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weekend babble
Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004, 6:18 AM
I am relieved beyond expression to have the new furnace in. No more feelings of apprehension niggling away beneath the surface every time I need to turn the heat on. No more times when Spouse is on the road and I turn on the heat or the air, only to have the fan break down. Nope. My new, 80% efficient Trane is sitting there, surpisingly tiny in the space where the monster Lennox once stood, waiting to respond instantly to anything I ask of it. Peace of mind is wonderful.
Spouse is gone again, off to Alabama. And we were both so busy yesterday that I never really got a chance to enjoy him. He'll miss getting to vote, which really pisses me off. I am going to have to see to it that he starts voting by absentee ballot, because his boss has a tendency to whisk him out of town every polling day. It isn't a perfect way to vote, but at least it is a way to vote.
Oh, such a busy day yesterday. Once the installers were done upstairs, and we could close off the cellar stairs (keeping Raj out of their way), Spouse and I ran out to do our running around. Quick trips to the hardware store, the hobby store (Spouse needed train track), the supermarket, and Wally-World, and we zipped back home. I spent the day on a domestic jag. General household tidying, six loads of wash, and homemade treats to spoil him while I had the chance.
I made him fresh-squeezed lemonade, because he loves it and seemed to be jonseing for it, and a big pot of homemade vegetable soup. I didn't have time to make the stock from scratch, so I had to do a "quick" version, which I'd never attempted to make as low-sodium before. I was worried about how it would come out.
RECIPE ALERT
I used a sodium-free beef soup base instead of canned stock, and just a touch of Worcestershire sauce for flavor. One large sweet onion, four large ribs of celery (tops and all), a pound of carrots, a pound of potatoes, and a fifteen-ounce can of whole (low sodium) tomatoes, with juice. Plus about a cup of low-sodium tomato juice. I just mixed up about a quart of the broth, chopped all the veggies,and threw it all together in a big pot. I take the whole tomatoes and squish them up in my hands, right into the pot. Dumped in a cup of water, tomato juice, and seasoned with several grinds of black pepper, two bay leaves, and about a half-teaspoon of Penzey's "bouquet garni" blend. Simmered on low for about 3 hours, then brought to a boil and tossed in half a cup of orzo pasta. Turned it back down and let it simmer about 20 minutes more, and the turned off the heat and let it sit 20-30 minutes to cool a bit.I needn't have worried. Came out great. And since I get to eat all the leftovers myself, I'm going to add some chopped green cabbage to it today, because I like that in my soup (Spouse doesn't).
While I was playing Martha in the kitchen, Spouse took on the overgrown and leaf-strewn yard. He killed two birds with one stone; simply mowing the grass, leaves and all. I'll have nine bags to put out for the truck this week. He also did the bills, and re-packed his bag, and fixed the facia boards where the squirrels were trying to get into the attic.
But that's not all...he also got out 'his' bread machine and baked a loaf of country white to go with the soup!
('his' bread machine is the 'Homer's bowling ball' of our house. The gift he got for me, that he uses and I don't.)
I mean we were a couple of dynamos yesterday. Whew!
We did one thing I'd planned on skipping, though. He insisted on buying Halloween candy this year, and I'd planned to give it a miss. Easy for him to insist; he isn't the one who has to sit outside in the cold for three hours, with the dank chill of a concrete stoop tying his back in knots. That's my job. Now, though, I have ten bags of candy to get rid of, and I'm roped in. And he's gone.
We had an extremely nasty thunderstorm here about 9:30 last night. It came up very suddenly, and there were a couple of thunderclaps that damn near scared me onto my tush. Today is supposed to be one of those dismal days, grey and dark, with high winds sending the clouds scudding across the skies. A good day for hunkering, I think. Homemade soup and bread, DVDs, beading, books...sounds pretty good, actually. I'm hoping it's nice tomorrow for trick-or-treat, though.
And I mustn't forget to do those damn clocks tomorrow night. How the heck do you explain the archaic notion of "daylight saving time" to a dog? A dog with a full bladder, who doesn't believe you when you tell her it's only four o'clock in the morning? grr.
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