Another Gouda Day

I opened my Advent cheese this morning, since it it worked out so well for lunch yesterday. 

The Mustard Gouda paired nicely with the ham, although I shouldn't have tried to grate it - it was way too soft. I didn't have any salad dressing and it didn't miss it at all. 

I've been tried to shave WW points here and there to make up for the crazy eating that I've been doing at work. 

So much candy! I'd lost nine pounds since March and have gained three of it back in the last six weeks. What the heck is wrong with me? 

Tomorrow is the start of a new Weight Watchers week - my goal is to track, track, track - and ignore those delicious Reece's trees. 

 

It's a Red Leicester Day

 

I peeked at today's Advent cheese early this morning. It was a new one to me. A little nibble showed that it was crumbly and yummy. I grated it into my lunch salad. 

It's amazing how fluffy half an ounce of Red Leicester cheese clouds into. 

It paired really well with the arugula (some from my container patch), cucumber, Brussels sprouts, my last garden tomato, and slice of ham. 

Maybe before the month is over I'll get classy and pair the cheese with wine or something...

It's a Gouda Day

Today was a good day. 

I'm a cheese purist at heart. I ate this beautiful slice of gouda as is. 

 

Onion and chive cheddar-icky

 

I suppose it was inevitable - I met a cheese I don't like. Today's Advent cheese was laced with onion and chive - aren't those the same thing? 

I'm in the small camp that believes that onions aren't food. 

I tried to balance it out with slices of my last garden tomato and the peppery arugula that it still growing in it's covered container. 

I couldn't do it. I took a nibble to say that I tried it. The onionness was too much. 

Cheers to tomorrow's cheese! 

Another Gouda Day

Today's Advent cheese surprise was Mediterranean Gouda. It had little flecks of um, Mediterranean stuff. I wound up just nibbling at it while baking cookies. 

I worked a little later this evening. I try not to grouse too much about going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, but it's hard to stay motivated. 

My goal for this evening was to do some inside holiday decorating. 

I didn't manage to do a lick of decorating. Or cleaning. 

I did bake another batch of Snickerdoodles and popped them in the freezer. That counts for something, right? 

I'm working at Second Helpings early tomorrow morning and the Red Key tomorrow evening. Tomorrow's at-home chore list is small - eat cheese! 

Gouda Evening!

Happy December 3rd...or Black Pepper Gouda Day. 

My intention was to melt whatever the cheese of the day was on to a serving of turkey chili for my dinner, but somehow black pepper cheese on chili didn't sound appetizing. 

I'm really struggling with my weight. I'd stayed at my Weight Watchers goal weight for three years and let it go to hell two years ago. Somehow I've managed to lose six pounds during the pandemic and just need to lose four more to get back to my goal weight. 

I've really been buckling down on counting points and trying not to blow the progress I've made, but it's been a struggle the last two months. We have so much candy floating around Second Helpings and I've been baking.

 I tried to make this meal last....the next struggle is not to sample the Snickerdoodles I'm baking....I wouldn't take any bets on my willpower. 

Hello Cheese!

The pandemic has caused me question some of the things I held close to my heart. 

As much as I'm a collector of things....I'm lookin' at you PEZ...I've never been one to stockpile food or paper goods or cleaning supplies. My mantra is was, "I live in the 17th largest city in the country, there is no need to buy ahead." 

Boy was I wrong. 

I quickly regretted my habit of not buying another package of toilet paper before I was down to one roll, which led to me being grateful of my habit of keeping a box of tissues in every room. 

And I didn't want to be in the stores more than necessary so stopping at the market just to pick up one or two things felt crazy, even dangerous. I now have a running grocery list and after work on Wednesdays has become my shopping day. The fact that the new fun stuff in Aldi's "aisle of surprises" shows up on Wednesday is a bonus. 

Having food in the cupboard and freezer has led to me cooking more than my standby meals. This summer I was obsessed with rhubarb. I even planted some this fall, hoping for a next summer harvest. 

It's the season for my obsession for cranberries and have gone a little nuts buying bags of the tart fruit. Last week I made Grandma Leona's cranberry salad and experimented with baking cranberry-lemon bars. 

I still have three bags of cranberries in the fridge and two in the freezer. 

This morning I cooked down a bag of cranberries with the zest of one lemon and a tablespoon of sugar and a bit of water. Delicious! 

This evening it was the perfect topping to today's Advent cheese. 

*I just realized that my fingers are the same color as the ham. Ewww! 

Countdown to Christmas....or one day closer to 2020 being over?

I'll totally admit that my was attitude this morning - we were one day closer to the end of this crazy year. 

On the way to work all I could think about was getting back home to my cheese Advent calendar. Wouldn't you? And I'd shown great restraint in last the two weeks that it had been peering back at me in the refrigerator. 

On the way to the promise of Edam it turned out to be a great day - a real slice of the great things that happen at Second Helpings each day. 

It's Giving Tuesday so there were the happy sounds of thank you calls to Second Helpings donors happening around me. We may have set a new record for pounds of food rescued in one day. Volunteers and my co-workers made thousands of meals that will be distributed at no cost to the community. 

I am constantly blown away of the support the community shows to Second Helpings. I got to field a phone call for a generous financial donation, coordinate a pasta donation, and marvel at all of the beautiful food that is donated. That's a lot of use of the word "donate" in one sentence - but we seriously couldn't do it without the donors. 

Happy December First. May your countdown to Christmas be full of light and cheese. 

 

tree update

...still not decorated.
But I truly am enjoying writing and reading and staring into space by the glow of the lights.
At the Second Helpings Christmas party - which I still need to write about, we received a Target gift certificate. I treated myself to a record player. It's perfect - built in speakers and portable.   I've spent the evening listening to the few records I have. All and all a great way to spend a Friday evening.

nuvo memorial piece for tim

Here is the NUVO piece I wrote about Tim : Click here.

tree...

....still not decorated.

work

I'm working at the Red Key tonight.
Fingers crossed for a busy night. Baby needs a hair cut and color.

trees and soup

Thinking about my Christmas tree - that is still not decorated - but probably the prettiest tree I've ever had so I'm just enjoying it as is, and farms and boys reminded me of this: Vote for the Dull family farm barn to be restored as an FFA/Campbell's Soup project. Click here for details.  You don't need to register or anything, just click on the vote tab. And you can vote once a day. I've actually taken the time to read about all ten of the nominees - there is some good stuff in our agricultural community.

Here is a little bit about them: We are a family-owned corporation that row crops 2000 acres of corn and soybeans. We also run and maintain a tree farm that we use as part of a Christmas tree business.


Our barn is the centerpiece of our farm. It is the first building that customers see as they come around the bend in the road and up the driveway, so it needs to look good for that first impression. We are very involved in our community, and our farm is a recommended place to visit by the Boone County Convention and Visitors Bureau. During school tours, part of the barn is used for a petting zoo where the students and teachers feed and interact with our animals. We feel this on-farm connection goes a long way in educating our future consumers about where food really comes from.


This project would provide a unique service learning opportunity for all involved. It would provide an avenue where two local FFA chapters from different districts, FFA Alumni, national FFA staff and the Dulls can all work together to revive a tired barn into a centerpiece that's used to educate both the young and the not-so-young about food and agriculture.


When I was a young 4-H'r all of the girls would swoon over the Dull boys. Just like we'd get all starry-eyed and giggly around the Wiley boys in church. I'm blushing just thinking about it!

day off

My friend Kim, of the awesome organizational blog, New Leaf (if I was more organized I would have told you about it months ago) sent me this quote today:  There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house.
―Joe Ryan

I decided to paraphrase it at bit and and spent this evening catching up on 'my shows' and making toffee and putting lights on the tree and sitting on the sofa when ever I felt like it.

 It looks so pretty with just the lights, it's tempting to leave the decorations off.

thursday

Hello folks. When I decided to do the December Challenge I thought it would be a breeze. Then stuff happened. And I had to write some tough posts and still can't manage to finish the one about Ken. I keep telling myself it's because I need to look for pictures, but the truth is, it's hard to look back over a relationship - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Today was Tim's funeral - I didn't realize how wiped out I was, I went to work for a little bit and my CEO took one look at me and sent me home. I slept for three hours straight - still in my coat and boots!

I did wake up long enough to have a lovely dinner with friends.

holiday parties numbers four, five and six

holiday party number four - tuesday, december 8


I don't know if the Colts Corporate Luncheon Series counts as an official holiday party but I wanted to talk about it, so there! I was lucky enough to be invited (thanks Deborah!) to the last of a luncheon series at the Colts practice field. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at lunch. Two of the players, offensive guard, Kyle DeVan  and punter, place holder, kicker Pat McAfee had a question and answer session and they are hilarious! They had several behind the scenes stories and what they're life was like before the NFL. Kyle was living with his parents and substitute teaching a year ago. And Pat has stepped into some pretty big shoes, replacing the beloved Hunter Smith. Good stuff!

holiday party number five - tuesday, december 8


This might not count as a holiday party either, but there was champagne so it was a party. Second Helpings is the recipient of the Best of the Best Indiana Achievement Award. How awesome was is that? We celebrated with some of our staff and board members and the other winner - Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.

holiday party number six - tuesday, december 8 


The SEND (SouthEast Neighborhood Development) party is always fun. Second Helpings is within the boundaries of  SEND and one of J.R.'s businesses are in the neighborhood. Here is a recap of last year's party.

Santa was there - he delivers meals for Second Helpings on this time off. My friend, Kipp is a great host.

The party also made me realize that I want a record player - Santa?

holiday parties numbers one, two and three

holiday party number one - friday, december 4
Second Helpings volunteers, Howard and Phyllis hosted an awesome party in their incredible home for the Wednesday volunteers and staff. I had to make an appearance an art show that was collecting pasta for Second Helpings, so I was late getting there.

It was fun to open the door to singing and Christmas decorations and volunteers in 'real clothes.' The volunteers usually wear jeans, tee shirts and baseball caps when they're in the kitchen - it's fun to see everyone all shiny and hat-less.

Dad was wearing his holiday socks of course. I think I gave them to him at least twenty years ago. If you look real close you can see the safety pin in the top of the sock. Dad pins his socks together before he throws them in the washer so they don't separate. I do the same thing, only I don't keep the pin on the socks when I'm wearing them.

holiday party number two - sunday, december 6

Mom hosted a beautiful brunch for her neighbors on Sunday. The house looks great and it was decorated perfectly. Mom is the consummate hostess. Beth and I were thrilled to help out by serving mimosas and champagne so Mom could enjoy her guests.

Mom gave all of her guests a Saint Nicholas Day gift - the ornaments were all wrapped and festive.

It was just as fun to hang out with Mom and Beth after the party. We finished off the champagne - we hate to waste, you know. I worked on editing photos, Beth cleaned and got the house ready for a showing that evening (Mom's house is on the market - click here to see the listing) and Mom showed us pictures she just got developed. It was a lovely day.

holiday party number three - monday, december 7


I have friends that are a big part of this morning radio show (I'm not spelling it out, 'cause I don't want the thousands of people a day who Google B & T to land here --I think they'd be sorely disappointed and I want to protect what little privacy KL has).

You would actually be surprised how low-key the party was. There was a coffee bar (and a bar-bar of course), great food from the Jazz Kitchen and a comedy set. The comedian, Tommy Johnagin was hilarious. The very funny Ryan Dalton  was the recipient of any after-party shots that were handed to me. I have not done a shot since 1993 and intend to keep it that way.

Anyone want to venture a guess of how many holiday parties I'll attend this month? I attended 29 in 2007. I slacked off in 2008 - and only attended 15.

broken dishes

I’m not a crier. With the exception of a memorable weeping jag over a breakup I generally don’t shed many tears. It feels weird at times, everyone else will be sniffly and red-eyed and I’m standing around feeling guilty for not crying. I used to think I had a cold heart for not being quick to tears, but decided that cold-hearted folks would not worry if they weren't crying.

I’ve had tears in the back of my eyes since Wednesday morning when I learned from his parents, that an old boyfriend, Ken Fisher had been killed in a motorcycle accident near his Philadelphia home. But couldn’t manage to actually cry. Yesterday another friend and neighbor was found dead in his house from a fire. It was a busy day of work – I seemed to be doing everyone’s job but my own, gave a speech at a media company and had several after-work obligations so didn't really have time to process the news.

I got done with all of the things I had to do about 11:30 last night. I stopped at my favorite music venue on the way home and heard an excellent band that played traditional country music – lots of George Straight and Hank Williams . I figured that if I wasn’t crying after three whiskeys and a pedal steel solo it wasn’t gonna happen.

I got home at 1:30, fed Pacifist Kitty, looked at the mail, started a load of laundry and washed some dishes as I made popcorn. I made a pyramid of bowls on my drying rack. One slipped and crashed in to the sink, breaking it and the dishes still in the sink.

Finally. Tears.
I sat on my kitchen floor and had a good old-fashioned messy cry.

data

I love data, but I'm not a data entry sort of person. Mostly because I get numbers easily mixed up. If I'm writing down a phone number 75 percent of the time I get it wrong, or is that 57 percent? That is why I tend to spell out numbers --seventy-five makes much more sense to me that 75. When I get a text that substitutes '2' for 'to' or '4' for 'for' it takes me longer to figure out. I'm a whiz at doing math in my head, but putting it on paper is trouble.

I've finally tapped into the genius of Excel spreadsheets. My head nearly explodes setting them up, but once you get the formulas right it magically does all of the math and sorting.

Now I just need to have twenty or thirty uninterrupted minutes to finish.

it's a squirrel!

The mystery critter was a squirrel. And a pretty damn big one -- was too big to fit in the first trap. I was hoping for a bunny or badger or mongoose.

I didn't get home until after 9:00 last night and was thrilled to see the pissed-off looking squirrel in the basement. Of course Pacifist Kitty was marching around like he'd done the work. I tried to get a photo of the two of them together, but I was more interested in getting it out of the basement without the trap flying open and the squirrel running up my dress.

As much as I'd like a new vehicle, I was pretty damn happy last night that I drive a truck. We took a little ride to a nice cemetery by the White River full of trees and places to run - and most importantly, in another zip code. Last night was cold and rainy and it was pretty dark by the time I got there at 10:30. I marched towards the back of the cemetery to the river and  and then realized that I was standing in the dark and rain in a cemetery BY MYSELF!

I reached in to release the trap door and the crazy thing would not leave! I tipped the case up. No dice. The thing hung on for dear life. Luckily I had on a pair of sturdy work gloves (they didn't match and I had two left gloves, but they were thick). I had to stick my hand in the trap and pull on the squirrels butt. It finally ran out, around some grave stones and up a tree.

I was so wound-up that I went home, made myself a little whiskey and called an old boyfriend. That will always cure an adrenaline high.