Southern Traditions

Sometimes, when you visit a church, they give you something (as a souvenir?). Typically, it's something like a Bible or a tract or maybe a small cross. In the south, they give out cookbooks.

To get the full picture, you sort of have to imagine a passel of really old ladies running across the narthex (except they don't call it a narthex in the Baptist Church...lobby?), all with a cookbook in hand, each hoping to be the one who gets to give it to my unsuspecting self; picture a 19 year old off the base (Keesler AFB) just trying to sneak into the back pew.

I love this cookbook. It contains nothing exotic, just simple recipes compiled by regular people. I'm not a big cookbook user (even though I have many), but this one gets used. The folks at my house gobble up these banana muffins and they are so easy.

I'm too lazy to write out the recipe. Click on it and maybe it will be readable. I'm telling you, it's easy.

What goes with banana muffins for dinner? Tofu tacos. O.k...not really. But we were already going to have them before I decided something needed to be done with the last two bananas still kicking around on the counter.

Minutia

I'm beginning to wonder what keeps other people from running out of material to post. Because, for real, my life is not that exciting; I just do the same things over and over again. Today, I'm reduced to just minutia.

1. I wore my outfit to school (because whatever I wear to church on Sunday is typically what I put on for Monday-since it is already ironed) and the kids made comments. It started out with "You look different today." and went to "Are you going out to the Prairie?" to "R (who is from Africa) thinks you are Dutch" to maybe my favorite student in my last period coming up to me in the hall and saying "Miss Cloyd, you are not 12." It is good I am comfortable in what I like and to know they are not exactly the fashion experts I would turn to in a time of fashion crisis (which is evidently where I was today).

2. God is so good to me. Enough said. (This should actually be #1.)

3. I ironed 30 items of clothing today. I would like to say I made a dent in the pile, but I didn't. I should have taken a picture for Miss E who thinks people don't iron anymore. I iron everything (which is probably the root cause of my ironing problem).

4. Dinner was salad with blueberry and yogurt parfaits (topped with hemp granola) for dessert. I don't like dairy, hence the reason there are only 3.

Then sings my soul...

Quickly...

I wore this to church today. Not the best picture in the world and I'm headless (lol). Blouse is Colette's Violet in dotted swiss. I'm in love with this pattern, although I'm debating making the 6 instead of the 8 next time. I wasn't expecting it to be so roomy, but I like roomy, so it's all good. The skirt is more feedsacks using some McCall's pattern.

I wish I could sing. I hardly ever wish for something I don't have, but they sang my favorite hymn today and now I'm wishing I had a good voice. The dog is probably wishing for that, as well.

White

Earlier, I didn't list everything I bought, just the stuff I was most happy with. Some things...there just isn't much to say about them; or so I thought.

It's not news to me one is supposed to serve food on a white dish so the dish does not detract or compete with the beauty of the food. But, I didn't have any white dishes and it's hard to justify such a purchase when one already has 4 full sets of dishes (2 that never get used). I guess I forgot about that when I was at that yard sale. I saw 3 boxes of white dishes and just bought them. I didn't really even look at them. Just saw they were white and that was enough. I was so excited about them I couldn't even be bothered to bring them from the car and into the house for awhile. When I finally got around to that and unpacked them, I had to sit down. No way did these people know what they just sold me.

For $10, I got all of this:

They are obviously a collection someone had going (there are various markings on the bottoms).

So ummm...yeah...a gazillion pieces of vintage ironstone for $10. They've obviously been used as there are some chips and whatnot, but many pieces (at least half) are in good condition.

So beautiful. I love the little handles.

As much as I'd like to keep each and every piece, there is someone I love (who loves Ironstone) who has a birthday later this summer. I picked out 4 cups and saucers. I'm wondering if I'll be able to wait until her birthday to give them to her.

And the obligatory food post; dinner. This is one of my "cheater" dinners. It takes all of about 10 minutes to make. It's just a salad of grape tomatoes, cucumber, black olives, cubed mozzarella, red onion, red bell pepper and salt and pepper. I usually put basil in it, but evidently chickens like basil. I went to my garden to get some and there isn't a single plant (out of the 15 I planted) left.

Yard Sale Scores

I wasn't planning on going yard sale-ing today. I really wasn't. I was planning on going to Jac's lacrosse game and was up at 5 a.m. to do so. And then I got a stomach ache. I stayed home.

After about 4 more hours of sleep, I was ready to conquer the world. Sort of. The world of Girl Scouts; which is a world that occasionally demands conquering or, at the very least, demands sucking it up and dealing with their legalistic non-sense in the name of buying the awards the girls earned. Don't get me wrong, I support the Girl Scout program. I've been a Girl Scout for 30 something years. It's the organizational bureuacracy that gets to me. Anyway, that is done. And I was sort of good in the doing part of it.

I was rewarded by a plethora of yard sales on the way and the reminder I NEED crazy prom dresses for Al and I for FUSE Camp. I found some dresses which have good bones, but have some issues. 1. They aren't that crazy, so will need some doctoring up. 2. I can fit in the dress I bought Al (except it's too short) and I'm 1/2" too big around for mine to zip up. (But I have a plan for that. Al is 40-50lbs smaller and a few inches shorter than me, so you may be having a hard time imagining how this is going to work out. It's going to work out. Stay tuned.

I've been looking for "Recipes for a Small Planet" for awhile. This one needs a little tape (which means it was previously very loved), but I was happy to see it. It's previous owner was so happy I was happy that she pushed the other two books upon me. I didn't argue about it.

It's a couple of sizes too big, so what? (If you are a non-sewist, I feel the need to share pattern sizing is way different than sizing in stores. This pattern is probably closer to a size 12 and I'll need to alter it down to an 8-ish.) I have a thing for matching coats (coats in general, actually) and after the disaster of Colette's Lady Gray, I've been in the market for a straight coat (that doesn't flare out in places that make me look like a pear). Surely I can whittle 2 inches off the waist and bust, right? Circa 1966.

Check.

1. Go to work.-Check

2. Teach an extra hour and a half for the kids who couldn't be bothered to pass the class the first (or even second) time darlings. -Check

3. Race like a mad person to the bus so the boy child does not get returned to the depot. -Check

4. I just realized I have an "unaccounted for" 20 minutes. Hmmm... Oh wait. That is when I was searching the house for the cap/gown I'm supposed to wear tomorrow for graduation. It's new. It was on the table. We cleaned picked up on Saturday and, until this afternoon, it was lost. Finally found it in a shopping bag with a drill. Totally logical. I was going to have to be "sick" tomorrow if I couldn't find it. So glad. Being "sick" on a day one doesn't require a sub would probably require an actual person-person phone call in. And yeah...wasn't going to be up for that. Because, I probably over-do the "sick" sound and well, you know...they'd talk about me all the way down to Constitution Hall.

5. Take boy child to lacrosse practice. -Check

6. Go to grocery store. -Check

7. Stop by Starbucks for energy. (Does it say something if I said I proctored the SAT two towns over and was recognized by our local barista who was testing?)-Check

8. Help girl child fill out her Silver Award paperwork. -Check

9. Listing it all in one line-4 loads of laundry. (Washed, Dried, Folded and put away, thank you very much.) -Check

10. Go through the trouble of trying to place an on-line order for Alicia's Daisy troop patches only to find out they want $20 to ship something that probably costs less than $5 to actually mail. Not doing it. Who do these Girl Scout people think they are anyway? Put in the back of my mind something that really can't be put off any longer. -Check

11. Deliver Silver Award paperwork. -Check

12. Pick up boy from lacrosse. -Check

13. Cook dinner. (I did an o.k. job of hiding the chicken. They ate it without complaint.) -Check

14. Iron that stupid gown.-Check

15. Wash dishes. -Check

16. Count the animals to make sure none are missing. -Check

17. Take my after-dark walk. -Check

18. Sleep-Pending

This is pretty much my day...everyday. It doesn't make any sense I can't get anything done during the summer when I have all the time in the world. Summer is in two weeks. I'm worried. Left to my own devices, it isn't good. Need a plan. Otherwise it's me in my p.j.'s at 3 in the afternoon looking at the kids because they grow too loud to ignore and suggesting foods like ramen noodles and jello.

Dinner=chicken fried rice, Szechuan green beans and watermelon

Chicken Again?

So, sometime during the winter, I purchased what I thought was probably the lamest contraption ever; an indoor grill. Because our propane grill takes forever to cook something when it is cold and standing out in the cold while waiting for said thing to cook is not something I want to do. I don't think we ever used it. Maybe once.

Is it even more lame that it is now HOT outside and I've fallen in love with my indoor grill? Because, for real, who wants to stand out in the heat when there are other things that can be done? I discovered I can clean and grill at the same time. How awesome is that? (And then there is the fact we don't even have any propane.)

My family would like anything for dinner that isn't chicken. I happen to prefer chicken. I do the cooking, so chicken it is. A lot. Presentation seems to help. Maybe it tastes less like chicken if it's on a stick?

The problem with cooking stuff on sticks is that it takes too long and yeah...I got stuff to do. After the obligatory stick cooking, I just dumped the rest right on. No stick, but more flavor. I'm hiding the leftovers in the back of the fridge for my lunch.

Seriously, the easiest dinner ever for the taste. The only thing to do is marinate chicken breast in pineapple juice and soy sauce. I don't measure, just pour some in. Add some chunked up pineapple (from a can, even), red bell pepper and onion. Grill. It's that easy.