Dh drove up to Portland yesterday and turned in his final project for graduate school. He has a presentation in a couple weeks, and then he is COMPLETELY DONE. It's surreal. He's been working towards this for so long. I've been working towards this for so long. I almost can't visualize grad school not being a part of our lives. I don't know if Dh'll know what to do with himself. All his new-found free time!
Oh wait, yes I do. FISHING. Ha ha
I've read so much young adult fiction in the past while that I am absolutely sick of it. And I've even been reading some really well-written stuff. It's just the teenager-ness of it that I'm sick of. I needed to purge my head. I read a couple of non-fiction books, but it wasn't enough. I wanted a classic. So I started reading Vanity Fair...about a self-absorbed teenager...ahhh! Next perhaps I'll read The Road or something that is unquestionably adult and doesn't have a single teenage character. Not that I have anything against teenagers. I'm quite fond of (some of) them. I just want some rich, multilayered fiction about adult topics.
I still haven't made that Cinnamon Squash Bread. It's summer...and I haven't felt like turning the oven on. I've done almost no baking this summer. We've had some very warm weather (for western Oregon) and our little a/c units are doing the best they can, without me adding oven heat to the mix. Though I will hereby prove the lie to everything I just wrote, because I made a squash casserole from the Paula Deen magazine a couple of weeks ago that was quite good. And it had to cook in a hot oven for an hour and fifteen minutes. So...apparently I'm just too lazy to cook this summer. *Shrug*
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 09, 2010
Summer Living
I dreamed that Taylor Lautner was a childhood friend. Then I dreamed that I was kidnapped and forced to become the wife of a bushman.* I helped all the other kidnapped women escape but for some reason we had to crawl an extremely circuitous route on our escape - through a movie theater in fact. Because, you know, there are LOTS of movie theaters in the African bush.
This has been a really fantastic summer. We haven't done anything big. We went over to Dh's parents for a weekend. We went up to Yakima for our niece's baby blessing over Fourth of July. A couple weeks ago we took the kids to the zoo for the first time. But this summer is fantastic because we've been spending time as a family, having fun, relaxing. (And Dh has been able to go fishing/boating so he's happy too.) Last week we made homemade ice cream and I looked around at my family as we relaxed out back and I took a mental picture of pure joy.
I love summer in Oregon! Right now the children are playing outside in a chilly Oregon summer morning. By eleven the clouds will have burned off and by five it will be uncomfortably warm, but right now Miss E is rocking a long sleeved tee and winter boots. As for me, I'm wearing socks, obscenely loud pajama pants, and an apron! And yes, it looks AWESOME. I'm very used to the temperatures of Oregon now. I wilt in temps above 90F. And I freeze in temps below 30F.
Our garden is looking fabulous. I shouldn't say "our." It's all Dh. I've done completely nothing with it. I did cook up his green beans last night and they were so good. And organic! I plan to make cinnamon squash bread this week as four good-sized summer squash are sitting on the counter right now. Summer squash and zucchini are always so...prolific. The carrots, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes should be ready soon. I have my eye on making this with the little cherry ones. I figure I can try my hand at pesto too, since there is also some basil out there and Dh makes very grouchy noises when I don't use the herbs he grows for me.
*Sorry Bushmen for the slander.
This has been a really fantastic summer. We haven't done anything big. We went over to Dh's parents for a weekend. We went up to Yakima for our niece's baby blessing over Fourth of July. A couple weeks ago we took the kids to the zoo for the first time. But this summer is fantastic because we've been spending time as a family, having fun, relaxing. (And Dh has been able to go fishing/boating so he's happy too.) Last week we made homemade ice cream and I looked around at my family as we relaxed out back and I took a mental picture of pure joy.
I love summer in Oregon! Right now the children are playing outside in a chilly Oregon summer morning. By eleven the clouds will have burned off and by five it will be uncomfortably warm, but right now Miss E is rocking a long sleeved tee and winter boots. As for me, I'm wearing socks, obscenely loud pajama pants, and an apron! And yes, it looks AWESOME. I'm very used to the temperatures of Oregon now. I wilt in temps above 90F. And I freeze in temps below 30F.
Our garden is looking fabulous. I shouldn't say "our." It's all Dh. I've done completely nothing with it. I did cook up his green beans last night and they were so good. And organic! I plan to make cinnamon squash bread this week as four good-sized summer squash are sitting on the counter right now. Summer squash and zucchini are always so...prolific. The carrots, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes should be ready soon. I have my eye on making this with the little cherry ones. I figure I can try my hand at pesto too, since there is also some basil out there and Dh makes very grouchy noises when I don't use the herbs he grows for me.
*Sorry Bushmen for the slander.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Mac N Cheese
This post over on Meredith's blog inspired me to actually write a post! Wow!
I love macaroni and cheese from scratch. Love, love, love. Sometimes I use a recipe from Real Simple with crisped prosciutto on top. Usually though I use the macaroni and cheese recipe from Bake Until Bubbly. That book, which I highly recommend, is full on sinfully delicious casseroles. It's probably been at least a year since I ate the Kraft stuff.
However, my children are irritatingly picky eaters. They disdain pot roast or grilled chicken and adore hot dogs and bologna. They hate Parmesan-Reggiano. They love Kraft mac n cheese. See, irritating.
This morning at lunch time I was ravenous due to not eating breakfast. I took a bite of the kids' mac n cheese and it tasted awful! Metallic with a really strange aftertaste. Dh was home for lunch.
"Dh, try this! It tastes weird!" I said.
"Why would I want to try it, if it tastes weird?" Dh asked, though he ate some anyway. "You taste weird. This tastes like normal mac n cheese."
"Well, that's gross. I've ruined myself to Kraft macaroni and cheese." I announced.
Which is not really a bad thing. Sorry, Kraft.
I love macaroni and cheese from scratch. Love, love, love. Sometimes I use a recipe from Real Simple with crisped prosciutto on top. Usually though I use the macaroni and cheese recipe from Bake Until Bubbly. That book, which I highly recommend, is full on sinfully delicious casseroles. It's probably been at least a year since I ate the Kraft stuff.
However, my children are irritatingly picky eaters. They disdain pot roast or grilled chicken and adore hot dogs and bologna. They hate Parmesan-Reggiano. They love Kraft mac n cheese. See, irritating.
This morning at lunch time I was ravenous due to not eating breakfast. I took a bite of the kids' mac n cheese and it tasted awful! Metallic with a really strange aftertaste. Dh was home for lunch.
"Dh, try this! It tastes weird!" I said.
"Why would I want to try it, if it tastes weird?" Dh asked, though he ate some anyway. "You taste weird. This tastes like normal mac n cheese."
"Well, that's gross. I've ruined myself to Kraft macaroni and cheese." I announced.
Which is not really a bad thing. Sorry, Kraft.
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