The Median Sib

I wrote earlier about having hoppin’ john with Italian sausage when I visited my camping friends over the weekend. Today I decided to tweak the recipe a bit - with good results. Here’s my recipe:

Hoppin’ John with Sausage
3 cans black-eyed peas
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes w/jalapenos
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 pound Italian or summer sausage (I bought the lower fat variety made from turkey)
approx. 1-2 cups cooked rice (more or less depending on your preference)

Slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Throw everything in a saucepan and simmer. That’s it - an extremely simple meal. You can make smaller amounts, but I deliberately made a big batch so I’d have several packages to freeze for quick meals later. It is mildly spicy but absolutely delicious!

Photos:
1981-3 years old
1985 - 7 years old
2004 - 26 years old

My sweet baby boy will be 27 years old tomorrow. How is that possible? It seems like just yesterday that he was born. I remember the first Mother’s Day after his birth when he said “ma-ma” for the first time, and then kept saying it over and over… All the fistfuls of flowers he has presented to me over the years…The cowboy boots he wore when he was a toddler — even to bed…His determination…His kindness…His resourcefulness and ambition as he created his own lawn-mowing business in high school. He was, and still is, sweetness, ambition, toughness, mischief, strength and kindness mixed together in one multi-faceted and wonderful person.

I think most parents would agree that the driving hope of parents is to see their children grow up to be kind, responsible and happy adults. I have made mistakes in many areas of my life, but my two children are wonderful examples of where I succeeded. Scalawag has his own company that he started less than two years ago that is thriving and keeping him busy. He married Meah on a sunlit beach in Maui three years ago. They’ve created a beautiful home where they live with their two dogs, Hank and Mickey, and where they entertain friends often. Most of all, though, he is a good person. When I asked him to meet with me yesterday to look at that land, he was there. When I needed help with a project a few weeks ago, he stopped what he was doing, and he helped me with it.

We’ll celebrate his birthday on Sunday with a family dinner. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet baby boy!

My allergies have been trying to flare up for several days — the familiar coughing and sneezing, watery eyes and not-really-sore-but-definitely-a-little-scratchy throat. Nothing major, though, and nothing that my daily dose of Allegra couldn’t make manageable. The walk through the grassy five acres yesterday, however, changed all that. There was a delicate balance between feeling okay and feeling sick - and being outside in all that newly-mown grass tipped the balance towards allergy-attack-ville. I’m staying home from work today. You know how headachey you feel after coughing a lot - the pounding headache feeling? That’s how I feel. Then, because of the nonstop coughing, I couldn’t sleep last night. This is what sick leave days are for. Poor, poor Carol — all headachey and tired and coughy. I believe I’ll go make her some chicken soup and cornbread.

Today I walked over the 5 acres of land I mentioned here previously. Larisa went with me and Joey met us there before we left. As Larisa and I were walking I realized just how BIG five acres can be. Do I want to be responsible for upkeep on five acres of land? No, not on your life! I’m not a mowing, mulching, pruning, get-outside-and-do-yardwork-every-day kind of woman. So I’m going to set my sights on something a little more manageable — like one acre or maybe two at the most. This place didn’t have any trees to speak of either — and I want something that partially wooded. Plus, the people who are selling the land live next to it — and they are rude and obnoxious people. Larisa asked if I really would want to live next to someone like that. No, I wouldn’t. That clinched the decision. By the time Joey got there, I had made up my mind. He looked at it — and experienced a little of the rudeness himself — and agreed with us. The adjoining neighbors (people selling the property) had an above-ground pool - strike one. There weren’t any big trees on the property - strike two. They were brusque & rude people - strike three. So now it’s onward and upward to better endeavors.

Front of the house - Doesn’t it look inviting?

The Floor Plan - my favorite part

I’m so excited! I re-found my all-time favorite house plan. It isn’t a log house, but I love it so much, it doesn’t matter. I wonder if a log exterior could be put on it? Since it was designed to be a brick home, it probably would be better to stick with that - don’t want to mess with something I like so much. And it’s
not huge — a little under 2000 sq. ft. It has everything I want - an open living area that is conducive for entertaining, a great master bedroom suite, front porch, covered back porch, and a layout that isn’t all boxy. I would make some changes. I want a real fireplace rather than ventless gas fireplace. I also don’t have a need for a “summer kitchen” on the back porch. Cooking over a stove outside in the summer doesn’t sound very appealing. A gas grill is all I need for outdoor summer cooking. I’m not a big fan of hot tubs, either. By not having the hot tub on the back porch, it’ll provide that much more room for things such as a hammock or a recliner.

I found a 5-acre lot for sale today that looks like a possibility. I have an appointment to walk around it tomorrow. It doesn’t have any trees to speak of, but Joey has a landscape business. So I figure he’ll take care of that.

A back view of the house

I forgot to mention that when I visited Tims Ford State Park yesterday, there was one very noticeable addition to many of the campsites. Some people had brought a satellite dish that they set up on a portable stand. During our stroll around the camp area, we saw one family with four children. All four kids were sitting on a bench mesmerized by the TV that was on the picnic table. It was still daylight, it was a beautiful day, there was a playground within sight, but they were sitting there like zombies watching a TV show. What’s the use of going out to enjoy nature via camping if you’re going to bring a satellite dish and watch tv while you’re there? Don’t get me wrong. At home I have a satellite dish, along with TiVo (a truly great invention!), but I don’t want a TV with me when I go camping. Reading by lantern-light, hiking, napping in a camp chair with the breeze keeping me cool, watching the campfire, simply thinking. That’s what I plan to do when I go camping.

Changing topics briefly - I saw another family who was cooking dinner on a green Coleman stove — very similar to what I remember my parents using on our camping trips when I was a kid. It made me feel rather nostalgic.

A few weeks ago in the grocery store I saw some heat ‘n serve containers of “rice bowl” dishes. It seemed like a good way to have a quick lunch at school, and so I bought two of them - teriyaki chicken and sweet and sour chicken. Not good. Bland, very little besides rice in it, and the sauce was yukky sweet. Worse, I couldn’t positively identify a single piece of chicken. Maybe they used chicken broth. Who knows? I liked the idea of a rice bowl lunch, though. Thus my project for today is to come up with my own rice bowl recipes to make and freeze. Hopefully by the end of the morning I’ll have 8-10 containers in my freezer. Then I can grab one on my way to work and have a home-cooked meal that tastes much better than the commercially prepared ones and is much cheaper, too. I’ll report back if my recipes turn out well.
Later Note: Yum Yum! Here’s what I did. I cooked 2 cups of brown rice. Then set that aside. In another pan with a little extra virgin olive oil, I sauteed about 2 pounds of boneless chicken cut into tiny pieces, along with diced onions, diced red and green peppers, and shredded carrots. Then I added soy sauce, stir fry sauce, and teriyaki sauce. I measured nothing except the rice. Then I mixed a little water with some corn starch to thicken up the sauce and added that to the chicken mixture. I let that simmer awhile. Then in my individual containers, I spooned some rice, topped it with the chicken & sauce, and then I added a little chicken stock to each container so it won’t be too dry when I re-heat it later. Voila! Six containers for lunch, and a large container for when I need a quick meal for two or three.

Today I spent several hours driving around looking at houses and land for sale near my home. Around lunchtime I decided to drive further south and try to meet up with some friends who were camping at Tims Ford State Park. Looking at the map, I figured it would be about an hour’s drive, and I could do some hiking once I got to the park. With the map beside me, I was set to go. I didn’t take into consideration that Tennessee backroads are not marked very well. A road that has a number on the map would be identified as simply “Cayce Hollow” on the road signs. And I couldn’t just find my way to the next town that my map showed because the typical signs showing the mileage to the next town were few and far between — and often absent altogether. My map was mostly useless on this adventure. My one hour drive ended up taking about three and a half hours. If there was a wrong turn to make, I made it. I passed through some beautiful Tennessee countryside, and I saw many properties that I wished were closer to Nashville. And even though I knew I was zigzagging all over the place, it didn’t bother me. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, my favorite song was playing over and over on the CD player, and the top was down on the convertible (for awhile). I was in no hurry. Well, no hurry for the first couple hours. Then it got a little tedious and I wondered if I’d ever find the place. I did finally find the park and my friends, but it was almost four o’clock when I got there. I chatted with my friends for awhile, and we took a leisurely stroll (no hiking) around the campground, they shared their dinner with me (hoppin’ john with Italian sausage - a first for me, but it was delicious! They also had fresh-baked bread they’d bought at a Mennonite store earlier today). By then it was after six o’clock and darkness was approaching. I wanted to get to familiar territory before dark since my circuitous route earlier had left me having no clue about how to get home. The direction-impaired bug was not finished with me for the day. Once again I made a wrong turn on the way home and drove about ten miles out of the way before I realized I was on Hwy 41 south - I was heading away from Nashville. I had to turn around and retrace my route and eventually saw the signs to I-24West — a most comforting sight after a day of uncertain driving.

I wonder about days like today. I spent hours in the car, went through half a tank of gas, and didn’t accomplish anything other than a couple hours visit with friends. Was there a purpose in all that driving around that I did?

Actually now that I think about it, maybe there was a purpose…not in the driving around - at least not a purpose I can think of - but in going to Tims Ford State Park. As I sat there in the camp chair chatting with my friends, I told them about the camping trips that my family went on when I was a kid. I remember it was so much fun. The campfires, meals cooked on that old Coleman stove - still can smell the bacon cooking in the morning, hiking to the bathhouse to go to the bathroom or take a shower, and listening to the sounds of nature as we drifted off to sleep. I felt a strong yearning to go camping again. Maybe get a small tent and give it a try. I think it would be a fairly safe thing for someone to do alone. So perhaps that will be my next adventure.

I was eating my cereal with milk awhile ago and clicking through TV channels, and I saw a few minutes of “Sewing With Nancy.” The show was about making mosaic quilts based on a photograph. I wish I could find a photograph online to illustrate what the quilts on the show looked like. There was a close-up of a baby’s face — quilted out of calico. Nothing in particular to write about it. I just thought it was amazing. I didn’t see the whole show, but I’m guessing that one would enlarge the photograph on the computer until you would see the individual pixel sections. Then you get 24 progressive shades of fabric, cut the squares, and sew them together based on the pixel shades. I didn’t see the part that explained how to do it, but I believe I could figure it out. It makes me want to try it - but I have no idea where I’d find the time to do that! I still have a blue and green quilt I started for Mother back in the ’80’s that isn’t finished yet. And I never crocheted an afgan for Sophie like I did for Lily. So I have a couple projects to finish before starting a new one.