Once again, the bitter disappointment of spring is upon us. I hate that you get these beautiful warm days only to have it foul up again with rain and cold. Yes, I know that is the nature of spring and weather in general, but I think fall does a better job as a season. Much more gradual and consistent.
Still, last year I made a conscious effort to fully embrace the diversity of weather, so welcome, rain and cold. You rotten bastards.
We’re doing dinner Triple O or OOO (On Our Own), For Dale, that always means my homemade tacos from the freezer. My tacos are fried crispy, and Dale does a fantastic job of resuscitating them. I won’t make new ones until the freezer stash is gone, so he’s motivated.
I mix it up, but tonight I decided to eat my last piece of birthday lasagna. That’s from September! While I was rooting around in the freezer, I saw two sad and lonely pieces of my birthday cake, so I pulled out one of those for good measure. A little rain and cold deserves coconut layer cake. For breakfast.
While we’re on the topic of food, Dale corned a beef brisket. The first night we ate it boiled with potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage. The second night he made Reuben sandwiches on his homemade rye bread, which by the way, makes delicious toast in the morning.
Sometimes I like rye toast with just butter, and sometimes I add a little bitter orange marmalade. Dale thinks it’s weird that I use both butter and marmalade, but I think it’s a great combination! Peanut butter is also good on rye, but for some reason, I don’t like peanut butter on sourdough.
Since many bloggers report on Thankful Thursday, I will share that I’m grateful we’re both obsessed with food and cooking. Aside from eating exceptionally well, I also believe cooking at home most of the time makes for healthy aging. I rarely eat any kind of processed or packaged food, and it’s my contention eating reasonably “clean” helps with weight management. I know it’s different for everyone, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
I had my first-ever facial this week! I liked it very much and plan to go every six weeks or so to see if it makes a difference. I’m low-maintenance when it comes to beauty routines, and Tammy, the esthetician, totally got that. I said I’m not looking to get any younger, but I’d like to keep my skin looking reasonably good as I age.
She used very light microdermabrasion as part of the facial, and my skin tone definitely looks more even – lighter dark spots, less red. My skin also looks brighter and feels moisturized.
Tammy didn’t push products. She thought my CeraVe stuff from the drugstore was fine. The only thing I purchased was a bottle of Vitamin C serum. That goes under the sunscreen in the morning. She gave me a bag full of samples to try. One is a tinted sunscreen. I used that yesterday for golf, and aside from the sun protection, I liked how it made my skin look.
On the aches and pains front, I’ve decided to cut back on the rhetoric. As I was getting out of the car for golf yesterday, possibly grunting and groaning, one of the women who also deals with sciatica was getting out of her car. We’ve often compared notes. She said, “How are you?” And I said, “Hanging in there …” I’m not sure if I was going to elaborate or not, but she quickly said GREAT! and exited the scene at a high rate of speed.
I think that was a message to find something else to talk about.
On the entertainment front, I read March Violets, the first book in the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. Bernie is a detective in 1936 Berlin. The writing is quite sharp with that sassy hard-boiled dialogue we often associate with crime writers from that era – Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet, etc.
Anyway, I liked it a lot, but that Hitler stuff is pretty depressing. Not to go all political on you, but I do feel Fascism is a real threat these days, and not just in the U.S. So, I have to decide if I want to continue with the books. I also finally read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Set during World War II, there’s also a fair amount of Nazi bullshit in there, but for some reason, it didn’t bother me as much in this novel.
Next on the reading docket are all the novels of Dashiell Hammet. Conveniently, they’re relatively short and all compiled into one book. I’ve probably read them all at some point, but I’m refreshing my memory before I watch Monsieur Spade.
When I first retired, I had a hard time reading during the day, but now I’m a pro. I still won’t watch TV during the day, though. I burned through all my favorite shows on PBS Masterpiece, and I’m currently back to Netflix with Resident Alien, a hilarious but kind of dark show about an alien who is sent to Earth to kill everyone, but it all goes terribly wrong.
What Dale made is referred to as “Boiled Dinner” when he and I hail from. Those “from away” which includes Connecticut refer to it as “New England Boiled Dinner”.
I had the same at a pub in Pasadena on St Patrick’s Day but the carrots were hard and the corned beef very fatty.
Dale said his mother put turnips in it. He liked the turnips in boiled dinner, but his mother used the leftover vegetables in the corned beef hash, and he’s more of a purist in that regard. His sister still puts turnips in her hash. We like our carrots on the softer side, so I get what you say about them being hard. This particular brisket was also quite lean. Dale enjoyed hearing from another Mainiac.
The cooking that you and Dale do is very inspirational! Also, the quick exit of your golf friend made me laugh!
Thank you! The quick exit was pretty funny, and it was a good wake-up call.
I watched a documentary about Iris Apfel, who lived to be a very busy 102. In it, she quotes a friend of her mother`s who, when you asked how she was, would say, “When I wake up in the morning, anything I have two of, one of them hurts.”
That about sums it up. Thanks for the laugh.
I had to laugh when I read your name for OOO dinner, because we have something very similar. We call it YOYO night (you’re on your own). Homemade rye bread sounds delectable, no matter when you have it or what you put on it!
I never watch daytime TV either and I still have trouble giving myself “permission” to read during the day. I am working on that …I am retired for goodness sake!
I like YOYO!
It’s odd how difficult it is to embrace our new relaxed mode. Keep trying — you deserve it!
Your freezer sounds like it’s a repository of ready riches. I first stacked my freezer with my own home cooked ready meals in readiness for my cancer treatment days. It worked so well, I continued with that practice, until the kitchen became entirely Himself’s domain. Ours is now more raw (if frozen) ingredients, ready to make a meal with. Himself stocks up when meat and fish is on offer, and then cooks up a storm with it.
Our freezers (plural) are indeed a repository of riches. I will be using that line from now on. Thank you.
Yes, the fickleness of spring weather. The threat to wash the car must have brought on the snow that’s falling today. YOYO, OOO. In our house, we called it fridge fall-out. Eat whatever you can find.
Fridge fall-out. I like it. Has kind of an apocalyptic feel to it — but in a good way.
From beautiful, warm sunny weather to the threat of snow where I am. I’m grumbling because my birthday is Saturday, and the forecast when I looked last week was warm and sunny. Now it’s just the opposite (she whines). All my outside plans dashed, although I do have rain pants.
Facials are a perfect indulgence, and it’s great that your person doesn’t push products. CeraVe is my go to moisturizer, too. Good to know an expert approves.
Well, happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful time even if the weather sucks.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the facial. I never spent money on that sort of thing when I was working because it was all about saving for retirement!
I would like to know how you make these tacos, Donna. I was thinking today that I haven’t had a crisp taco in a long time. Having a supply in the freezer would be wonderful.
Here’s a post I did about the tacos:
https://www.retirementconfidential.com/2019/10/19/taco-night-revisited/
There’s no real recipe, but the description is in the narrative. Dale freezes the leftovers in a ZipLoc. He lets them thaw out on the counter. Then he puts a rack on a tray and spreads the tacos out evenly on the rack. He then puts them in the oven at 400 degrees. Watches them carefully, turning over at least once. When they crisp up again, they’re done. Then he adds fresh toppings.