Food Friday: Y'all Come Back Now

On Tuesday, I was in a mood to fry some chicken.  If you're going to have fried chicken, then you might as well fix up a whole Southern-style supper, so we also had sliced tomatoes, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, and corn muffins.

I learned to fry chicken the old-fashioned way, by watching a master at work, so I can't really post a recipe.  But it is the best fried chicken ever and I will teach anyone who wants to learn.  So come on over and I'll show you how to fry up a mess of chicken.  Mac and cheese is another one of those recipes that I can't explain; when you come over to make fried chicken, I'll teach you that as well.  I've posted my corn muffin recipe before (this post has the recipe for cornbread and cornbread dressing…two for one on that deal), and the cole slaw recipe is plenty easy to stir up. 

Buttermilk Cole Slaw
•    1 cup mayonnaise
•    ½  cup buttermilk
•    1 teaspoon white sugar
•    ½ teaspoon celery seed
•    1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
•    1 teaspoon hot sauce (I use Frank's Red Hot)
•    1 (16 ounce) package shredded coleslaw mix

In a large bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, sugar, celery seed and black pepper. Fold in the coleslaw mix, and refrigerate until serving. This tastes best if it is refrigerated for a few hours before serving.

After y'all sit down to eat this supper, you'll be as full as a tick.  And that's a good thing.

Man Purse, circa 2003

As part of the summer clean out that is happening at my house, JT agreed to clean out the basket that rests at the base of the stairs.  At the very bottom, he found a little bag that my mom made for him a few years ago.  He called it his truck bag and he loved it.

When JT was a three year old, the truck bag was an essential part of his day.  In it's time, this man-purse carried trucks, pirates, rocks, and other pieces of essential toddler detritus.  It was washable and handy.  We carried it everywhere.

To see him carry it now is a bit like watching a giant turned loose. I always knew that the little boy who carried the truck bag would grow up. But I never quite understood how damned fast it would happen.

Completing the Ceiling Quad-fecta

The final ceiling due for painting in my house is the kitchen ceiling.  The water leak there precipitated the bathroom renovation and so, technically speaking, this repair is also a function of that job.  The carpenter and plumber who completed the bathroom repaired the ceiling.  All that remains is for me to clean and paint it.

Is there anything more fun than painting a kitchen ceiling in August?  Easy-peasy and all that.

The rub at the moment is that I'm not sure which color to use.  The current color is a creamy white; it matches the wood trim in the room.  I could get a can of that paint or I could go ahead and use bright white; the color used in every other ceiling in the house.

The current color looks fine, and so I'm not adverse to repeating it.  But there are some good arguments for switching to bright white.  First of all, a different color makes it easier to see what has been painted and what hasn't, a huge advantage when one is painting ceilings.  Second of all, the slightly brighter color might make this room a little lighter, which would be nice.  Third, I have white ceiling paint on hand and that might save me the cost of another gallon.

I remain indecisive on this question and so I'm turning to you, Internet.  Photos show the current ceiling (as well as the plaster patches applied courtesy of the bathroom leak earlier in the year). What say you?  Stay with the creamy color or go to bright white? 

Cat Whisperer

Every once in a while, someone remarks to me that cats aren't nearly as pleasant and loyal a companion as dogs.

I beg to differ.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Privacy edition

The backstory: We were eating supper at a friend's house on Saturday evening.  JT and the other boys each had a plastic cup to drink from and at one point I was seeking a sip of water, so I called upstairs to ask JT what color cup he'd been using.  He told me and I helped myself.  Later that night, as I was tucking him into bed, he returned to that conversation.

JT:  When you asked me what color cup I used, I was confused.

Mama:  Oh yeah?

JT:  Yeah, I thought of the other kind of cup (the one I wear when I play baseball) and so I was going to tell you "The color doesn't matter, Mama, just get the right size."

Mama:  Oh my.

In the future, a more descriptive word choice is in order.

August 1st: Upsetting the Applecart

I missed my regular apple tree posting on July 1st because I was in Alaska (I so love being able to write that), but I'm back on track now.  I had nearly a dozen apples on the trees earlier this spring, but the master gardener (hi Dad!) warned me that the trees wouldn't be ready to handle it, so I culled the crop per his instructions.

The bunnies and other backyard wildlife staff took care of the rest and I am now down to just one apple.  That's okay, because the trees are still toddlers and they need time to mature before I can turn my backyard into my personal you-pick farm.

In the meantime, things in the garden are coming along fairly well, especially taking into account the summer's heat.  I've only watered the garden, so the back half of the backyard looks great while the rest of the lawn struggles (e.g., cuts down on my mowing chores).  In the photo below, you can see the sun-burned hostas to the left; it's been an awfully hot, dry summer.

The cannas planted in full sun are looking impressive.  The tomatoes look promising.  There are fresh garden flowers in the house.  I'm just a few days away from enjoying fresh tomatoes.  My garden overfloweth.

Upstairs Hallway Project: Week One

More than two years ago, my friend Sharkbutt urged encouraged me to get started on fixing the upstairs hallway.  The stairwell and the hallway were papered in old wallpaper; nothing dreadful (which is why it had lasted so long) but the corners had been tattered by certain cats of my acquaintance.  The Shark knew that drove me crazy.

The project was much more difficult and messy than I expected and I quickly lost my will to finish the job.  In my defense, it wasn't exactly as if I was sitting around eating bon bons while the hallway was resplendent in its shabbiness.  And the unsightly hall was upstairs, so anyone who saw it either lived in the house or was invited upstairs, meaning they were expected to love us enough to overlook our disfigured hallway.  As the photos demonstrate, that was a tall order.

The task is on my Life List (#16) and as the rest of the house has started to look better and better, it was time for me to take on the hallway and mean it.  A wallpaper expert taught me that the removal would be easier if it was accomplished in two stages.  Stage one was to strip off the wallpaper; stage two was to then remove the adhesive underneath, using a wet rag and wielding a putty knife, to scrape it away.  It makes for an easier job, though it still requires patience and perseverance.  I could certainly set aside a couple of days to power through it, but I decided to instead take it slow and easy, devoting 60 minutes a day to the work with the hope that I could finish the project before school starts at the end of August.

One reason to complete the project in chunks is the sheer mess of the job.  Even if I had set aside a few days to just get it done, I'd still have to stop every hour or so and sweep away the mess.  For one thing, the detritus makes the stairs slippery.  For another, the wet wallpaper adhesive remains sticky and will easily adhere itself to the floors.  A drop sheet would help, though a slippery sheet of anything on the stairs seems like a very bad idea.

 This past week, while JT was away, I took on the job in a slow and steady fashion.  The first step is to remove the wallpaper and adhesive.  When that is done, I will patch and sand the plaster walls.  Then I will paint the hallway trim and then the walls.  Finally, I will hang some art up at the stairway landing and add an etsy wall decal in the upstairs hallway.  Laid out like this, the chores begin to look rather daunting.  So I'm just going to stick my head in the sand and methodically repeat "slow and steady wins the race."  Eventually, that will get the job done.  The week's progress is pretty good; I'm more than half way through the wallpaper removal job at this point.

Look for weekly updates as the rest of the summer unfolds.  And if you're in town, be careful before you come over.  You could be drafted to help out.

So Much for the Huddled Masses Yearning to be Free

I've been troubled by U.S. immigration policy for most of my political life.  In 2006, my very first post for this blog was a discussion of immigration in the United States.  The furor surrounding Arizona's new immigration law certainly had me thinking about the subject again.  Then yesterday, on the day Arizona's ridiculous law came into semi-effect,  I read that Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) is considering introduction of a Constitutional amendment that will eliminate birthright citizenship. 

What have we become?

Though I have nothing but condemnation for the approach Arizona takes in their law, I am sympathetic to the idea that the federal government has let down the states when it comes to immigration.  I am not particularly concerned about enforcement, per se, since I believe that we should return to the open-door immigration policy that made us the land of opportunity.  I will oppose with all my might a Constitutional amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship.   In the meantime, with the exception of Graham's dangerous proposal, Congress has dodged responsibility on this issue.  It's time for us to contact Congress and demand that they lead and address some of the most pressing issues related to immigration. 

For one thing, the current Congressional failure has resulted in a myriad of deeply troubling developments.  Illegals who arrive as children may receive an education but when they graduate high school, no matter how accomplished they are, they may not be able to attend college because they can't qualify for the federal financial aid that is available to their peers.  And they can't get a job for lack of a few documents.  Should they find a way to make it through college, they graduate with skills and a college diploma, at home in a nation that will not treat them like the citizens they clearly are.

Undocumented workers labor in a world of scant regulation of labor practices, unable to complain about any poor treatment they endure for fear that a complaint will result in deportation from the $3 an hour job that keeps their head just above water.  Fear of deportation keeps these same vulnerable people from getting driver's licenses or reporting the crimes committed against them.  A sick illegal resident may receive emergency treatment because by law hospitals cannot turn them away.  But chronic health conditions are unlikely to receive treatment, thus shortening the life-spans of these hardworking people.

These problems are just the tip of the iceberg.  Enough. 

Let's be the nation that the Declaration of Independence promises we will be.  Let's fulfill the pledge of the Statue of Liberty.  Let's demand that Congress take action to arrange an amnesty program for the illegals who are here now.  Let's figure out a way to open our borders and additional citizenship rights for others who come here seeking the historic opportunities our ancestors sought for themselves and passed down to us via birthright citizenship.  Let's discuss this seriously without hyperbole and fear of the other.  Let's understand, respect and embrace the reality that we are a nation of immigrants.  And most importantly, let's quit pretending that this problem will go away on its own.

Caught in the Act

As soon as they start blooming, I pick bouquets of flowers from my garden and bring them in to the house.  Then I spend the next few months trying to keep Tiger from drinking the zinnia-infused water.

It's a losing battle.  In this mugshot, the accused doesn't even bother to look sorry.

Life List #27: Table in the Study

 There is a room located just beyond French doors in the corner of my living room that we call the study because it has bookcases and was originally intended to have a desk with the computer on it.  But JT and I are laptop junkies who prefer a wireless life.  And the room was the only place in the house with space to house the elliptical (and therefore preserve my tenuous sanity).  So instead of being an actual study, where we would sit in a wooden desk chair while reading the great works, it's just the room we call the study.

Last summer, during my August cleaning frenzy, I organized the book shelves.  That has been a most happy development.  But the desk in here was stacked with an old desktop computer and printer, the phone, cable, and computer cords plus a whole bunch of other things which had no natural home.  Each winter, I would rescue a few outdoor plants and wedge them into the room to winter over.  And this unsightly, dusty mess was the view for my daily workout. 

Over the spring, as I looked over the desk and out the windows at my blooming lilac tree, I started to think about putting the desk surface to use as a place for plants to winter over and cats to sun.  A pail for pens, the phone, and the wireless router could stay but the rest of the desk would be a much neater (and nicer) host for actual things that I enjoy looking at.  I thought about this often, but there was no progress toward actually getting the done.  Finally, last week I was inspired to take action.  The job was nearly done before I thought to take any photos so you'll just have to trust me when I say that the table was a slattern's dream.  Because all you get to see is this much-improved view:

I've got a tidy, organized table (with a new wireless router…thanks for the assistance, C).  It's now ready for some happy plants (that would be life list item number 28) and cats to come and hang out.   And this is another job checked off on my life list.  I am a life list cleaning machine, people.