Back from the Dead

Right Now:  8:45pm. I'm still full from the lunch I made/had with my husband and sister (homemade hoagies, sauteed mushrooms and green peppers, Italian sausages and whole seed mustard). I also just woke up from an obscenely long nap.

This Past Weekend: is kind of a blur. I hadn't taken an obscenely long nap before today!

On Saturday I made a chocolate cream pie and a sweet potato pie for Sunday's "Harvest Party." Sunday, after Mass, was spent writing a "harvest song," compiling a slideshow and making employee awards. The party itself was great; a cookout with volleyball, a fiddler, and great company (best employees ever this year!).

Some Plans for the Week: We scored some free wicker chairs (with a sign "free") off the side of the road. I want to give them a fresh coat of paint and either buy or make some deep cushions for them. I also want to (finally) try my hand at making bagels, and start job hunting in earnest.

If I Can Find Time for Myself, I Want To: Exercise. Even if I can't find time, I should make it. I've been too sedentary too long.

Special Prayer Intentions: In thanksgiving for a friend from college who was ordained a priest this weekend, and for all of my old seminarian friends. In sincere thanksgiving for an unexpectedly successful cherry harvest -- we'll live to farm another year. And in gratitude for my husband; the most amazing man alive.

Something That Makes Me Smile: The many stages of an exquisite sunrise over the river during a cherry harvest morning. Getting up at 3:30am does, occasionally, have its advantages.

Monday Morning Musings are hosted by Patch o' Dirt Farm.

Sleep? What's That?

It started Sunday.

3:15am alarm clocks. Subconscious slapping of the snooze button. 3:30 alarm. Subconscious slap. 3:45 alarm, dart out of bed, unshowered, unbreakfasted, "HOW COULD I SLEEP IN!? We've got to GO!"

Welcome to cherry harvest.

(Posting hiatus until it's over... end of this week? Remind me to bring my camera to the orchard.)

Yay Me

1. This is big. Really big. In fact, it shouldn't even qualify as a "small" success. But considering I don't do "Huge Success Friday" I have nowhere else to post this. So here it goes. After two agonizing years of verbal abuse, I quit one of my jobs. There. I said it. I did it. I actually did it. Will I be able to pay my student loans? Who knows. Is the daily sense of dread gone? Heck yes.

2. I've had baby chicks for five days and none of them are dead! Okay, my fears of being an irresponsible owner are validated... I've let their water run dry twice and forgot to lower the heat lamp one night. But they're still alive, and apparently healthy!! They're so much more forgiving than geraniums!

3. I've made three better-than-store-quality (with no high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, modified whey protein, xantham gum, carrageenan, guar gum, and whatever other dubious substrates are always in there) batches of ice cream! Epic diet fail, but huge culinary success! And my husband is thrilled (he's an ice cream fiend).

They're not actually hosting Small Successes at Faith & Family this week, but I had to post this anyway.

Maybe They Were Working

I'm reading Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

I've never liked any of the film versions, mostly because they all cast unattractive actors (shallow, I know, but difficult for me to get past), but also because I couldn't stand Captain Wentworth's character. He was so cold, rash, flirtatious and unworthy, and remained so to the end... nothing like Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightly or Colonel Brandon.  But in movies you aren't typically given a glimpse inside a character's mind to know their motives as you are privy to in books, and I hoped reading the novel would restore my faith in Austen's cohort of strong, honorable, virtuous male leads.

Anyway, the book is wonderful but I was distracted from pages 45-58 by a strong desire for asparagus, diverted in pages 59-77 by an urge for cauliflower, and totally unable to concentrate on pages 78-90 for a broccoli craving. I like vegetables as much as the next person (perhaps a little more), but I never crave them! So, realizing I'd better put the book down before I heard the call of the brussels sprouts, I indulged the odd impulse (with some blue cheese dressing).

A little investigation showed that asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower are all very high in folic acid and vitamin C; the two supplements I quit taking a few weeks ago (despite doctor recommendations) because, I thought, "these aren't doing anything."

I'll take two vitamins tonight and pray the cauliflower doesn't call me in the morning.

Golden Granola

Grab the button here and come join us, or just link to another site with a recipe you're going to try... or post a recipe in the comments!

There are a few foods for which everyone claims to have the "absolute best" recipe. Homemade pizza crust, lasagna, chocolate chip cookies, and tacos are a few. Any search for those recipes will turn up results such as: "absolute best," "best EVER," "world's best." Well, when looking for a good homemade granola recipe, I ran into dozens of recipes claiming to be "the world's best" and they are all comprised of about the same ingredients in different proportions.

At long last, I just went with a recipe and now I've stuck with it (adapting it each time and liking all the variations equally well). This recipe came by way of my sister-in-law's mom. I'm not claiming this is the best recipe on earth, but I will claim that my husband and I really like it. My preferred way of consuming this delight is as a cereal with blueberries and/or bananas and milk. But it also goes wonderfully on yogurt, on ice cream, or just straight and dry as a snack.

Golden Granola
Adapted from: Ann Sutton

• 4 c. oatmeal (uncooked)
• 1 c. coarsely chopped nuts
• 1 c. coconut
• 1/2 cup wheat bran (optional, it adds fiber)
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 c. raisins

Combine all ingredients except raisins in a bowl and mix well. Spread evenly on an ungreased large rimmed cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven (350°) 15 minutes, stir, and bake 10 minutes more. Stir in raisins, cool thoroughly, and store in a tightly covered container in a cool dry place.

What are you cooking?