Beneath the Wraps

There have been some mornings in which I could feel a touch of fall in the air.   Some mornings.   Not all mornings.   Not Yesterday.   In fact it was hot.   Jenna’s first day of school and I put Highness in the car so that I could take him for a walk.   It was hot.   Very hot. The sun shown in my eyes. Too bright. I couldn’t drive home towards it so we walked around until The sun rose higher in the sky.   Yesterday was very unlike today which has a coolness about it.   I don’t know the temperature outside.   But the promise of fall seems real now.   Not like the overcast days in July when the dark clouds filled the skies with malicious teasing creating a sticky hotness that wasn’t felt from the sun alone.   Today the sun peaks through but there is still a touch of fall in the air.   A touch of a promise.   I don’t think we’re through with sum...

         My most favorite ways of eating vegetables are steamed and smothered with cheese or as a raw salad with dressing – though some vegetables don’t seem to work in salads for me – such as zucchini and other squashes. We learned that eggplant has been planted in the community garden as well.   What’s that all about? Roland and I have tried various recipes for the zucchinis, squash, cucumbers and beets that we have picked.   He found a recipe of using an olive oil base and breading and throwing cheese on top of sliced zucchini. But I am getting so sick of trying to disguise or appreciate my vegetable and continue with what I thought started out as boring in the first place.   I do like zucchini cookies and zucchini bread. But I should be able to eat my vegetables in other ways. My mom had a recipe for glazed carrots.   I don’t know if it will work on squash or zucchini, but am willing to give it a try. ...

           I believe that Corey was still in high school when he was asked to participate in a program that was being presented to the stake Relief Society.   As I recall he was playing a reporter and had to interview many different women who played an important part in Church history.             He’d been invited to stay for the luncheon, which would follow the program.   I don’t think he had ever been to an RS luncheon before.   The portions were smaller than usual – the luncheon committee hadn’t planned on quite so many people.             Corey downed his food in nothing flat – believing that it was just an appetizer and wondered when the main course would be served.   Corey was highly disappointed when we told him that was it.   No seconds. No leftovers.   We went out to lunch after ...

I have to post this because I am so major proud of my most recent accomplishment.  I just cooked my first turkey ever.  Almost 20 pounds!  And I wasn’t even chopped.  Roland gave me his seal of approval.  Roland is the one who normally cooks.  He was planning on doing it when he returned home.  But I figured he’d be hungry when he got home and wanted to surprise him – though it wasn’t actually done until about an hour and a half after his return.  But it is two and a half to three hours earlier than it would have been if he had cooked. Wow.  I cooked a turkey.  And it was good.  Thank you AsianCookingmadeEasy .  

          Family has grown.  We used to do a dinner on Christmas Eve. We would gather at the house where Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Ted live.  That was a tradition for years.  My grandma Helen and her three kids and their children - we started out with just three of us -  I was the eldest, then my cousin, Michelle, my brother Patrick and then Michelle’s brother came along.  It was another seven years before Edmund and Corey were born and then Rosa and then Kayla.            Daddy’s only sister, Chrissy got married to Kim.  Eventually they had four boys and the family continued to grow.  Both Patrick and Michelle found partners and married. And the family continued to grow.  It seemed like there were more people than room.  It got hard for Trudy to host not one, but two dinners each year.  Not that she was supplying all the food.  ...

          I have absolutely LOVED eggnog since I was a kid.  Last year was actually the first year that I’ve not LOVED – it just isn’t as good as I remember.  Are the dairy product brands cheating us out of an ingredient perhaps?  Cutting costs in today’s economy?  I don’t see how.  The price of eggnog seems to be given the same value as gold.  I mean it’s always been more pricy than your milk or milk products – which also have increased in cost.  But I’m not even enjoying the “gold”           You would think with its ritzy price, I would savor every drop and make it count.  But the truth is I’m NOT enjoying it.  Or rather I did not enjoy it last year and have not even bothered with it this year. Could be my taste buds are warped?  I’ve always heard that smell a large percentage of what you taste and my smell has definitely gone.  ...

          I have so many memories of Christmases – before Roland, after Roland, childhood, on and on and on.           This year we will be celebrating twelve years together.  Half of them with financial struggles and at least three with sub for Santa.           When I first moved in to our first house (Roland and the boys had already been living there for six months) it was September of 2001.  In December our family was targeted as the “twelve days of Christmas” recipients.  And that was fun and I felt very welcome to the area.           Our first tree was an artificial Charlie Brown – the kind that gets used in a window display as part of the winter scenery – but not necessarily Christmas.  It is what would be used in a window selling skis or snow blowers or something – an insignificant tree...

          I started this blog on New Years of this year.  I was faithful to write every single day – or almost every day.  But when school ended, so did my once-a-day posts.  My focus had to be on Jenna.  And when school started back up, mom’s memory had deteriorated and so I seemingly started spending more time with her (especially when Corey had gone back to Las Vegas – where he is now registered as a permanent resident in the state of Nevada) and so I still haven’t gotten back to one a day. Perhaps I never will.           Kayla and her two children met Jenna and me at my mom’s on the Thursday of Thanksgiving.  I had gone because it was my day and we had already celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with the family on the Saturday prior.  Kayla brought her kids because Bill wanted to clean the carpets.           They had left the hous...

          I think everybody ought to have the opportunity of waiting tables for at least two months.  Some may have to do it longer to really appreciate what hard work for little wages really is.  Although I don’t know if it’s quite as feast or famine as it used to be.            My second job was at the ice cream parlor where my mom worked.  I was probably there longer than any other job.  I think I started out at 2.67 an hour.  Milkshakes were less than two on the menu. I’d seen the prices going up quite often.  Wish my paycheck had been increased as rapidly. I mostly worked weekends and one or two nights during the week.  I would come in at 6:00 or 8:00 and work until after closing.  Everybody did everything and tips were split among all of those who worked that shift.  Our assignments consisted of being host or hostess (seating...

Roland grew up on beans and rice.    I on the other hand grew up on casseroles.  So that's what I make.  I'm fortunate that Roland loves to cook and bake and enjoys a lot more than rice and beans.  He is actually a very good cook.  Not so great at cleaning up.  But when I don't have to cook the food myself, I really don't mind. For several years I spent a lot of time on the computer.  Roland was basically self employed and I was his secretary creating a system that would work for us - advertising through post cards, letters and keeping track of addresses sent.  And Roland would cook and bake while I was on the computer.  I actually enjoyed that system. But with the broken economy and an unpromising future, Roland has taken on a job with a company that issues paychecks twice a month and gives us an actual amount to work with.  He works from 8-5 or 7-4 depending.  And so I am now responsible for seeing that dinner is rea...

          When we are children and don’t know any better, we believe that McDonald’s is the greatest thing.  Oh, sure, perhaps we’re too busy at the play center or enjoying the toy that falls apart long before we have finished whatever lame meal was ordered.  What did we know about nutrition?  It wasn’t even in our vocabulary.           Teenagers seemed divided.  It’s fast, it’s cheap, close enough to the high school or jr. high.  Given the right time of the day . . . not that I think of it as a hangout – not in your larger cities anyway.  Not with a playland and 30 screaming kids.           “It’s not where you take a girl on a date,” says Randy.  Although I could picture Tony doing that very thing – and not with a limo and candles (which Randy said was too cheesy – why spend the money on a limo?  Why n...

          My husband is from the garden state – which does not necessarily make one a gardener – just as living in Utah for all of one’s life does not necessarily prepare one to have ever gone skiing.            I have always had a white thumb.  One look at my grass implies all gardening skills.  Water alone does not produce green.  With our yard, it is morning glories.  Not just this house – but every house I have lived in.  The lawn is usually always somewhere between brown and albino.  And frankly, I don’t blame the grass for drying up.  I don’t blame any vegetation for not wanting to peek its head out into the scorching sun.  I certainly don’t wish to be in it.           My husband has tried.  For almost each year that we’ve been married, we’ve attempted the garden thing. We got some rea...

          I know that I mentioned in an earlier post – perhaps several – that cooking is really not my forte.  Roland, on the other hand, enjoys cooking and baking but does not have the time or opportunity that he used to, and so I have had to put together more of the meals and frankly, I’m just not that good at it.           I can follow a recipe but it’s got to be exact.  Roland has told me a few times (probably) that I need to cover dishes when baking in order to maintain moisture – I haven’t committed that to memory however.  If the recipe had instructed me to cover the dish, I would have done so, but it didn’t – needless to say the lasagna I made was a little dry.           The other day I went to the office to meet Roland for lunch.  He was on the phone and pointed to his lunch bag and said he had something for me.  Inside were ...