kmkat and her kneedles

This is a rebuilding year.

You know how sports teams, when they have lost all their star players and consequently are not winning many games, they call it a "rebuilding year"?

That's what Smokey and I are having in 2012... literally.

But not in the traditional sense. More in the personal sense.

Thirty years ago Smokey fell off a ladder and hurt his back. While it has bothered him for almost the entire time since, the pain has become debilitating in the past couple years. A doctor finally x-rayed it and found that his spine looks like this:

X
X
X
X
  X
  X
  X
  X

No wonder it hurts! It seems to be pinching a nerve so is giving him all kinds of leg pain, too.

Although surgery is not necessarily the best alternative for lower back pain -- rest, pain meds, and proper exercise are -- his problem is clearly a mechanical one that can be solved by surgery. We have hopes that he will be able to resume more-or-less normal activity once he recovers from the surgery, which is scheduled for June 25, the day after his birthday.

I shall be busy this summer waiting on him hand and foot the same way he took care of me when I broke my ankle in 2008. 

Then there is me. I have been suffering from hip pain for about a year and a half. Have had several cortisone injections, which helped. Until the last one, in December, that I didn't think helped... until it wore off in March and I had significant pain. Pretty much constantly. Finally went to the ortho doc last week, they x-rayed, and said things to the effect of "oooh, I bet that smarts!" Turns out that hip is bone on bone, all natural cushioning is gone.

So once Smokey is up on his feet again, probably near the end of summer, I will be having a hip replacement. 

::sigh:: and ::hurrah!::

In the meantime the PA told me to 1, eat 50g of protein a day to ensure my muscles and other tissues are as healthy as possibly and able to heal quickly; B, try to avoid gluten and sugar, as they can promote inflammation (inflammation = pain); and iii, eat lots of dark green leafy vegies like kale, mustard greens, asparagus, and broccoli because they have the trace minerals needed to grow bone; and d, have physical therapy to see if any exercises can reduce my pain in the interval until surgery.

Now, my first thought at eating 50g of protein every day was Whoopee! This will be fun! But it turns out to be not as easy as I thought. 25g of protein is a serving of meat about the size of my fist. Imagine eating that much chicken or fish or steak or seafood twice a day. That is a lot!

The gluten and sugar avoidance will be harder, although I am doing well so far. Chris gave me some brands to look for in the store and also some to avoid. The Glutino crackers have replaced saltines in my crackers & cheese snacks. Rice, quinoa, and oats: fine. Wheat, rye, and barley: no. I bought some rice-based spaghetti that we will try and some non-gluten flour (Bob's Red Mill) that I will try substituting in baked goods. Thanks to Cookie I had already planned to buy some frozen fruit bars -- found some that were no sugar added. 

All this diet stuff will be good for both of us. Smokey is diabetic so should avoid carbs. I have a hunch that if we stick to the high protein, lots of green (and other) vegies, we will lose a few pounds, which will also be good for the surgery and long-term recovery.

Ten on Tuesday, the chocolate edition.

Carole has asked us for our ten favorite chocolate treats. Hah! 

Ten Favorite Chocolate Treats

1. Chocolate.
2. Chocolate.
3. Chocolate.
4. Chocolate.
5. Chocolate.
6. Chocolate.
7. Chocolate.
8. Chocolate.
9. Chocolate.
10. Chocolate.

Can you tell I am not particular about my chocolate, as long as it is chocolate?

Ten on Tuesday, the soup edition.

Ten Favorite Soups.

1. Al Quie's Lentil Soup. Al Quie was a congressional representative from Minnesota, 1958 - 1979, and governor, 1978 - 1982. The recipe was included in his campaign literature. I blogged it here.
   
   
2. Cream of broccoli. Whenever I buy fresh broccoli, I use just the tops of the bunch as a vegetable and make soup from the stems. Slice thinly or chop in a food processor; cook slowly in butter with chopped onion until soft. Puree in the blender with some chicken stock. Return to pan, add additional stock and/or milk and/or cream until it reaches the desired consistency; season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of sherry or white wine if desired, ditto a dash of nutmeg. Heat to serving temperature. I cook the broccoli and onion while we eat dinner and finish the soup afterwards. It generally makes one generous or two modest servings.
   
   
3. Cream of asparagus. Same as the broccoli, above, except that I garnish it with some reserved cooked asparagus tips.
   
   
4. Campbell's chicken noodle. Is there anyone in America who didn't grow up with this?
   
   
5. Campbell's cream of chicken. My mother always served me this after a dentist's appointment when I wasn't supposed to chew for a day. (I had terrible teeth and lots of fillings, the result of non-fluoridated well water and an aversion to brushing.)
   
   
6. Split pea with ham. I made up my own recipe years ago,
   starting from the recipe on the bag of dried peas but using pretty much every herb and spice I had in my spice rack (except maybe cinnamon). It's pretty darned good, if I do say so myself. You can duplicate it -- just make regular split pea soup and raid your spice cupboard.
   
   
7. Creamy wild rice. My recipe came from (what is now) here, but it is not on the new site. This recipe at Cook's is the closest I could find; mine also includes 1/2 cup grated carrots, 1 cup of cooked chicken or turkey breast of ham, and is seasoned with ground sage, thyme, and sherry. And mine only has 2/3 cup of Half-and-Half, not 2 (two!) cups. You can find my recipe here.
   
   
8. Corn, zucchini, and tomato chowder. This is a good late summer recipe, when the corn, zuccini, and tomatoes are fresh. Sometimes I add minced clams and substitute some fish stock for the chicken broth and season it with thyme instead of rosemary. (Typepad refuses to let me link to my uploaded recipe. Shout out in the comments and I will email it to you.)
   
   
9. Tomato-fish chowder. The recipe for this one is in the cookbook that came with my first microwave, and that is packed away somewhere. It uses canned tomatoes and chicken broth and chunks of cod. Mmmm.
   
   
10. Vegetable beef with barley. This was the first soup I learned how to make after I moved away from home. When I eventually used a recipe that called for some tomato paste I knew I had found the secret ingredient; up until then the soup always had tallow-y taste from the beef, but the acid from the tomatoes took that away.
    
    
11. Roasted vegetable. This one is soooo easy. Make roasted root vegetables using carrots, onions, and potatoes (and any others you like). When they are done, puree in the blender or food processor. Add broth if needed. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

That's just the winter soups. There are gazpacho and cold cucumber soups for summer. Was there ever a food as versatile as soup? 

Chicken disaster.

Carole asked for the recipe for the chicken and rice that ended up as a cinder. I am nothing if not compliant. It is a very easy recipe and one that is infinitely variable and tolerant of being held in a warm* oven until your family arrives.

No-Peek Chicken

2 cans Campbell's cream soup (cream of mushroom, celery, chicken, broccoli, whatever sounds good)

1-1/4 c. brown rice (The original recipe used white rice but that stuff has never had a place in my kitchen.)

1/4 c. water

1 envelope dry soup mix (Ex:  Lipton's onion; onion-mushroom; Knorr Fine Herb + 1 t. instant minced onion)

8 - 10 pcs. chicken, or 1 chicken, cut up (Remove skin to lower fat content and calories.)

PREHEAT oven to 325°.

COMBINE cream soups and half the soup mix; reserve 1 c. for top.  Combine remaining soup mixture with the water and rice.  Put the rice mixture into greased 9"x13" pan.

SEASON chicken pieces with pepper and onion salt or Lawry's seasoned salt, if desired.  Arrange on top of rice mixture.  Spread with reserved soup mixture and sprinkle with remaining onion soup mix.

COVER with foil and bake for 2-1/2 hours.  Uncover and bake additional 15 - 30 minutes.

YIELD:  6 - 8 servings

* A warm oven, not one that has decided to go into Fires From Hell mode as mine did.

 

Dinner. Or not.

On Thursday I put a chicken and rice dish in the oven at 4:15 at 325˚, then returned to my office for the second half of a four-hour virtual classroom training session on gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax issues. (Don't you wish you were me?)

I noticed a burning smell but remembered how dirty the oven is and thought about how maybe a french fry or two had fallen off the cookie sheet to the bottom of the oven when we were reheating them earlier this week.

The smell worsened.

At 6:20 when the class was over I went to check on dinner. The recipe calls for it to cook for 2-1/2 hours covered, then uncovered for another half hour.

The house was full of smoke, and more was streaming out around the oven door.

I opened the oven and flames burst out.

I closed the oven.

Opened the oven again.

More flames.

I turned off the oven and opened a couple windows, hoping that the strong winds that had been blowing earlier would air out the house. No wind now that I needed it, of course, but the open windows did help some. 

I found a squirt bottle in the laundry room, emptied it of its non-H2O contents, and filled it with water.

This time when I opened the oven and the flames erupted I put them out with the squirt bottle.

All this time I was trying to figure out what had happened. My best guess was that when Smokey had taken a package of English muffins from the freezer as he had mentioned earlier, he had put them in the oven to defrost in a pet-proof space; somehow I had not noticed them when I put in the chicken.

Eventually I was able to remove the pan from the oven -- it was very, very much lighter than when I had put it in -- and see what remained of our dinner.

The scorched top foil told me that the upper element, the one that comes on when the oven is preheating and was supposed to turn off when I turned the knob from preheat to cook, had stayed on for the entire two hours. (Yes, I did switch the knob from  preheat to cook -- I checked.)

That total charcoaling of the rice and liquids at the bottom of the pan told me that the lower element had stayed on for the entire two hours, too. Good grief.

So this stove, which was brand-new when this house was built in 1976 (see? harvest gold?), may be on its last -- or very nearly its last -- legs. I bought a new stove when we remodeled, but the remodeling has been stalled for several years and the stove sits in the garage, waiting its turn. Removing the old one and installing the new one -- and the gas line it will require -- is more than we necessarily wanted to tackle this week. Or this month. Or maybe this year.

Underneath that quarter-inch of pure charcoal was a bit of edible meat that Smokey was happy to try. He likes his chicken overcooked and dried out -- although not necessarily this much.

Needless to say, we went out for dinner. After all that smoke the only thing I could think of eating was barbecue. So I did.

Dinner last night.

Kale salad -- yum!

I had had a very large, very late lunch at a Chinese buffet on Monday so was only slightly hungry in the evening. This is a salad I often purchase at a supermarket deli in Minneapolis (Kowalski's, for those of you who are counting), and last weekend I attempted -- successfully! -- to recreate it at home.

Kale Salad

1 bunch (4 - 5 stems) of kale
1/4 - 1/2 cup raisins, sultanas (golden raisins), and/or craisins
1/2 large onion, sliced very thinly
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup sweetened vinaigrette; I used Cardini's Balsamic Vinaigrette
with about 3/4 teaspoon sugar dissolved in it

Cut the center stems out of the kale leaves. Cut the leaves into bite-sized pieces; discard the stems. Add dried fruit, sliced onion, and pecans; toss. Add dressing; toss.

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to several days. I know this one was good after 2 days; it would probably still be good in 2 more... and 2 more... and 2 more.

Enjoy!

(The kale was a pale bluish-grayish-green when I bought it, but turned this lovely bright green after being tossed with the dressing. Who knew?)

Ten on Tuesday Wednesday, the pumpkin edition.

Ten Ways To Eat Pumpkin.

1. Pumpkin pie. Duh. The recipe in the old, old Betty Crocker cookbook with the orange cover; imnsho, THAT is how a pumpkin pie should taste. #1 Son loved pumpkin pie so much that he requested it every year instead of a birthday cake. He savored each bite so thoroughly it might take him half an hour to eat a slice.
   
   
2. Pumpkin cheesecake. Yum. #2 Son and BGFE* are coming up this weekend; maybe I should make one of these... 
   
   
3. Pumpkin bread or muffins.
   
   
4. Pumpkin yogurt. Gaymont used to make a pumpkin yogurt and a lime yogurt; they were my very favorite. I made up my own recipe for the pumpkin one; something like equal parts vanilla yogurt and canned pumpkin, spiced with the same spice combination I would have used for a pie.
   
   
5. Pumpkin seeds. I haven't made these for years, but I remember them as being darned tasty.
   
   
6. As usual, I am running out of ideas long before I hit 10...

I seem to remember, maybe from the Alexander McCall Smith"s Precious Ramotswe books, that pumpkin is a staple food in sub-Saharan Africa. Why not? It is delicious and nutritious and easy to grow. 

* This originally meant Best Girlfriend Ever, but now it means Best Fiancé Ever.

Random musings.

I am a charter member of the apostrophe police, and I currently trying to find out who I need to arrest for this egregious overuse of the little curvy devils.

 
* * * * *

This year's birthday was quite restrained, but Smokey and I did go out for dinner at a very picturesque location nearby. Tthe menu turned out to be unimaginative, but the food was excellent and the setting was lovely.

* * * * *

The shawl is slowly coming off the needles, which leads me to the all important question: what to cast on next? Should it be the sweater on the left but done with vertical stripes like the swatch on the right (please turn the swatch 90˚ clockwise in your mind), using the Noro yarns below?

 

 

Alex has requested a rugby-style doggie sweater for Percy, her and Matthew's rescued pit bull terrier, and has chosen yarn from my stash:

    

I am all excited about lace knitting and am considering using some Rowan Calmer I bought on closeout at Webs for a Cece (but I would make it longer and with 3/4 sleeves):

 

(I am not fond of the color of the Calmer -- color at right side of skein is truest -- and am thinking of overdyeing it. Tea, for a browner tone? Rit, if I wanted dusky blue? Anyone have experience?)

There are a number of other project swimming in my head but I'll stop here.

* * * * *

I picked these wild blackberries three feet outside my front door.

Small but tasty.

Salad.

There was a package in the mailbox when I returned to Wisconsin last night. Much to my surprise, it was NOT for Smokey (he buys a lot of things on eBay) but for ME. 

I read the return address and didn't recognize it. (= duh)

What did I find in the box?

Careful reading of the birthday card informed me that this package of salad-y goodness was from Cookie! I immediately opened the wasabi wonton strips and found them deliciously addicting. Then I opened the wasabi almonds and discovered heaven.

Dinner tonight:

I added lettuce and tiny scallops and omitted the chow mein noodles. Tomorrow I shall make Asian noodle salad using the Newman's Asian Sesame Ginger dressing* and ramen noodles and the almonds and the mandarin orange segments and a little onion and whatever else I can find in the kitchen. And I shall eat the entire thing myself because cold noodles do not appeal to Smokey :-) Yay, more for me!

Thanks, Cookie! 

* This dressing is awesome! Both Smokey and I commented on how good it was -- and neither of us like ginger. Mmm...

Ten on Tuesday: the produce edition.

Ten Things To Do With An Overabundance Of Produce

1. Grate the zucchini and freeze it. Zucchini bread will always be welcome in February.
2. Can the tomatoes, either as whole tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, whatever. 
3. Make jam.
4. Take excess to work and share. Co-workers, at least those without gardens, will be grateful. Unless they have other co-workers/friends/relatives/neighbors who are also sharing the excess with them.
5. Offer it to your local food shelf. Sharing is caring.
6. Feed it to the cat. Of course you have a cat, right? 
7. Feed it to the dog. Ditto.
8. Feed it to the chickens. You do have chickens, don't you?
9. Feed it to the compost pile. If you have a garden, you definitely have a compost pile. If you don't, why not? Compost is black gold.
10. Send it to me. I don't have a garden.

That rumored side trip to NYC.

My husband loves our summer camping vacation in the mountains. He starts talking about the next one about a week after we get home from the last. He studies the calendar, calculates his work schedule, pesters me about what dates I absolutely positively have to attend to county or accounting business, and hops on the internet the instant one can book a campsite at our favorite national forest campground. Thus, this vacation has been planned since last July and the dates have been set since December.

Imagine my dismay when I got an email in early May that I had qualified for [another] Jeopardy audition -- to be held in New York City on June 28, smack in the middle of our vacation. I had taken the online test back in early March; when I hadn't heard anything from them after a month I figured I had not done well enough to qualify.

[Background] This is the fourth time I have qualified to do the audition. 1999, 2005, 2008, 2011. I blogged about the last one with lots of photos. This one was very similar. [/background]

Consternation quickly gave way to plotting and studying airline schedules. I could fly from Cheyenne, WY through Denver to La Guardia for 30,000 air miles (I had accumulated over 40,000 on my Visa card) and #1 Son said that I could stay with him for the two nights I would be there. A quick, cheap trip; a visit with Andrew; and a good story FTW!

The flight from Cheyenne to Denver was in a 19-passenger puddle-jumper.

 

There was one  bit of the 20-minute flight that was so bumpy that a ball of yarn jumped out of my knitting bag and rolled all the way to the other end of the plane. Happily, I am not a nervous flyer so I just sighed and had the flight attendent/copilot -- small crew! -- retrieve it for me when we landed.

The flight from Denver to New York was on Griz's plane.

 

 

We had to get up at 4:45 a.m. to start the drive from the Big Horns, in north central WY, to Cheyenne, in southeastern WY. I got to La Guardia at about 10 p.m. -- the time change accounts for two of those hours.

 

Next came a bus ride to Grand Central Station in Manhattan and a subway ride to the Upper East Side and a three-block walk to #1's dorm, but my back protested strongly after about half a block of that short walk. I called and asked him to come carry my [very small] suitcase and tote bag for me. I was waiting for him, sitting in the median in the middle of Park Avenue at 96th Street. For him, no problem at age 26; for me, no way at age 60+.

The audition was at a Sheraton hotel in mid-town the next afternoon. The group was small, only 23 of us.

The auditioners arrived. We waited.

 

Killing time while waiting is always such a problem for me.

 

The audition crew never tells the auditioners how we did on the 50-question test or if our interview and mock-game-playing skills were impressive enough to land us a spot on the show. There were 100,000 people who took the online test back in March; 2,000 were invited to audition; there will be roughly 400 spots available on the show over the 18-month period in which we are all eligible.

Time to wait for that phone call/email/letter. Keep your fingers crossed for me, m'kay?

* * * * *

That evening #1 and I went out for dinner at DBGB, a restaurant that was recommended to him by a friend in training to be a chef. If you go to the linked site, watch the slide show. We were seated just past the pillar in the center of the restaurant, and my view was of the wall with lots of cubbies and an assortment of copper cooking implements.

 

 
#1 studies the menu.

We had steak tartare with quail's egg (raw), grilled chibatta, cornichons, and some bitter greens to start. Andrew had never had steak tartare so wanted to try it; I am a big fan of extremely rare beef so it was a go. My entree was the chop salad with lobster, his was a burger with barbecue pulled pork and jalapeño mayonnaise. We drank beers we had never heard of before and I had an excellent glass of pinot gris. 

No photos of the food; I felt enough like a country mouse without pulling out my camera to photograph a raw quail's egg atop a neatly shaped patty of raw beefsteak.

The only fly in the ointment was that I had lost my wallet the first night we had left Wisconsin; I was able to locate it by phone at an Applebee's in Forest Lake, MN and they mailed it to me in Buffalo, WY -- complete with all the cash and credit cards!* -- but I had already cancelled my Visa card before I thought to call the Applebee's. So there I was in NYC, without a credit card and relying only on the cash that Smokey had given me.

The tab in at DBGB took almost all the cash I had, but I eventually made it back to Cheyenne with five dollars in my [new] wallet.

And that is how I made a side trip to NYC whilst camping in the mountains.

* I was so impressed with the honesty of the young man whom I dealt with that I sent him part of that cash as a reward. Sometimes I get lucky, even when I don't really deserve it.

Ten on Tuesday, the salad edition.

Ten Things To Put In A Salad.

1. Romaine lettuce. Always romaine, never iceberg.
   
   
2. Good tomatoes. Most of the year they might be cherry tomatoes or they might be the expensive, imported-from-Holland kind. For a few short months --- weeks, really -- they can be locally grown. (In the Midwest, Bushel Boy™ are pretty good in the off-season. They were developed to grow in greenhouses and have decent tomato flavor.) 
   
   
3. Fresh mushrooms, sliced.
   
   
4. Feta cheese, cubed.
   
   
5. A couple paper-thin slices of onions, cut in half and separated into half-rings.
   
   
6. Kalamata olives, preferably pitted. If pitted kalamatas are not available, go for kalamatas with pits and warn the diners to watch out. Do not substitute some other, lesser olive. You have been warned.
   
   What you have above is my standard salad, the one that #1 Son refers to as The Mom Salad . Dress it either with creamy caesar dressing or balsamic vinaigrettes; my preferred brand is Cardini's.
   
   Other possible additions:
   
   
7. Sliced cucumbers.
   
   
8. Pecan halves. Never walnuts. Walnuts are bitter; pecans are rich and slightly sweet.
   
   
9. Sprinkling of dill weed. Odd, but good.
   
   
10. Sprinkling of Kraft parmesan (if there is no feta in the house).

There you have it: The Kat™''s recipe for tossed salad. To make the salad a meal, add tuna, diced cooked chicken, or julienned strips of salami, ham, turkey, or beef. Bon appetit!

So, yeah, we went to New York.

It was raining when we left Minneapolis.

But not in New York. On Friday we met up with Andrew when he got off work.

Andrew is eating pizza we brought him, left over from our own snack.
He actually looks vaguely like a doctor.

Mt. Sinai stands right across Fifth Avenue from Central Park. The green area behind the wall, Andrew told us, used to be called The Sandpit because that is essentially what it was. Earlier this year, or maybe last year, the city landscaped the area and re-sodded it and now it is a lovely place. 

Friday night, Ramblin' Jack Elliot at the Rubin Museum, a museum of Himalayan art. Yeah, now there's a connection. No photos, not allowed. Concert was a little shy of 1.5 hours; he sang six songs and talked a lot. Jack is 79 years old and has 79 years worth of stories to tell. That's why he is called Ramblin' Jack. A little online research before the concert informed us that, although he is a folk/western/country singer, he is a surgeon's son from Brooklyn who ran away from home at 15 to join the rodeo.

On Saturday we saw where Andrew lives.

No photos of the interior or his apartment. Imagine a 15'x18' kitchen/living room/dining room with two tiny bedrooms and a bath on either side. Now imagine that there are always four 20-something males living there and that none of them has a minute to spare on domesticity because they are either studying or working about 26 hours a day. Not squalor but not neatnik heaven, either.

We trucked on down to Chinatown to do a little touristy sight-seeing with one stop along the way. Andrew wanted to show us something but wouldn't tell us what it was.

I may have mentioned my favorite movie here once or twice. This shop is in the Village about a block south of Washington Square.

I got myself a t-shirt, which I cannot show you because it is in the wash. But you can see it here.

While in Chinatown we got a little hungry and found a likely spot to refresh ourselves.

Happily, they also had English menus.

LIke his parents, Andrew is an adventurous eater and likes to order something he has never had before. On this occasion he ordered an appetizer of jellyfish and pigs' knuckles. The waiter, a tiny Chinese man, looked at him sternly and waggled his hands in a "No, no!" gesture. Jellyfish no good, he said. Andrew had fried won tons instead.

Saturday night we ate dinner in an Italian restaurant with six of Andrew's friends from medical school. I suffered a tragic case of camnesia so that event must remain unrecorded.

Sunday was the gospel brunch at Sylvia's Soul Food Restaurant, which you have already seen. We all took long naps after that adventure.

Monday was spent finding breakfast, packing, getting to the airport, and flying home via Washington, DC.

We toured the Capitol and the Washington Monument. From the plane.

 

So, yeah, that was the trip. Lots of fun, good to see the kid young man, good food, yada yada.

Oh, you want to see the yarn?

Okay.

Tomorrow.

Sunday brunch.

 

Sylvia's Soul Food Restaurant, 126th and Lenox Avenue, Harlem.

For the record, I had the catfish, eggs, and grits breakfast, including a mimosa; Smokey and Andrew had barbecued ribs with sides of macaroni and cheese (both of them), garlic mashed potatoes (Andrew) and pickled beets (Smokey). Food and service were very good, no complaints.

A better photo of the painting in the background:

Andrew said Obama had a $1,000 a plate fund-raiser there earler this year. There was also a large photo on the wall above our table of Bill Clinton with Sylvia herself. Lest you think the place was not busy -- it was VERY busy -- that empty table was part of a set-up for a party of 40-50 people that was seated shortly after us.

Good times!

Sunday in New York.

Gospel brunch @ Sylvia's Soul Food.

There is no point in traveling if one doesn't take advantage of that which one cannot find at home. And you better believe that soul food restaurants are extremely rare in Polk County, Wisconsin.

Ten on Tuesday, the saving on the groceries edition.

I am sorry, but saving at the grocery store has never been high on my list of ways to economize, mainly because ANYTHING from the grocery store is cheaper than going out to eat, amen.

But I will try.

Ten Ways To Save Money At The Grocery Store.

1. Take everything out of your wallet except the exact amount of cash that you have budgeted for groceries that week. Make no other trips to the grocery store except the one described. (I got this one from a Weight Watcher group leader years ago. It is probably the very best tip I have ever heard for grocery shopping on a budget.)
2. Use coupons, but ONLY for those items you would have purchased anyway. Back when I used to clip coupons every week, I found that a large majority of them were for crappe --  highly processed (and high profit margin) foods, unnecessary cleaning products, unhealthy snacks.
3. Buy generics and house brands for items when you can live with their sometimes-lesser quality.
4. Shop from a list and do not deviate from it.
5. Buy ingredients, not finished foods. Cook from scratch.
6. Shop mainly around the edge of the store -- produce, dairy, meat.
7. Avoid the chips-snacks-candy-soda aisle entirely. 
8. Join Costco and shop there. (There are other warehouse stores, but Costco treats their employees in a socially responsible manner, as opposed to the practices of Sam's Club/Walmart.

I am out of tips. I suspect that if one were to make shopping and cooking and eating healthy the goal, rather than simply saving money, one would end up spending less overall.

(When searching for some images to illustrate this post, I found this. She says it better than I.)

(Also when searching for images, I had to bypass several because the grocery bag/cart/basket contained bottled water. What a waste of money -- and generator of plastic waste -- THAT is.)

[/rant]

Tax season is over. Oink.

The last week of tax season my employer (-s; the firm is a massive partnership, so I am really working for the partners) took extra good care of us. 

Monday.

Afternoon: everyone gets a foam rubber baseball/stress ball with the date and location (bar/restaurant in the new Twins stadium) of the April 15-, er, 18th party.

Evening: dinner catered in from a local pizza place, plus salad, cookies and sodas.

Tuesday.

Morning: senior manager in my office neighborhood brings in a couple dozen freshly-baked (although not by her) chocolate-chip cookies and a half-gallon of cold milk.

Every neighborhood gets a tray of apples, bananas, clementines, and granola bars.

Afternoon: everyone gets a snazzy metal water bottle, with screw-in stopper, attached carabinier, bright blue emblazed with the firm name; shortly thereafter we all get an email message from the partner in charge of the tax department telling us to use them every day, stay hydrated, take care of each other, and listing the symptoms of dehydration.

Evening: dinner catered in from Chipotle, plus cookies and sodas.

Wednesday.

Morning: another tray of apples, bananas, clementines, and granola bars.

Also, partner-in-charge-of-tax-department's wife baked 200+ chocolate chip cookies and sent them to the office with him. Every neighborhood gets a tray of cookies.

Evening: dinner catered in from Potbelly Sandwiches, plus humungous oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies and sodas.

Thursday.

Evening: dinner catered in from Famous Dave's.

Friday.

Happy Hour, 5-6, although it tends to start a bit early and run a bit later: with assortment of beer, wine, sodas, and nachos.

Saturday:

This is what greeted me in our neighborhood when I strolled in at 9:30 am.

My breakfast: a very weak mimosa and a doughnut. Mmmm...

I'm not much of a drinker, especially at 9:30 am and knowing I will need my wits about me. But I appreciated the sentiment ;-)

A few many years ago we had a new partner in charge of the tax department. He had made a few waves among the staff and wanted to appease them/us. So for one of the Wednesday night dinners (firm provided dinner every Wednesday night during busy season, originally pizza but eventually a more varied menu) he had ribs flown in from his favorite rib joint in the southern city where he came from. Amazing. 

Tomorrow, or whenever I get around to posting it, a few photos from the after-busy-season party.

Ten on Tuesday, the yummmmmy edition.

Ten Favorite Kinds of Pie.

1. Blueberry, particularly if made with fresh wild  blueberries. I have only had this once, about 40 years ago, but I still remember it.
2. Pumpkin. This is #1 Son's favorite. I make it on his birthday instead of a cake.
3. Apple. The all-American classic. I make mine with Granny Smith apples.
4. Chocolate. Not the French silk pie at Baker's Square or Perkins or some other family restaurant, but the chocolate pie at The Brother's or the Lincoln Del or Bernie's Deli (those are all in Minneapolis). The French silk gets its scant yumminess from a little bit of chocolate and a lot of sugar, whereas the other get their excessive yumminess from a lot of chocolate. Sigh; haven't had a slice of that for years.
5. Everything after this is way, way down on the list.
6. Lemon meringue.
7. Cherry.
8. Everything after this is not even on the list.
9. Banana cream.
10. Peach.

Ten on Tuesday, the scented edition.

Ten Favorite Smells.

(If you are not hungry, you will be by the time you finish my list.)

1. Bread baking. Anything in the oven, really.
   
    
2. Steak or burgers on the grill.
    
   
   
3. Onions frying. My MIL used to quote a friend who said the to make a man happy, fry some onions right before he comes home. Works for me!
   
    
4. Anything with garlic
   
    
5. The first smell of spring, usually damp earth (followed closely by the smell of defrosting dog poo; that part is not my favorite).
   
    
6. Lavender. It doesn't grow in Zone 3/4 where I live; the first time I smelled it in situ was in an English garden. Heaven!
   
    
7. Old roses. Only the traditional roses have a real rose scent; the modern ones have been bred for other characteristics.
   
    
8. Paperwhite narcissus. Febreze has a scent called Springtime, and this is what it smells like.
   
    
9. Lilacs. We had a huge old bush outside the windows of our house in Minneapolis. I loved to open the windows on a spring afternoon and let the fragrance waft into the house.
   
    
10. Food and flowers. Yep, that pretty much covers it.

Mugsy.

I read Helen's post a few days ago and really, really, really liked the mug she got, so I googled "mug knit on with confidence" and found this site. I didn't find one with the Zimmerman quote, but I only looked through the first ten (!) pages of mugs. (Apparently they have more than 1,200 mugs about knitting or other fibery craft.) 

Some of my favorites:

  

Other favored captions:

• "'Heirloom' is knitting code for 'The pattern is so difficult that you would consider death a relief.'" --Stephanie Perl-McPhee
• The ever-classic "Got yarn?"
• "If I am sitting, I am knitting." (This one is absolutely true for me.)
• No caption, just a Mona Lisa holding her knitting.
• "Knitter by day, rock star by night."

 p.s. The Google finally led me to Etsy, where the original mug can be found. Tragically, it sold last March.