Somehow more than 2 years have passed since my brother-in-law died. I still can’t quite wrap my head around a world without him in it, but the grief is different than when it was fresh. Tempered, not as overpowering, but still a weight in my chest cavity. Still a hole, even if not as overt. Every time we go to the cemetary or pass it while driving, it’s still just wrong that he’s there, and not home with this family.
I guess that never changes when you lose someone too soon.
This past week brought fresh grief, when a colleague and friend lost her adult son to lung cancer, and Eli and I grieved with her at the wake and funeral. Never a smoker, he somehow got one of the worst cancers you can get.
I’m almost done with business travel for 2023 – one more trip, and I’ll be grounded for the following 60 days, something I’m thankful about. Business travel is a pro and a con – we definitely use the airline miles, hotel points and rental car free days I accrue for our vacations, and those definitely lower costs for us, but the time away from home is hard to get back. And honestly, it’s pretty tiring.
Home feels extra wonderful right now. Last week on Saturday it poured, and other than some housework, and my oldest helping at the school play, we really didn’t have anything pressing to do. A roaster chicken went in the crockpot to become chicken soup for dinner, we had all the components for popovers to go with it and there was a bunch of salad stuff to use up.
Rare are the days not full of demands on our time so we were reveling in the idea that we could just do very little.
Our CSA came to an end past week, and next week the Winter Share starts up. We decided to do one more stockpile for the winter, and had done that a week ago, with everything from a lot of rice to dried black beans, several blocks of tofu – tofu freezes well, so we toss it in the freezer and Eli often makes us crispy tofu bites in the air fryer, and so on. Butter, shredded cheese – all straight into the freezer for later use. We also did a bit of holiday shopping while we were at Costco and made sure we had frozen dumplings in the freezer in quantity – we love to make our own, but these are comfort food for the kids.
All that’s left now is our stock up of onions, sweet potatoes and squashes in Upstate NY next month, and then we’ll be eating down our stockpile other than buying for holiday dinners and the small amounts of groceries we’ll need each week – milk, fruit, things we run out of.
The garden is still producing, at least for a few more days. We harvested several giant squashes as well as a colander full of Tomatillos – our first hard freeze is due on Wednesday night, so I’ll be picking the last of everything today and tomorrow.
So what are we eating?
Last week’s Menu
Use up: Ricotta cheese, very ripe avocados, lots of potatoes and apples
Saturday: Chicken soup with rice, popovers, and a salad using the last head of lettuce from our CSA this year.
To the salad I added some cherry tomatoes that were on the reduced rack at Market Basket, our local independent grocery store but still good ($0.68 is the best price ever for a pint of tomatoes after the growing season ends), toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped up baby cukes that were nearing the end of their days and needed using, a cut up half of an apple my son didn’t finish slices from yesterday and I stored in the fridge, avocado, a sprinkle of parmesan, and a simple dressing of salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Best salad ever. And it used up a lemon that was ready to go.
Pro tip: Once you have juiced the lemon, use the halves to scrub out your sinks. It’s a natural cleaner/disinfectant and it makes everything smell wonderful.
Sunday: We had leftovers for lunch as the ravioli lasagna from Friday night needed to get eaten up. Dinner was intended to be homemade Ramen with shaved steak and slivered veggies in creamy miso broth but my son made himself spicy ramen for lunch, so instead I made Creamy Miso Pasta with the shaved steak, the last of the scallions, and I roasted some brussels sprouts to go with. It was not super popular – Eli and I liked it, but the kids were not fans.
I also made Snickerdoodles and a several loaves of Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Bread in an effort to use up the excessive amount of leftover ricotta we had, some summer blueberries in the freezer, and the last remaining lemon. And because it was niece and goddaughter’s 18th birthday, and my parents earlier this week and in just a few days. After a round of birthday drop offs of gifts and baked goods, I returned home to make dinner for my crew.
Monday: Monday I ate a bit of leftover chicken for breakfast with some cut up honeydew melon and a few of the leftover brussels sprouts. I packed a sandwich and some homemade cookies, fruit and goldfish for my son
Tuesday: I uh…know Eli made something. I just forget what it was and I forgot to write it down.
Wednesday: Eli made salmon with sliced tomatoes and avocado and an amazing carrot soup with homemade croutons.
Thursday: I had dinner out with my sister, a rare treat, and Eli and my son ate a frozen pizza (although they did heat it!)
Friday: I made rice, homemade pot stickers and roasted broccoli. My oldest had a riding event, so dinner had to be made before we left at 5:30, but I ate when we got home.
Saturday: It was a full day of chores and Eli and I managed to squeak in the last canoe ride of the season due to the warm weather. The temperature is going to drop so we tried to take advantage. Then we took our son to the Trunk or Treat Halloween event in town, dropped him at Dad’s and tried a new-to-us restaurant in nearby Newburyport, MA.
This Week’s Menu:
Use up: Spinach, brussels sprouts, kiwi fruit and strawberries
Sunday: Breaded fish and crab cakes, slaw with apples and scallions in it, Sweet Potato and Kale Salad, tater tots from the freezer. The target for the first couple of days of the week is always to have lunch leftovers for a few days.
I also started bread dough, made more Salsa Verde, made chocolate chip cookies – the treat for the week – and prepared Parmesan crusted chicken for Monday dinner. A few of the crusted chicken tenders went into the freezer to be healthier fast-food options, and a few of the cookies as well, something I’m trying out to see if it works.
Monday: That chicken that we made on Sunday is the main course, just quickly reheated with the fresh-baked No Knead Bread that will have been rising since Sunday morning. With that is salad. I deliberately didn’t buy bread this week so I can also use it for my son’s ham sandwich lunches. For us, lunches are leftovers.
Tuesday: Halloween Dinner in a hurry – spaghetti with green food coloring added to the water and meatballs with bean ‘eyes’, garlic bread and sauteed spinach, with a sliced cucumber for my son, who doesn’t like spinach.
Wednesday: Tired day dinner of Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken, rice in the rice cooker (one of my all-time favorite & most used kitchen appliances), dumplings and whatever veggies we need to use up. We have some Shishito peppers to roast with olive oil and salt, and we’ll probably do something else to go with.
Thursday: My daughter has her riding lesson, Eli will make dinner and we’ll all collapse early.
Friday: Our first winter share pick up. My ex has a new job, so the schedule with the kids is in flux. If we have them, roasted veggies and Chicken Leg Quarters Circa 1975 over rice, if not, probably fish tacos with the fish cooked in the air fryer.
Saturday: The reverse of whatever we ate on Friday. Roasted veggies usually last us a couple of days.
Sunday: I’ll be preparing for a work trip, so the target will be simple and something that leaves leftovers. I’m thinking Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings.
And that will bring us to almost the middle of November, which hardly seems possible.
Little House on the Fairy Hill 