It seems like I haven't posted a hypocritical book rant lately. Since I had surgery and I can't do much yet and I'm bored out of my mind I think it's about time I did.

Know what I'm sick of? Traumatizing books. Seriously. Don't you think there's enough trauma in life already? Why do we have to read about it too? There are ways of having conflict and meaning in a book without requiring the reader to have therapy for the next ten years. 

I read a lovely book the other day and read the reviews for it. So many people complaining about how it wasn't detailed enough with the tragic factors in it. Really? Is this what we've come to? 

What's so wrong about reading something that actually makes us feel good when we're done? Why are positive feelings considered 'trite' and negative feelings considered 'real'? 

Why do people feel the need to justify the fact that they liked something uplifting, constructive and good?

We've got a weird kind of prejudice in this world where optimistic things are, at best, dealt with in a patronizing tone and at worst vilified as unreal and damaging. 

This kind of idea has crept into the way we deal with others too. What happened to giving others the benefit of the doubt? What happened to assuming others are not being deliberately malicious? What happened to extending grace to the imperfections of others and forgiving that lack of perfection? 

Maybe it's time to take a step back and evaluate our own
lives, our own behavior our own humanity and make some changes that we actually have some control over - ourselves.

I'm Back! And you know what that means!

 

You know what this means, right? 

You guessed it. Sick again. I can't complain. It's been a long, long time since I've felt lousy enough to post on this blog! (Or even remember it exists.) 

Aren't you glad you're such a priority in my life? 

It also means I've been writing sub par novels again!

I don't know if my reading public can handle all this excitement.  

So I've been digging around my files and found the novel that I'd almost completed and I've been - well- completing it.  

I know what you're thinking. Why would I inflict the general public with another book? Because I can. Self publishing has made this all too easy but there's always hope. The technology may have outstripped my middle aged ability to decode it. I may never be able to convert it into the proper ebook format. It may never make it into the vast ocean of self published anonymity. 

Stay tuned for the rest of this gripping tale...

Planning Menus Isn't the Same as Cooking

 

As if this blog isn't eclectic enough already, today we're talking menus! Oh boy! 

I should state here and now that I hate cooking. Motivating myself to get a meal on the table is a daily challenge. For years the kids cooked all the meals. Then they went and grew up and got jobs, got married, went to school and all that. The nerve. 

Anyway, there are three adult children still in my house - ie - the unmarried ones. (Anyone know a matchmaker? Ha ha... just kidding... but no, really is that still a thing? Asking for a friend.) One works, one is in school full time and one is doing a service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

That leaves me cooking more often than I like - which is more than ... well... never.

Today I was talking to a friend who loves to cook but hates coming up with menus. I don't mind making menus. I have definite opinions about what I want to eat and in what combinations. I just object to the whole 'cooking' part. 

So here is a sample of menu planning that we are in the middle of preparing and eating. 

It all started by getting a rotisserie chicken from Costco. 

Meal # 1. Rotisserie Chicken with Stovetop stuffing (I like it okay? Leave me alone.) and frozen mixed vegetables. (Green beans, carrots, peas, and corn)

So then I have left over chicken.  That leads to:

Meal #2. (See photo above.) Cobb Salad (romaine lettuce, feta cheese, tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, avocado, bacon, chicken, boiled eggs) and homemade bread (bread maker - hey I'm not a masochist)

Since I'm cooking up bacon for the cobb salad, I cook all the bacon in preparation for:

Meal # 3 BLTS (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches) with chilled fresh watermelon on the side. 

Ok, so can I just say something here? This is good bacon. The real thing that we bought from a local farmer. I don't know what that weird other white meat they sell in grocery stores is, but there's no way that's pork. No. Don't buy that garbage. Find yourself a nice farmer who raises pigs and get the good stuff. 

The other thing we did after constructing our cobb salad was to put the chicken carcass in a crock pot with some veg and now we're making bone broth, which we will make into gravy. As it should be. Have I mentioned my love affair with gravy? Pretty sure I have somewhere on this strange blog. Which leads us to:

Meal #4 Mashed potatoes, with chicken and gravy and fresh carrots with dip. Pure comfort food. 

So that's sets us up for a new round of anything we want. I'm thinking:

Meal #5 Ruebens (Sandwiches with corned beef, swiss cheese, pickle, and sauerkraut on rye bread) with cherries on the side - it is cherry season after all. And let's not forget a few potato chips. 

Meal #6 Do it yourself burritos. This is a great, quick meal. You put out all the stuff and let everyone make their own. Generally, ours involves taco meat, refried beans, cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, sour cream, corn, salsa, guacamole, and black olives, but you can do it anyway you want. Seriously, this is quicker than fast food. 

Meal # 7 Chinese night. Stir fry on rice, wonton soup, and egg rolls. So great. 

This is easy too. We get a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables and fry them with no sauce. We have a variety of sauces and everyone picks their own. The wontons we get frozen from Costco and use some broth (vegetable or chicken are both good) to cook them in with some fresh green onions sliced up with it. There's an Asian market near us so we get our spring rolls there. We fry them up and for dessert - cream cheese wontons - my favorite! Sometimes we'll fry up some potstickers too. It all depends on what we feel like. 

And there you have it. A week of meals.