Category Archives: Food

2024, Family, Food, home, Kids, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Melting

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I received a text from Daughter on Tuesday in a panic because it was 93° in Tacoma, her apartment was hot except for her bedroom, where she has a portable air conditioner, and her refrigerator had stopped working and everything in her freezer/fridge was melted. She had to throw out eight grocery bags of food. Only the cheese was salvageable.

I immediately went into problem solving mode, inquiring about rental insurance, repairs, etc. This was not what she needed or wanted. She just wanted me to commiserate and console. It turned out to be a problem with the fridge shorting out the fuse panel in her apartment. She just needs to keep an eye on it.

Very few people in the Pacific North West have air conditioning because it rarely gets that hot there. There have been unusual but increasingly frequent heat waves there. I am a person who is always cold, so no matter how hot it is, it rarely bothers me. I could probably do ok there. I remember how excited my parents were when we got an air conditioner installed in the dining area of our house when I was in about Grade 1. It only kept the livingroom cool, but it sure made them feel good.

I have never had to deal with a freezer or fridge that went on the fritz. I often wonder what we would do if we had an extended period of electricity loss given all the freezers we have in the basement. I think I would gets lots of ice to keep everything cold and get a gas powered generator to fill in for the loss of power.

When did you first have air-conditioning? Ever had to deal with a freezer or fridge that malfunctioned? What kind of help do you want when you are upset?

2024, Family, Food, home, Poems, Uncategorized

Hiawatha’s Pork Roast Smoking

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I really can’t explain how the idea for this post came together. All I can tell you is that I was sitting at my desk at work on Wednesday when The Song of Hiawatha, Lewis Carroll’s parody Hiawatha’s Photographing, and Husband’s plan to smoke a pork shoulder on the 4th all converged in my brain.

Husband has planned to get his smoker going for weeks, and he has been fussing about the fuels he needs, the type of rub and mop he would use, and the pork shoulder he intended to smoke. I guess that might have reminded me of Carroll’s parody of the photographer fussing to set up the camera and get the photo subjects to cooperate. My Uncle Harvey’s farm in Pipestone. MN bordered the National Monument where The Song of Hiawatha pageant was performed (my tall, blonde, cousins were often extras in the production), and my parents took me to see it several times.

I have never been a fan of Longfellow’s poetry. I also have a hard time reading epic poems like The Kalevela that have been translated into a sing-song cadence. It dawned on me that if I could write a parody of Longfellow, anyone could. Here goes:

Husband Chris got out the smoker,

Like an iron lung, the smoker

Filled it up with logs and wood chips

Double checked that it was perfect

Set the contents all on fire

Waited for the embers glowing

Then he made the pork roast spice rub

Covered all the roast with spice rub

Closed the lid and smoked the shoulder

Sat for hours by the smoker

Feeding logs and chips as needed

Doused the roast with special mop sauce

Drank some beer to pass the hours

I had to stop there. The eight syllable pattern was getting tedious. It could go on and on, just like Longfellow.

What are your favorite/least favorite epic poems? What activities turn you into a fuss pot?

2024, Family, Food, Games, Mysteries, Nature, Uncategorized

Strawberry Patch Games

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Friday was my strawberry day.  I got to the fields just a bit after 6 a.m. and was a little surprised to see a mother/father/daughter combo in the strip next to me.  6 a.m. is normally not a kid-friendly time; I know I would never have dragged Child at that time of day.  (Of course, after she turned seven or eight, I never dragged her berry-picking again.)

The young kid in the next row was adamant that her dad (not her mom, just her dad) get every single good strawberry on their side.  She let him know, in a fairly loud voice, when he had missed one.  She would then pick it and show it to him before putting it into their flat.  The rate at which she was finding good berries led me to think that Dad was doing it on purpose.  Basically keeping her busy and allowing her to think she was “winning”.

When YA was young, I did occasionally let her win at some games.  Yahtzee, Cribbage, Aggravation – all those were fairly easy to lose.  Monopoly was a little harder because she could spot if I was doing something stupid.  Same with Checkers and Risk.  It wasn’t constant – just every now and then so she wouldn’t lose interest.  My dad NEVER let us win; in fact he sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to keep us from winning.  He thought it was a good lesson for us to learn how to lose – that classic “character-building” thing. 

Eventually I didn’t need to let her win anymore and it was about that time that she came home from daycare wanting the game “Mancala”.  It looked interesting so I got her a set and then lost every single game we ever played.  It took me forever to even figure out the rules and I never did really master it.  I think we will have it downstairs but it hasn’t been out of the box in years!

Have you ever purposely lost?

2024, Food, gardening, Uncategorized

Powwow Prep

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Yesterday I took half the day off from work for two reasons: My physical therapist had beat me up pretty good in the morning and I was too sore to sit at my desk all afternoon, and we had to get ready to go to the powwow on Saturday.

This weekend is the Twin Buttes Powwow. We go every year, and spend time with dear friends who are tribal members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The reservation is north of us about 60 miles.

The most important part of going to a powwow is sitting around and talking and eating with friends and family. Watching the dancers is just icing. We have known our friends’ grandchildren, now college age, since they were little. They call me granny. (They call all older women granny. It was a little hard to get used to, especially when I was in my 50’s. I understand it is done out of respect.) One asked our friend Linda last week if we were coming and if we were bringing our homemade French bread. Those kids just devour the bread. I am bringing two loaves this year so poor Linda gets some, too. We are also bringing rhubarb bread from our own rhubarb, as well as chili made with our home canned tomatoes and Hidatsa red beans we grew in the garden. Linda’s Husband is Arikara and is pretty dismissive of the Hidatsas, but I think he will like the chili.

Kyrill is at the kennel this weekend. He isn’t rez dog material, and gets upset with the drumming and commotion. We are only going Saturday, but it will be a nice holiday, and the weather should be sunny.

What food do you like to share with others at gatherings or at picnics? Where do you like to go for close to home holidays?

2024, Family, Food, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Spoiled

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I have no problem admitting that Husband, I, and the dog are spoiled when it comes to food. I started to subscribe to Goumet and Bon Appetit when I was in Middle School. That has certainly skewed my expectations for meals in my home ever since.

The dog is spoiled because he will only eat his kibble if we put a spoonful or so of homemade broth on it. This week it is goat broth. He is a happy boy.

Winnipeg is a foodies paradise, with every sort of ethnic restaurant and grocery store you can imagine. Six years there left me unprepared for spartan western North Dakota and only two chain grocery stores. Fargo, the nearest food mecca is 300 miles away.

We have taken to ordering on-line to obtain harder to find cooking ingredients. This Christmas, Husband found a source for all sorts of food from Spain, including wonderful serrano ham, Portuguese linguica, cheeses, chorizo, smoked beef, olives, and Galician sourdough bread partially baked in Galicia and frozen, shipped to the US, then shipped frozen to us. It is lovely bread that we tried, but failed, to reproduce at home. We also order 10 lb hunks of parmesan, olives, and pasta from an Italian importer (the parm lasts for a year and costs less than buying smaller packages in the grocery store) and beans from Rancho Gordo. I also order celeriac by the case from Oregon because we can’t grow it well here and I like to cook with it in soup stock. Daughter just visited the Rogue River Creamery in Southern Oregon and decided we needed 4 lbs of their award winning cheddar and blue cheeses. It will arrive on Wednesday. She and son have similar food attitudes as we have.

I justify all this by noting we don’t travel much, have little to no debt, rarely eat in restaurants, and don’t own a boat, camper, or a lake home. We shall see if living near to Sioux Falls after we retire allows more access to these foods, or if we will still order from afar.

If you lived in the middle of nowhere, and cost was not an issue, what would you order on-line to eat and cook with. Where do you like to find recipes?

2024, Business, Food, Games, Mysteries

Reverse Jenga

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Part of my post-milkman life now includes just running out get milk. And if it’s only milk that I need, Aldis is my grocery store of choice.  Easy parking, fast in, fast out.  My shopping trifecta. 

Normally at Aldis I do self-checkout; even if I get more than just milk, I don’t have the much so usually can’t get myself in too much trouble.  But this past week, I was determined to use some of my surplus quarters (lots leftover from my day at the laundromat) so I parked myself in the regular cashier line.  I’m retired – I have time.

The couple in front of me had more groceries in their cart than I have ever seen at Aldis, heck that I’ve ever seen anywhere.  The child seat was full, the cart itself was practically overflowing and even the bottom shelf under the card was full of stuff.  It was amazing.  While they were unloading everything, the guy even went and grabbed a few more things from the freezer section.

The cashier was bound and determined to get everything back into one cart was she was scanning.  (I’m not sure why… there were plenty of empty carts next to her station.)  She stacked and wiggled and moved stuff around.  I was pretty sure things were going to start sliding off the mountain that had been created in that cart.  The woman looked at me with my two cartons of milk and gave me a “I’m so sorry” quasi-smile.  I laughed and said “it looks like reverse-Jenga”.  Everybody, including the cashier thought this was pretty funny. 

The total on their order was $312!  Considering that Aldis sells pretty much everything at a bargain price, you can imagine how many groceries it takes to hit the $300 mark.  And how funny it felt to cough up my $4.98 in coins right afterwards. 

Cash or credit card for your groceries?

2024, animals, Family, Food, home, Nature

Squirrely Exercising

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We feed the squirrels.  We started out to feed just the birds; I’m not even remotely worried about squirrels not being able to fend for themselves.  But as anyone who has tried to feed birds without feeding squirrels will tell you – get over yourself.  We have one feeder that has things like corn and peanuts and suet.  The other feeders offer teeny bits that appeal to birds and have itty bitty openings that the squirrels can’t get into.  The last feeder holds a block of seed and meal worms but is laced with some kind of hot sauce.  Apparently birds aren’t bothered by capsaicin while squirrels are repelled it.  It seems to be doing the job as the squirrels ignore it completely and the birds seem to enjoy it.

Of course, having squirrels on the feeders and on the ground under the feeders makes Guinevere insane.  When you open the back porch door she can get to the feeders in about a nanosecond.  She has never gotten a squirrel although there is one who seems to go out of its way to mosey along to the tree with just a hairs breath from getting gnawed by the dog. 

I have to admit that sometimes I egg Guinevere on.  “Go get `em Tiger” is the most used phrase although sometimes I mix it up.  I don’t actually want her to get a squirrel and I’m very sure that my giving her positive feedback isn’t increasing her speed but I do like to think I’m tricking her into getting a little more exercise. 

I only think like this because I have to trick MYSELF into getting more exercise.  I’m just not crazy about organized exercise, so I disguise it as something else.  Yardwork is the biggie and walking the dog is good too – I don’t even think about these as exercise.  I’ve taken over trash/recycling duty from YA the last year as this is something that needs doing and the long driveway on the hill is some good movement.  I’ve even taken to bringing up the neighbors cans (they keep their cans next to their back door which is right off my driveway).  Extra trips and it’s a neighborly thing to do.  If science actually came up with a pill to replace exercise, the neighbors would probably be on their own every Thursday!

Until I figure out a way to make exercise my friend, I guess I’ll be tricking the dog into chasing after all the teenage mutant ninja squirrels in the back.

Are you and exercise friends?  How do you manage it???

2024, Food, History, holidays, Uncategorized

Never Down on my Chips

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I may have mentioned that I have a Sandra Boynton-illustrated calendar that lists many very unusual holidays throughout the year. 

You’ll be happy to know that today is Chocolate Chip Day.  (Not chocolate chip cookie day, which is in August).  I haven’t looked too hard so I’m not sure WHY there is a chocolate chip day.  1937 was the birth of the chocolate chip – you’ve probably heard the story – when Ruth Wakefield chopped up a Nestle chocolate bar and added the bits to her cookie recipe.  A couple of years later, she signed a contract with Nestle which is why her recipe is still on the back of the chocolate chip package to this day.  She received a lifetime supply of chocolate.  Personally I hope she also got a boatload of cash.

I’m thinking pancakes sprinkled with chocolate chips (I have milk chocolate and white chocolate on hand)  for breakfast but haven’t decided how else to incorporate them into my day.

Any chocolate chip ideas?

2024, Business, Family, Food, Uncategorized

Convention Grill Melt-Down

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When I took a leave from college during my junior year, my first job supporting myself in Northfield was as a waitress at Country Kitchen.  Yea, I know, glamorous.  My next job was also waitressing at Ole Piper Inn – a little better money and closer to my apartment.  When Ole Piper went other (rather abruptly), my friend Deana found a job at the Ole Store and managed to squeeze out a job for me as well.  That job was a combination of waitress/baker/cook. 

I’ve heard people say that everyone should be required to spend a year being a waiter or waitress as they’re starting out-kind of like compulsory armed services requirements. I’ve always thought that was a great idea.

Convention Grill in Edina closed down during pandemic and then for a variety of reasons, never got around to re-opening until this past week.  The family who owns it has been telling us for years that they were going to be back in business eventually so I’ve been keeping tabs on their progress for awhile now: when I saw the ads for staff last month, I was ecstatic and YA thought we should go right away. 

It was during this trip that I was reminded about everyone needing food service background – especially YA!  We had a wait, which was expected.  A very pushy gentleman managed to get the young guy monitoring the waiting list to seat him before us.  This outraged YA.  I was more mad at the pushy guy but we got seated immediately after that and it turned out to be a better table.  YA was not mollified. 

Then it turned out that they didn’t have a veggie burger.  My guess is that they will eventually bring that back but the thin paper menus made me think that they might be opening on a restricted listing.  YA was in a huff about this, announcing right as my Diet Coke showed up that she didn’t want anything else.  I said “OK, then let’s go.”   This took her by surprise and she backed down quickly.  She said we could stay but she wouldn’t have anything.  I replied that this wasn’t my idea of a good time and we should go.  Grumpily she said she’d have the triple-decker grilled cheese.  She didn’t want an order of fries, said she’d have “10” of mine.  The one thing you can still count on at Convention Grill is the size of the orders of fries.  One side order is good for two.  YA ate her entire sandwich and about half the fries.

Luckily getting food into her helped a lot but she continued to point out things that could be better, including the wait for the food, the fact that the waitress only checked in with us once, the wait for the check.  When I suggested that the restaurant had only been open for three days and it was chock-a-block full of customers and unsurprisingly they had a few kinks to work out, she was unconvinced.  I also told her it was likely that 100% of the staff were new, she retorted that most of them probably had experience elsewhere, I told no… probably 80% of the staff probably didn’t.  If they had prior experience, they most likely couldn’t afford to work at Convention Grill.  At this point I told her she needed to spend a year working in a restaurant and that she was “harshing my buzz” (quote from Big Bang Theory.  Rest of the time was uneventful.

Anyway, my review is that if you enjoyed Convention Grill before pandemic, you’ll most likely enjoy it now.  If you’ve never been but like retro dining experiences with a variety of burgers, malts and fabulous fries, you’ll most likely enjoy it.  If you’re YA – maybe not.

Tell me about a favorite place that has re-opened since pandemic!

2024, Family, Food, gardening, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

The Power Of Tarragon

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Last summer Husband bought four tarragon plants to put in the big front garden bed. We had never grown tarragon before, and I hadn’t cooked with it that much. We found it a delightful addition to the garden and to our cooking. I was sad to see Autumn come and the plants die in the first freezes. I also thought the same thing about the spinach, a late season Italian variety called Gigante d’inverno, that we plant once the peas are done in August. It is a dark green, highly savoyed spinach with large leaves. It is pretty fast growing and cold hardy. It doesn’t like heat, but likes it cool, even if it gets snowed on.

Much to our surprise, all four tarragon plants survived the winter and are growing nicely. The same is true for the few stray spinach plants we didn’t harvest last year. I never realized that a tender herb like tarragon was hardy to Zone 4, and that if well mulched, the spinach can winter over even in North Dakota. I find that amazing.

Husband plans to have lots of herbs in the garden this summer. It is also a basil summer, as we are getting low on pesto in the freezer. Can you tell I am excited about getting into the garden?

What herbs do you like to grow? What do you like to use tarragon for? How are your garden plans coming?