Celticangel.org

This is another one of the recipes from my grandmother. For the record, I don’t generally eat pork, but I thought that y’all might be interested in seeing it anyway. (As you may imagine, I have no memory of this dish, what with the not eating of pork thing.) What do you think about this one?

This recipe was found in a book called Galley Finale: A Collection of Mariner Soups, Sloops, and Other Incredible Edibles it was put out by The Presbyterian Church of Fair Oaks, Ca in 1978.

Tangy Pork Chops by Mrs. Leon Catlin

4 pork chops
4 onion slices
1 can tomato soup
4 green pepper rings
Dash of pepper

Brown chops in skillet on both sides. Place a slice of onion and green pepper on each and pour soup over. Cover and cook over low heat about 45 minutes. Stir or baste now and then.

Hello all.

Me again.

It looks like my Mother-in-Law may actually be coming home on Sunday. (As in later today after my latest attempt at that sleep thing.) This is our third theoretical release date for her, so here’s hoping that the third time is a charm. And as you may imagine, we have been in a flurry of cleaning here in my “not normally that tidy” but considering recent events grown into “more along the lines of chaos incarnate” place.

Here is a quick list of some actual housework that has occurred here recently: (the following list is based on true events. please remain seated while reading said list to prevent fainting from shock.)

* The sheets on her bed are new and clean.
* The second floor has been vacuumed (except in my messy room.)
* We have a new towel rack (to replace the one in bits lurking about the bathroom.)
* A new shower curtain liner was purchased and hung up.
* The bathtub was cleaned and now sports non-slip duckies.
* The stairs are clean of the usual debris (a.k.a. stuff found downstairs that belongs upstairs.)
* The infamous entryway where I have slipped and fallen twice now has a new rubber-backed rug.
* A new rubber-backed rug lurks at the back door.
* Much kitchen/dining area stuff have been moved about.
* and lots of laundry has been done…and put away!

*whew!* So…yeah. I’m hoping that at the very least she’ll be able to move around the place with the walker I’m told is coming home with her.

In other news, did I mention that I am not taking any fertility drugs this month? Nope. I have managed to develop not one, not two, but three cysts. Bleh. But really, it’s great timing. I just don’t have the time this month. I declare it to be divine intervention, and will now move on to my next newsbyte….

My interview for the job-possibility-I’m-not-saying-much-about is on February 10. Please send any/all prayers and good thoughts my way.

And finally…I have a new cell phone. Why do I have a new phone? Well…it was free. Relatively-speaking, of course. You see, Koshvader needed a new phone as his had started to come over all wonky. And after much debate, he chose a Motorola Droid. Well, said Droid came with a free Droid Eris. So, I ended up upgrading too, though I had not planned to yet.

Let’s pause for a minute to discuss this phone:

1) It’s way more modern that anything phone-like I’ve ever had. I mean, come on, I’ve never even downloaded a ringtone before. I keep discovering new things and hurting my brain.
2) It vibrates when you push its little virtual buttons. Let it be here noted that I hate things that vibrate, as they make my bones ache. Yes. That includes those coaster things they give you at restaurants while you are waiting. (And nope. Apparently you can turn that off in the other Droid, but not in mine.)
3) It’s named Eris. I mean…come on. Who named the phone after the goddess of discord?
“Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife. She is Ares’ constant companion and follows him everywhere. Eris is sinister and mean, and her greatest joy is to make trouble.” – Encyclopedia Mythica

But honestly, I can get used to all of this cell phone…usefulness. It’s turning out that I’m using Eris to tame a bunch of the chaos in which I find myself in the new year.

And in the meantime? I’m giving lots of folks their own ringtones. Be afraid.

(So, my friends have a shoulder cat. That’s me that she’s resting on.)

So, remember my hope that 2010 would be better than 2009?

Yeah. Not so much.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s see…where to begin?

On the fertility front:

I’ve started the next round of treatment…this time with a nasal spray in addition to the ever popular belly stabbing needle thing. So, now I have the “icky taste in the back of my throat” added to the process. Bleh. In addition, at the end of the year I will no longer be double covered by Kaiser so I need to find out how much it will cost to continue this whole fertility thing. If y’all could please keep your fingers crossed/pray for me? Thanks.

In other news:

After dinner at my parents’ place on Christmas (more on that and my shiny cool presents later) Koshvader and I drove up the mountain to get my Mother in Law. She’s ill again, and this way we managed to avoid the rain/snow of the following day. I was a bit useless at work on Saturday, but I was there and awake. That worked out well enough. And now, today I’m taking her to an Urgent Care appointment. I’ll be heading in to work when I can. At least this means that I had time to run my pants through the dryer. No emergency back up black pants for me today!

Well, I’d best go get a bit of something to eat before I have to leave. Have a Happy New Year/Hogmanay if I forget to mention it later.

Look! My Daddy is Santa!

Well, really, my Dad and Mum recently played Mr. and Mrs. Claus for a bunch of kids at a neighborhood party. So cool! I’m proud of them for doing this and stepping out of their comfort zone. Also? How cool is it that my daddy is dressed as Santa?

In other news, I’ve started a new blog. Yeah, I know, yet another blog. But this one happens to be on a topic that I can’t shut up about: Books being adapted to film. It’s called Did They Film it? (http://www.didtheyfilmit.com/). I hope that, among other things, I can help out those kids that are told to read a book that hasn’t been made into a movie. See? Now I have a place to babble.

And I think I’ll finish this up with a video that is infamous in my family. I like to sing the song really fast.

In the past on this site I have mentioned Thayerism.

Thayerism: A term used in my family to refer to those of us that move someplace and never move again. In the case of some of my family, this can mean staying for several generations.

The opposite of Thayerism is the Gypsy-esque habit of moving every couple of years. The latter being how I grew up until the second half of Elementary School. Yes. I went to five different Elementary schools, if you count Preschool. All in the same general area, too.

For a long time now I’ve seen myself as a bit more Thayeresque, preferring to stay in one place over moving on every couple of years. But this morning on my way to work I had a bit of a revelation. The folks in my family with Thayerism are content. They like where they are and want to stay there. It’s not just a case of hating to move and deal with all of that annoyingness. They just don’t feel that restlessness that comes from the desire to find a place that is better somehow. They aren’t looking for something, they already found it.

It turns out that I’m not as prone to Thayerism as I thought. I’ve lived in the same place for the last three and a half years or so, and I really hate moving…but I’m growing restless. I want a house with a yard and a garage. I want someplace that I can really nest in. Heck, I’d love to buy my own place…but that is so not going to happen in the SF Bay Area any time soon. Sigh. I’ve thought about moving a bit more north, up Sebastopol way, but I’d miss my friends and I’d need to find a new job… Yeah. Economy again. So yeah. Restless and frustrated. Not content,

Apparently, blood will tell after all. Hunh. Who knew?

My folks are currently cruising the Panama Canal. And my Dad, being all one with Youtube, has put together a video that is part photographs and part video. It’s pretty cool. Heck. I’m impressed. …And if you listen very carefully, you might hear my Mother skillfully finding out someone’s life story in the background at one point.

(Photos by me)

On Saturday we went up the eerie mountain to pick up my Mother in Law and bring her back to our place for the holidays. There was much in the way of traffic, so…we went the back way, as you can see above.

Eventually (as in a couple of hours later) we reached our turn-off. Yes, you read the sign correctly. It’s Hells Hollow Road.

And here, for those of you that have asked, is the front of Koshvader’s childhood home.

Did I mention that I got up early to get brand new, extremely good tires put on my Subaru? Well, I did. See the snow in the picture above? Well, the main roads get plowed, but the road up to the house looks like this:

Have I mentioned that I love my car? She handled the entire trip like a pro (as did my hubby who was driving.) We made it home fine, if quite late. (In the interest of avoiding the rain/snow on Sunday we made the whole trip in one day. Ugh.)

Hells Hollow Road

Question: When you think of Thanksgiving what foods do you think of?

Before I got married, it never occurred to me that I would someday be trying to meld the vastly different food traditions of two different families. Much less for such an important cooking day as Thanksgiving. As you grow up you get used to the foods that your family serves, and perhaps those of some close friends that have you over for dinner. You have a very specific idea as to what one serves for particular events. Encountering marked differences tends to shock your psychic map. Or at least, it does if you’re me.

My family (like most families I imagine) has some particular ideas about food in general and what one eats for Thanksgiving in the specific. I like eggs. My Mum used to make me fried egg sandwiches and my Nana is to blame for my love of poached egg on toast. Major comfort food, you know? (Koshvader hates eggs…and toast.) Grandpa Dan used to make the most divine of meatballs for the majority of family gatherings. (I really wish that I had the recipe. Mum? Any ideas? Koshvader would sure like them.) Squash of all sorts is very popular in my family. We have is as part of casserole, as pancakes, in soup, etc. Koshvader hates squash. You get the idea.

Thanksgiving used to involve everyone coming together with all sorts of tasty-yums. We had the adult table and the overflow/kids’ table, as many families do, I’m told. (Ever get the feeling that someone has to die for you to rotate up to the adult table? Would the eldest then move up, or would it be the luck of the draw?) Once, when I was quite young we put a bunch of tables together and all ate together in contiguous rooms. My father was in charge of setting the table with all of its finery. They have china from my great-great grandmother and all the folks who came after to choose from. The family rule, handed down from my great-grandmother Hazel, is that you may not have the original containers on the table, so Dad produces all sorts of specialized bowls for the occasion from the china cabinet.

On the table you will find:
Turkey
Candied Yams
Aunt Fanny’s Squash
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Cranberry sauce (still in the shape of a can, and available in slices.)
Watermelon Pickle Rind
Dinner rolls of some variety that we generally forget about until after we have sat down.
Some random veggie.
Pie – Pumpkin, Pecan, Pumpkin-Pecan, Apple…(May I please have a small piece of each?)
Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider.

Sounds good, right?

Today we had:
A beef roast (Koshvader’s family is more beef than turkey. Good thing he can cook..)
Garlic mashed potatoes (I made it, therefore garlic is involved.)
Crescent rolls (I’ve never made them before. It was in the manner of a compromise as we couldn’t find rolls we could agree on.)
Gravy (Did I mention he can cook?)
Creamy corn (Microwaved at the last minute as we sort of forgot about it.)
Fruit salad (The jello fruit salad that my MIL makes all of the time wasn’t ready in time. Still…it looks okay now. Not too bad for a first attempt.)
Watermelon Pickle Rind (I insisted. He didn’t have to eat any.)
One piece of Apple pie and one piece of Chocolate cream pie from Heidi’s Pies. (We could not agree on pie, so my MIL suggested that we just get a piece of pie each to go from our fave local greasy spoon. Brilliant woman. Why didn’t I think of that?)
Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider (Something we both can agree on.)

Not too bad for a compromise dinner, eh? Definitely something to be thankful for. Please bear in mind that Kodshvader and I have a very small overlap in our food Venn Diagram. He doesn’t eat many things that I like, and I’m allergic to a few of his favorites. I refuse to make two meals, as Koshvader’s Mum used to, though.

So tell me. What foods do you hold as sacrosanct in your Thanksgiving meal?

Thanksgiving

I lived in a bunch of different places when I was growing up. All in the same general area, even. We used to say things like, “That happened back in the rented house.” We measured time by houses, you see. I went to five different elementary schools, even. All of this ended when I entered fourth grade.

This picture is of the house I finished growing up in. It had a huge backyard. I had my own room! Once, when we were pulling up the horrid carpet in the front room, we discovered hardwood floors underneath. You could sit out on the back porch and watch it rain, as half of the porch was covered in a roof. We used to play out in the back in the mud with my sib’s endless little plastic animal collection…and the Tanto action figure.

The first house
The rented house
The one story
The tri-level
The Woodfair house

My parents have since moved. I suppose that they didn’t need to deal with nearly an acre of space for a yard now that we are grown. I didn’t deal well with losing the house I think of as home, but then it occurred to me…I can go out an make a home for myself.

I’m still working on that part.