and a can of tomato sauce from the pantry. To make the assembly easy, I even mixed in the shredded mozzarella.

When the dough was done I divided it into four pieces (two for tonight, and two for leftovers tomorrow), and rolled each one out into a circle about six inches in diameter. Each circle got a quarter of the filling, then I folded them in half and crimped the edges so the filling wouldn't ooze out during baking. The calzones went on a baking sheet, and in a preheated oven for 15 minutes until the top was golden.

Main dish taken care of. For a side dish, I found some asparagus in the refrigerator that was a bit past its prime. I removed the offending parts, then cut the stalks into bite sized pieces and blanched them. After they cooled off in ice water, I portioned them into two plastic containers, adding today's small handful of ripe cherry tomatoes, and a squirt of balsamic vinaigrette. The containers still looked a little empty, so I chopped a stalk of celery, blanched it, and put half in each container. I put the lids on tightly, shook everything together, and left it to marinate till dinner time.

There was already some Diet Pepsi in the refrigerator, so I didn't have to worry about chilling drinks. For dessert, I found one sleeve of graham crackers in the back of the pantry, and filled sandwich bags with red grapes.  Cool food went in a cooler with some ice packs. Paper products and warm food went in a bag, and we were ready to go!

Fortunate

Recently, I got an interesting fortune from the cookie that came with some Chinese carryout:

I don't know if I should be pleased that I was received a message that recognized some of my good traits, or insulted by the command at the end.

Or should I take it as a challenge? What do you think?

Retro Saturday Night

I had to work until the mall closed at 9, and by the time I cleaned up the Customer Service area and left there were only a few scattered groups of people walking around, most heading for the exits. It was easy to find my car in the parking garage, because it was the only one in the row. I got in, turned the car on, and tuned the radio to my guilty Saturday night pleasure.

The local oldies station, which usually plays a variety of pop and rock hits from the '60s and '70s, turns their airwaves over to disco on Saturday night. Disco was the music I danced and socialized to in high school and college. Listening to it takes me back to those days, and gives me a shot of energy as I drive home.

Tonight was no exception. After I suffered through a long commercial break that was just getting started as I turned onto the Interstate, the tunes started. "Upside Down" by Diana Ross. "When Doves Cry" by Prince. "That's the Way I Like It" by KC and the Sunshine Band. "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer. Each time another song came on, I turned the radio up a little more and sang along.

Won't you sing with me? I know you know the words!

Bird Seed Buffet

This is our bird feeder, which hangs from a shepherd's hook on the deck railing, the only place I can put it and see the birds. Because it's easy to get to, we get our fair share of squirrels, who scamper across the rail, climb the pole and sidle down onto the plastic seed tray. I've experimented with dowsing the bird seed with hot sauce and red pepper to keep them away, which works well, but this year I've gotten lazy and stopped doing it.


Last night just before dark I looked out the kitchen window and saw two raccoons on either side of the bird feeder. They were symmetrically up on their haunches with their backs to the house, front paws resting on the seed tray, dining at the all-you-can-eat bird food buffet. They looked to be about the size of our cats, so I'm guessing they were about eleven or twelve pounds, but their fluffy hair and big tails made them appear even bigger.

Eyes glowing from the camera flash

It was one of the most fascinating (yet irritating) things I've ever seen. I grabbed my camera and tried to get pictures from inside the house. That didn't work, because it was dark and I was shooting through a window screen, so I went into the family room and opened the door to the deck. The raccoons looked up from their meal, but didn't move. I took a couple of steps toward them, and they reluctantly stopped eating, put all four feet down onto the deck rail, and watched to see what I'd do. With their black eye masks and striped tails, they were quite cute, but I was determined to move them along. I started slowly towards them, stopping every few seconds to take a picture.

Hi there!

Finally they got the message and climbed into the red bud tree next to the deck. That allowed me to get close enough to the feeder to remove it from the hook and bring it into the house. Buffet closed. However, five minutes later when I looked out the window I saw them still walking along the deck rail eating the seed that was on the rail.



This morning I cleaned the feeder, refilled it, and put it back outside. However, first I mixed a healthy splash of hot sauce and a substantial amount of red pepper in with the bird seed. If the raccoons come back and eat more seed, I hope the capsaicin in the red pepper goes straight to their taste buds! And if it keeps the squirrels away, that's good, too.

Insulate

A few weeks ago we had our annual termite inspection. For the first time ever, the inspector wanted to look in our attic for signs of damage. He brought in a telescoping ladder, which he used to access the attic through the hole in ceiling of my closet. Coincidence? It turns out not. The company now also installs insulation.

He gave us information about the benefits of increasing the amount of insulation in the attic. It turns out the U.S. Department of Energy now recommends an R-value almost double what we have now (which is in the form of pink fiberglass bats). We got some additional estimates, then decided to let the pest control company do the project. The installers came last week and blew an additional layer of cellulose insulation over our existing stuff.

The crew of two arrived right on time. After I showed them the access they got to work. First they attached a long tarp to the attic entrance that hung down to the floor like a tent. Next, they ran a flexible hose from the closet through the master bathroom, out the window, and down to the ground behind the garage. They got a large metal hopper out of their truck, set it up on the grass, and attached the hose to it. After they'd finished with the setup, both installers donned white jumpsuits and dust masks. One went up into the attic, and one stayed outside. He turned on the hopper motor and started dumping in bags of insulation. It blew up to the attic, where the other installer used the hose to spray the insulation into every corner of the attic.

Since all the mechanical equipment was outside, I barely noticed the work being done, except for a "thump" from the attic now and then. It took about an hour for them to finish the job. They disconnected the hose from the hopper, rolled it up, and put everything away. They did a great job of cleaning up; there was no evidence in the closet or bathroom.

The salesperson told us that most people notice a difference in the temperature of their upper level with additional insulation. Today was the first big test. This afternoon the temperature was close to 100 degrees. Before, you could feel things get hotter as you walked up the steps to the second floor. Today it was just as comfortable as the main level!

I love it when stories have a happy ending.

Text Talk

Because my job is part time, I may only see my boss once or twice a week. His preferred way to communicate with his staff is via text message. That was turning into a problem.

I don't text. Before I started at the mall Customer Service counter in July, I think I might have received less than a dozen texts and sent six. Last month I had 10 incoming messages (and responded to three of them). So far this month there has been a total of 16. Since I've never had a need for it, I don't have a texting plan on my phone. Individual text messages (both incoming and outgoing) cost 20 cents each, and the costs were adding up fast. My cell phone carrier (AT&T) only offers an "unlimited" texting plan for $20 a month. I didn't want to do that, either.

Enter Google Voice. Son Brian told me I could get a separate phone number that would allow me to send (and receive) free text messages. Yesterday I set up an account and started using it.

The first step was to choose my Google Voice phone number. The first couple I tried weren't available, but in the end I was able to get one in which the last four numbers spell out part of my last name. After I picked my number, I entered a forwarding phone number (the phone that rings when someone calls my Google Voice number); after verifying the number I was ready to go!

Google Voice is a computer-based program, but it has an app that works with my cell phone, which I downloaded. Then I sent my first texts...to my boss, and each of my sons. It was slow going; I make a lot of typing mistakes on the cell phone's small keyboard, but the auto correct feature helps out a lot.

Google Voice actually does a lot of things besides text messages. You can set it up to have multiple phones ring when someone calls the Google Voice number and pick up the one that's most convenient for you, have certain phones ring depending on who's calling, or switch phones in the middle of a call. You can also make international phone calls for rates cheaper than most carriers, and have have voice mails transcribed and read them online. Right now I don't know how much I'll be using them, though; it's a lot of work to get a new phone number out to everyone!

Let's Do Lunch

I had to work today from open till close. (That's not as bad as it sounds. The mall's Sunday hours are from 11 am-6 pm. Add on a bit of time at the beginning and end of the day to set up and close down the Customer Service area, and I still worked less than eight hours.) Usually on Sunday Son Donald comes over and cooks dinner with Hubby Tony. I always look forward to seeing what they come up with. But with my schedule that couldn't happen today, so I requested that they come eat with me at work. Donald picked the restaurant...Five Guys Burgers and Fries. There weren't any objections from his parents. Five Guys food is tasty, and the service is usually pretty fast, which was important since I only had a half hour lunch break.

My guys showed up right on time, and we made the short trip to the restaurant. Five Guys' menu is pretty simple...hamburgers, a handful of other sandwiches, and fries. The hardest part is figuring out what size hamburger to order, and which of the thirteen toppings they offer to get. If I'd heard my phone ring midmorning, I could have relayed my order to Tony and he would have done everything online so our food would have been waiting for us. It wasn't a problem, though. There wasn't anyone ahead of us in line, and ordering went smoothly. We got our drinks, grabbed a bowl of peanuts to munch on, and waited for them to call our number.

In less than five minutes we were eating. I'm always glad when a place wraps their burgers in foil--with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms, my hamburger got a bit messy. The foil helped keep things contained so I could eat every bite. Donald had a hamburger, too, but Tony went a non-traditional route and ordered a hot dog. It had been split down the center and grilled before the toppings were added. We shared a large order of crispy french fries.

All too soon my break was over and I had to go back to work. Tony and Donald walked me back and said goodbye. They were planning to kill some time, then go to a movie. It was great to see them today; it made my day go so much faster.

This and That

A couple of updates:

• Yesterday's woodpecker seems to have found her way out of the garage and flown away. (Although I'm still looking around the garage carefully before I leave the house)

• You may remember I've had problems getting completely red tomatoes this summer.  

First critters were getting them outside, then the cats got the first set I brought inside. For most of July, the weather was too hot and dry for tomatoes, so no fruits were setting. Now that the weather is more seasonally normal, I've been picking one or two tomatoes (Romas and cherries) every day. I was excited yesterday to see that one of the big fruits was just about ripe.

Not wanting to take any chances, I picked it and brought it inside, along with the day's handful of small fruits, put them in a bowl, and set the bowl on the kitchen counter. After dinner Tony and I were sitting in the family room when we heard one of the cats jumping down from something. We didn't think much of it, but a few minutes later Tony went in the kitchen to get his shoes and called me to come take a look at something. The big tomato was laying on the ground, with a large chunk taken out of the side.

(I know which cat is doing it--Jackson, who's been on a diet, but he didn't even have the decency to look guilty when we asked.)

Birdbrain

This morning as I was getting ready to run some errands, I went into the garage and heard a whooshing noise. I looked up and saw a crazed bird flying around the garage at the ceiling level. The garage door had been open for several hours, so it must have flown in and didn't know how to get out.

After several frantic circles, the bird landed on top of the ladder we have hanging on the side. Even from the other side of the garage I was able to get a good look at it. It was mainly black, but had a white strip down it's back and white spots on the wings. I was looking at a woodpecker!

Downy Woodpecker
Peter de Wit--Wikepedia

I didn't see a red patch on the bird's head, so I'm pretty sure it was a female.

It's not the first time we've had a bird stuck in the garage. When I'm home during the day I usually have the garage door open, so we go through this once or twice a year. I know that after a while the bird will eventually find the door and fly away.

However, I still don't like to deal with it. Keeping one eye on the bird (in case she decided to fly at me), I opened the back garage door all the way and put a bag of topsoil in front of it so it wouldn't close. I got in my car, backed it out of the garage, the closed the garage door with the remote and left. I was gone for three hours, and I was hopeful Ms Bird would find her way out through the back door while I was gone.

It didn't happen. When I came home I opened the garage door, and was greeted by my friend the bird flying more circles around the garage. Quickly, I gathered my packages and went inside. My plan was to cut the grass this afternoon, but the lawn mower was in the garage and I didn't want to upset the bird any more than I already had. After 20 minutes, I peeked out into the garage and didn't see anything. Just in case the bird showed up, though, I double-timed it to the lawn mower, gassed it up, and pulled the mower out on the driveway. Since I didn't see the bird the whole time, I assumed she'd found her way out.

After I finished the lawn I put the mower away and started to go inside. Halfway to the door, I heard a rustling noise. I looked up and there was the bird, flying the same crazy circles. There are a couple of places where the ceiling drywall has come down, leaving the eaves exposed. The bird must have been up there. Either that, or she'd left and decided she liked the garage and came back.

That was hours ago, Ever since then I've been opening the door to check occasionally, and she's still there. When Tony got home he didn't see anything, and I was optimistic she was gone. However, after dinner I stepped out in the garage and heard the sound of frantically beating wings. She's NOT gone.

Maybe when it gets dark?

Nuts!

Today I don't have to go anywhere. It's a wonderful feeling.

This morning I caught up on housework and tasks that had gotten shoved to the back burner. The umpteen reminder notes I'd written to myself that were scattered all around the kitchen have been whittled to just a handful on my desk, and I hope they'll be gone by the end of the day. The tidying also filtered down to my email inbox. I deleted quite a few messages that I didn't need anymore, and moved others to folders. Buried at the bottom of the inbox I found a link to a recipe for making almond butter I'd gotten back in January. I decided to try it today.

I know there are many types of nut butters, but I've never eaten anything other than the peanut kind. I buy standard grocery store peanut butter, alternating between the smooth and chunky varieties. However, we always have almonds in the house. (I buy them in bulk at Costco, where they come in three pound bags); they're a great snack or non-meat protein for meals on the run.

The recipe for Homemade Almond Butter I used came from Rebecca Wood. It called for exactly three ingredients-almonds, salt, and oil. No sugar, no preservatives. Because we were low on almonds, I decided to cut the recipe in half, figuring if I liked it I could make more another time. Rebecca recommended toasting the almonds to enhance the flavor and aroma of the finished product, so I measured out nuts onto a cookie sheet and put them in a preheated oven. At the end of the toasting period the smell of the nuts was intoxicating. I dumped them in the food processor with a pinch of salt and pulsed them until they were finely ground. I added oil to the bowl, and kept processing the mixture. When the oil was incorporated things still looked pretty dry, so I added more oil (which was an option in the recipe).

Even though it was only 10:30 in the morning (and much too early for lunch), I decided to make myself a sandwich. I spread a layer of almond butter on a slice of whole wheat bread, added apricot preserves to a second slice, and put them together. The almond butter was good, but a bit grainy, which I think was probably the result of making a small amount. The nuts kept getting thrown to the sides of the processor bowl and didn't puree correctly. Next time I make the recipe, I won't try to modify it!

Since the almond butter doesn't have any preservatives I stored the leftovers in the refrigerator. I'm already looking forward to having more tomorrow, and if Tony wants he can take some for lunch, too.