Dinner tonight was not one of those meals you write about... or brag about... or really tell anyone about, if you can help it. But it's Sunday night, I had already cooked for a potluck at church, and Steve's been consistently melting down right around dinner time every night. And, to be perfectly honest, I like junk food sometimes. So we had pizza dip: cream cheese, spices, store-bought sauce, pre-shredded cheese, pepperoni (I made myself feel better by buying the uncured stuff), and breadsticks that came out of a can. And guess what? It was good. And Steve loved it.
I've been spending a lot of time trying to pretend it's fall. I went to the mall and bought seasonal hand soap. I also smelled all the fall candles to pick out my favorites for a future shopping trip. I've been making soup, and I bought apple cider. I'm hoping that if I do enough fall things, the weather will feel pressured to change. So far it's not working, but I'll keep trying.
And now, I'm off to bed so that I can attempt to get more than 6.5 hours of sleep.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
The Return...
Last month I was sad that David had to leave. But selfishly, my primary concern was the fact that I was going to have to take care of everything here by myself. I was going to have to take out the trash, clean the litter, wash those particularly hard-to-clean pans, scrub the shower, put away laundry. No one was going to come home in the evening to play with Steve while I made dinner. And sure, a couple days after David left, I looked at the trashcan that needed emptied and the pan that had been "soaking" on the stove and realized that they probably couldn't wait the four weeks until he got home. But for the most part, it was fine. Since I didn't expect him home in the evenings, I wasn't (most of the time) panicked and frustrated that evening wasn't coming soon enough. Steve and I had fun. We went to the park. We ate dessert first. We cuddled. In the evenings after he went to bed, I watched four and half seasons of "How I Met Your Mother" (am I cooler now that I've seen it or less cool because I'm admitting I hadn't seen it until now?).
David's been home for a grand total of 10.5 hours, and I've already gotten needier. I couldn't make the ice cream without David holding Steve. I couldn't get the cake together for church tomorrow without David taking Steve outside to play. I whined. A lot. Perhaps I'm demonstrating gratitude and relief that he is home, but I think I should find a more appealing way to do that. When I apologized this evening, David told me he expected it (predictable much?), and he's mentioned in the past that he likes that I let myself need him. Although it is right to be vulnerable in the presence of those God has put in our lives, it is not right to demand of them. We are told to share of ourselves by sharing our burdens with those around us, but we cannot have expectations of them. We must need others but be perfectly completed in Christ. Ultimately, our need for community and relationship is actually a desire for the sanctification of another. We need relationships because we need to reflect Christ to others and have others reflect Him to us, and we do that by revealing our shared need for a Savior.
-L
David's been home for a grand total of 10.5 hours, and I've already gotten needier. I couldn't make the ice cream without David holding Steve. I couldn't get the cake together for church tomorrow without David taking Steve outside to play. I whined. A lot. Perhaps I'm demonstrating gratitude and relief that he is home, but I think I should find a more appealing way to do that. When I apologized this evening, David told me he expected it (predictable much?), and he's mentioned in the past that he likes that I let myself need him. Although it is right to be vulnerable in the presence of those God has put in our lives, it is not right to demand of them. We are told to share of ourselves by sharing our burdens with those around us, but we cannot have expectations of them. We must need others but be perfectly completed in Christ. Ultimately, our need for community and relationship is actually a desire for the sanctification of another. We need relationships because we need to reflect Christ to others and have others reflect Him to us, and we do that by revealing our shared need for a Savior.
-L
Friday, April 6, 2012
'Twas the Night Before... and homemade cheese
David leaves tomorrow for an away rotation in Pennsylvania, so the little man and I will be on our own for a month. I use that term loosely, because when I found out David would be gone (over my Spring Break no less!), I thought it would be fun to schedule a couple events and trips to distract us. Apparently I think four weeks is longer than it actually is, because I think Steve and I are going to be gone almost as much as David.
So what am I doing the night before David leaves? Making cheese. I should say that we got a babysitter and went to dinner earlier in the evening. But I have a clamshell of spinach languishing in the fridge that I was supposed to use for dip. But in order to make the dip I had to make the ricotta. But I forgot I was out of cheesecloth. Welcome to my life. David picked some cheesecloth up right before we left for dinner, so now I can rescue the spinach.
I love making ricotta or paneer. It's like... rediculously easy... and I feel so accomplished. I feel like I belong in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, lugging heavy buckets of milk from the barn before hand churning it for hours... I guess that's butter. Oh well. It's also not important that I bought my milk, and I'm writing and watching Law & Order while my stove does most of the work.
You should make ricotta too, so you can share my pioneer girl feeling of accomplishment.
Homemade Ricotta
Adapted from My New Roots and Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
Makes about 1 cup cheese
4 C Milk (non-homogenized, pasture fed is best; I used raw cows milk this time, but I've made it with store-bought whole milk before as well)
1 t salt
3 T fresh lemon juice
Heat milk and salt in nonreactive pot until just before boiling. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Stir. You should see the milk separate into solids (curds) and a greenish liquid (whey) almost immediately. If you don't, add small amounts of lemon juice until you do. Stir gently in a way that gathers the curds. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then pour the mixture through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth. If you like, put a bowl underneath to gather the whey. Use it in place of water when baking or cooking. Rinse the curds to get rid of any lemon flavor, then tie the cheesecloth to your faucet and let the cheese drain for 45 min-1 hr or until it reaches your desired consistency.
You have just made cheese. And so have I. Now I'm off to see if there's something I'm supposed to have been doing for the last thirty minutes.
-L
So what am I doing the night before David leaves? Making cheese. I should say that we got a babysitter and went to dinner earlier in the evening. But I have a clamshell of spinach languishing in the fridge that I was supposed to use for dip. But in order to make the dip I had to make the ricotta. But I forgot I was out of cheesecloth. Welcome to my life. David picked some cheesecloth up right before we left for dinner, so now I can rescue the spinach.
I love making ricotta or paneer. It's like... rediculously easy... and I feel so accomplished. I feel like I belong in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, lugging heavy buckets of milk from the barn before hand churning it for hours... I guess that's butter. Oh well. It's also not important that I bought my milk, and I'm writing and watching Law & Order while my stove does most of the work.
You should make ricotta too, so you can share my pioneer girl feeling of accomplishment.
Homemade Ricotta
Adapted from My New Roots and Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
Makes about 1 cup cheese
4 C Milk (non-homogenized, pasture fed is best; I used raw cows milk this time, but I've made it with store-bought whole milk before as well)
1 t salt
3 T fresh lemon juice
Heat milk and salt in nonreactive pot until just before boiling. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Stir. You should see the milk separate into solids (curds) and a greenish liquid (whey) almost immediately. If you don't, add small amounts of lemon juice until you do. Stir gently in a way that gathers the curds. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then pour the mixture through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth. If you like, put a bowl underneath to gather the whey. Use it in place of water when baking or cooking. Rinse the curds to get rid of any lemon flavor, then tie the cheesecloth to your faucet and let the cheese drain for 45 min-1 hr or until it reaches your desired consistency.
You have just made cheese. And so have I. Now I'm off to see if there's something I'm supposed to have been doing for the last thirty minutes.
-L
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Starting... again
Education doesn't end. It's never complete. There is no finish line. I'm a teacher; I should know this. But as my college graduation becomes an increasingly distant memory, I've been realizing more and more that I'm pouring out without taking much in. I've been running off those years of formal education. It worked for the first couple years, but my mind is starting to get out of shape. For most of my life, receiving an education was my calling; from kindergarten through university I had little choice but to spend time learning. And I loved it. But I'm inherently lazy, and I no longer have those same deadlines. In fact, I have different deadlines: my baby has to eat, play, and be put to bed; my house needs cleaning; dinner needs cooking; I need exercise; lessons need planning; tests and essays need grading. And then there are the other "deadlines": my show has posted on hulu, something exciting (or not) has happened on facebook in the past 10 minutes, or I found a new cooking blog. Somewhere along the way I've neglected my mind, and it's starting to show.
I had a professor in college tell me about the importance of good introductions to books. "When you write a book one day," she advised, "make sure to get the right person to write the introduction." Obviously what struck me about her statement was not her input on finding someone to write a strong introduction as the fact that she believed I would continue to write. Periodically I think about what she said, and I feel motivated to write. So I sit down at my computer and wonder what I should say. I don't have a cohesive vision right now. At this point I could never write a book or even an artice. I wouldn't even be able to choose a topic. But I do need to write more. And everyone is blogging now. And since I'm terrible at keeping a journal and bizarre as it may seem, posting on the internet seems to provide some level of accountability to keep me writing (even if no one reads it), here goes.
I had a professor in college tell me about the importance of good introductions to books. "When you write a book one day," she advised, "make sure to get the right person to write the introduction." Obviously what struck me about her statement was not her input on finding someone to write a strong introduction as the fact that she believed I would continue to write. Periodically I think about what she said, and I feel motivated to write. So I sit down at my computer and wonder what I should say. I don't have a cohesive vision right now. At this point I could never write a book or even an artice. I wouldn't even be able to choose a topic. But I do need to write more. And everyone is blogging now. And since I'm terrible at keeping a journal and bizarre as it may seem, posting on the internet seems to provide some level of accountability to keep me writing (even if no one reads it), here goes.
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