Proud of myself here. I took the Best Recipe for gingerbread, and quartered it to fit in a tiny loaf pan. Now, gingerbread for two. Smelled amazing coming out of the oven.
Potentially proud of myself here too. My next yarn will be warm colors.
Did you stay home today? Nope, it’s Sunday, where I brave the cooties to provision my household
What local business or charity did you support? Several, let’s name Cheese Traders, from which we bought a few gifts to ship to Mom
What’s for dinner? White Beans au Vin, a NYT recipe. It wasn’t anything special. White beans and mushrooms in some broth. Ever since You Know What, NYT has printed a section called “At Home”; one thing it always includes is five recipes under the heading “What to Cook This Week.” They always look so scrumptious. And I just like the title. “What to Cook This Week.” Cause that’s what we are all wondering, isn’t it? Question answered, problem solved, they figured it out for you, now you just put the pieces together and you get five fairly healthful, yummy, and varied meals for your week. So I finally decided to try a couple… tomorrow is a pasta with sausage & broccoli. I’m just doing two, not all five.
Sarah Frey is a phenom who started her business at age 15 with a “melon route,” selling her and other local farms’ melons to retail stores. Now she heads a multi-million dollar corporation, wholesaling local produce with an emphasis on melons and pumpkins. If you’ve bought a pumpkin not grown locally to you, from a big-box store, it’s probably from Frey Farms (and she thanks you).
The story has a bit of that vibe of, “OMG can you believe my awful childhood, how did I survive!” The Frey kids are numerous and grow up in poverty. (There were five them when Sarah was growing up; she bills herself as “the youngest of 21”, but that counts the progeny of her parents’ previous marriages before she was born.) But the siblings are loving, everyone gets through the hard times, and Sarah is making money hand over fist while still in her teens.
I share Sarah’s love of pumpkins – I agree, they just make people happy, and we should try to use them more than once a year for carving. I love memoirs, farm memoirs, and memoirs of how people became successful. But I had some issues. I get the melon route at age 15, for one thing; I get a lot of the precociousness. But I DON’T get how she secured a $10,000 car loan at that age. Come on.
And it may say something negative about me, but I couldn’t get over Sarah’s model-perfect, angular and perky face peeking out at me from the inside author shot:
…or the scenically posed picture of her with a busload of pumpkins on the cover. Or her hoisting that watermelon with her perfectly coiffed blonde hair, spotless white t-shirt, and cute tight faded jeans on the back cover. There’s a shot of the author as a young girl with one of her brothers, sitting on top of a ram. That’s adorable. This is a memoir of your childhood – we want childhood photos! We KNOW you’re gorgeous now; one vanity shot would suffice. ( )
Yesterday:
Did you stay home today? Yes 100%, but had a repairman come into the house too
What local business or charity did you support? Maybe none?
What’s for dinner? Pie empire pies
Today:
Did you stay home today? Picked up Beatrice, strictly outdoor; will pick up some food somewhere
What local business or charity did you support? TBD
What’s for dinner? TBD, I’m leaning towards Agave Mexican in Williston
What I’m musing about:
I’m unduly excited about expecting a kiddie in the spring. You’d think we hadn’t already birthed 22 kids on this farm.
Since I got my original birth certificate a couple weeks ago, I really seized on one tidbit – my middle name. So she didn’t just name me Tania. She named me Tania Marie. Sometimes I roll that around in my mind like a yummy piece of hard candy in my mouth.
I don’t exactly know what food we’ll have for Xmas. On Tgiving morning I really enjoyed making that pumpkin pie with Xopher contributing. I’d love for us to make some special dessert together. I was thinking coconut cake because he’s very fond of that. Coconut custard pie? I’ve never made that. Many years we’ve made rum cake – but it makes a huge amount even when we DO have company, no way can we make that during quarantine for two.
Just a long litany of all the grim statistics: the population growth, the food waste, the melting ice, the fossil fuels, you name it – want to see statistics about every possible way we’ve messed up, this is the book for you. It really did almost nothing to inspire me. The “How We Got to Climate Change” part of the subtitle led me to expect more of a narrative arc. That, plus the word “Story” in the title, I guess. The second part of the subtitle, “Where to Go from Here”, constitutes only one measly final chapter. I need more hope. ( )
Did you stay home today? Less than a minute inside Mama Pho. Walked up my hill and ended up helping one of my aged neighbors put a cover over his car. Outdoors but both of us maskless and it make me nervous.
What local business or charity did you support? Mama Pho
What’s for dinner? Mama Pho… I didn’t love the pad thai as much as last time; time to move onward through the menu.
Did you stay home today? Nope, Sunday is my Danger Day. I brave Essex, Hannaford as briefly as possible, Bernice in my car, me extremely briefly in Bernice’s home. Does it totally nullify me getting my Phoenix Books & Sweet Clover orders curbside? Sigh.
What local business or charity did you support? Purinton Xmas Tree Farm, Huntington
I was right; I don’t like it. That’ll teach me to trust my gut next time.
Still, it’ll add nice variety to my collection. Maybe someone will want it someday to knit an ugly little hat for a little boy. Guys always want to wear ugly stuff.
Yesterday:
Did you stay home today? Yes but X went out for hardware
What local business or charity did you support? I bought a Vermont Brewer’s t-shirt and raffle tickets for Dragonheart
But seriously folx! X helped with the pie this morning.
Yesterday:
Did you stay home today? 100%
What local business or charity did you support? Marshfield School of Weaving – bought dishtowels from their online covid-safe Xmas sale
What’s for dinner? Leftovers
Today:
Did you stay home today? Well duh! 100%
What local business or charity did you support? Probably take a day off from that today, though I may be in a Black Friday online buying mood after lots of food & wine
My co-worker/manager/friend gave me this book because it was written by his pastor. It was very Bibley. But I gave it an honest try.
(I don’t get why Christians spend so much time studying the Old Testament. Jesus did away with all that. He replaced it with one commandment: Love Thy Neighbor. It doesn’t require much study.)
In spite of the Biblical talk, I think his main message was Unity, and I can certainly get behind that. The Christian way of phrasing this would be to say we are all members of one Body of Christ. Not much different from the visualization that helps me get along: we are all just One Big Thing. For me, that encompasses the whole biosphere. Literally just One Big Thing. So yes, I got something out of it.
Did you stay home today? Popped into the front of JCAT to get my pickup. < 10 seconds
What local business or charity did you support? United Way, JCAT, Phoenix Books – that takes care of yesterday, today, & tomorrow
What’s for dinner? JCAT, I get the Chicken BLT every time. Side salad if it’s a weekday, sweet potato fries only if it’s Saturday. I have very few rules left from WW days, but minimizing fries is one of them.
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Tytania 