Down To Earth Fare

The kitchen when we moved in                     The kitchen now (sort of)

People think I am kidding when I say we didn’t buy a house, we bought a project.  Really, I’m not!  We moved into the house with no kitchen. As you can see there is a pipe dangling out of the wall and a lot of rubble on the floor.

The picture of the finished kitchen was taken before the base board was installed, but it give you a good idea of what we did. You can’t see the part off to the right of the picture with another cabinet on top and a dishwasher under the counter on the bottom.  The fridge and ovens aren’t shown either. Getting a really good picture is beyond my photographic skill level. But you get the idea.

There are no words to explain how exciting it is to have a real kitchen. To be able to prepare meals and store food.  But the single most exciting thing is having a dishwasher!  I had forgotten how much easier it makes life!

So now we are ready to have company. . . and yes, that is an invitation to New Orleans.

When we moved into our New Orleans house, you may remember, we were without a working kitchen.  It wasn’t until the end of September we FINALLY got our kitchen squared away. I can’t remember the last time I was that thrilled: real counters, cupboards, a working stove top and a convection oven.

I went a little nuts experimenting with the oven. Even tried a few things I normally wouldn’t make. Between the food experiments and getting used to the oven I had some pretty amazing (awful) results. The thing that turned out the best after some tweeking was banana bread. Continue reading →

2013 is over and done.

It was a year of massive changes for us.  We moved across country, bought a fixer house, camped in the house while working on it, learned our way around a new town and started to settle in.

Welcome 2014!

We are more or less settled.  Sure there is still lots to do, but the house is habitable and comfortable. I finally have some time to think about other stuff.

My Mom celebrated her 90th birthday last month.  Which got me thinking about the future.  At 90 Mom lives on her own, drives, remembers better than I do and is in good health. Looks like she will be that way for a long time. Her oldest sister is 93 and my Dad’s oldest sister lived well into her 90s. Let’s just say that longevity is my genes.

So is working and being productive. My mother’s sisters did not retire until they were in their late 70s. My Mom may be retired, but she is the busiest person I know! Makes me look lazy.

I am in my early 60s and looking at, conservatively speaking, a minimum of 30 more productive years. Even if I were inclined to retire – which I am not because I am not sure what I would do if I did – I certainly do not have enough money to live that long in the style I want to!  I have been fully employed since I was in my early 20s which means  I have worked about 40 years. It is highly likely I will live into my late 90s. Which means I have a lot of time for another career. It sounds weird to say but the truth is that by the time I am 70 I can have a whole new career. And why not?!

I took action and enrolled at Tulane University.  I start school on the 13th of January. The plan is to get my Masters so that I can become a Licensed Professional Counselor.

My mantra for 2014 is “Life Begins at 70!”

My resolution is to post here at least once a week. I have a ton of new recipes, ideas and information to pass on.

What are your mantras and resolutions for 2014?

Today is Father’s Day. Meggan took her Dad (and me) to brunch at The Ruby Slipper. Great ambiance, good food and we even found a parking place!

Watching Meggan and her Dad today reminded me of so many Father’s Day meals with my Dad. We laughed had  long discussions about things that interested us and probably no one else and ate bland food. . . I want you to know that (IMHO) David is the second best Dad that ever lived.  My Dad, however, is/was unquestionably the best Dad that EVER lived! And I miss him.

He’s been physically gone for several years but he is still very much present around our house.  I can’t tell you how often one of will say a “dadism” like “it’s a great life if you don’t weaken!” Dad loved horrible puns, his wife, his girls and bland food. Trust me, if food happened to have any taste at all he probably hated it. And if he didn’t hate it his digestive tract would. He had a “bad stomach” with an extremely sensitive digestive tract. The only really bland food I ever saw him actively dislike were packaged flaked mashed potatoes.

We were in Europe, I think it was Holland when my Dad found a package of pre-prepared mashed potatoes in some market, somewhere. After two months of traveling and no mashed potatoes (we hadn’t gotten to England yet) he was thrilled!  My Dad loved mashed potatoes – probably because they are nice and bland.

He could hardly wait until lunch time the next day. All morning he romanced those potatoes. He finally couldn’t wait any longer and declared that it was lunch time.  Never mind it was about 11:00am and he was a stickler for a 1:00pm lunch!  He pulled into a beautiful park for the much anticipated lunch.  He was like an excited kid on Christmas morning!

Mom got out the butane stove and Dad found the package of potatoes, water, milk, fresh butter, salt and a kettle. With a great flourish he picked up the package and began to read the instructions. It took about ten seconds for his face to fall. He quietly handed the package to my Mom.

Turns out the instructions were nicely written in German, French and Italian. Not an English word in sight! Mom knew a little German so she tried her best to read the instructions. An hour later we had a very big pot of a white, gluey substance.  Dad took a taste and pulled a sour face. I think he even spat them out.  You could see that he was thinking seriously of blaming my Mom for the gluey mess. But Dad was gentleman and he visibly bit back his comments.

Two minutes later there was a big bang and the kettle and all the gluey potatoes were laying in the dirt.  He had executed the perfect turn and somehow jiggled the table.  Dad swore to his dying day that he ACCIDENTLY hit it. We (my Mom, my Sister and I) still believe he kicked the table so that the potatoes would spill and he wouldn’t have to blame Mom or pretend that the gluey mess was were edible.

To this day, every time I see mashed potatoes, I think of Dad, the accident/kick and it makes me smile. On this special day, if your Dad is still with you, enjoy celebrating his special day.  If he isn’t, take a couple of minutes to remember something about him that makes you smile!

Happy Father’s Day!