Typical kitchen misadventures

choreday1So, one of the beach urchins is moving house today. The GG took the Trashmobile (Frog Hopper plus C-fam junk-hauling trailer) over to Detroit to “help”. I was itching to “help” too or maybe just itching for something to do somewhere besides the Landfill. I heard a whiff of a conversation that I wasn’t in on though… “Moom will just get bored”. Yes!!! Not to mention annoyed at the cat-herding that is inevitable during any kind of a move that involves anything more than clothing, a flute, and a big bunch of classical flute sheet music. Not to mention that some of her friends are also moving this weekend. I didn’t even try to understand all of what was going on. But I knew that I wouldn’t be of any real help. This person moved out of my house at age 17, moved several times throughout college including to Spain for study abroad, then to Callyforny at 21, moved a couple times there, moved back here, first to Ferndale and today is her second move in the beautiful city of Detroit.

Yesterday I actually asked if this young adult would like “dad” to bring over a vacuum cleaner. Moom, I have a vacuum cleaner and I’ve already done a lot of pre-cleaning so it’s pretty clean here. So. How could I help? BY STAYING OUTTA THE WAY, FER KEE-REIST! (Oh, when I say *young* adult? I don’t mean young 20-somethings. Nope. My beautiful little beach urchins are edging beyond that age and they manage their own lives without any interference from me. I CERTAINLY don’t try to tell them what to think! But what the heck, *50* is a young adult as far as I’m concerned.)

choreday2So this not-all-that-young adult stayed here at the Landfill today. After the usual early morning Saturday trip to the farmers market, I went in search of turkey wings. Why? Because, despite some excellent teachers (my moom and The Lady of Linden among them) I have never quite mastered the knack of making gravy from the turkey pan. What works for me is to make gravy ahead of time and freeze it. This procedure involves baking some turkey wings, etc., and this year I had a *terrible* time finding turkey wings. I had to go to *two* big-box type grokkery stores to find them but I finally did over at the Westgate Kroger. The stores were all SLAMMED today because home football game plus Saturday before Thanksgiving so I felt lucky to get through the Uscan lines without incident.

But grocery mishaps? So, after I finally found the turkey wings, I needed to buy some chicken stock. And you can see that I didn’t get matching stock. Why not? Because I grabbed a box of stock off the shelf and then for whatever ungodly reason couldn’t process ounces into cups (I KNOW THIS STUFF!) so I shrank over to the other side of the aisle to google the conversion. Yes, I needed another box. I did not read the fine print so of course I ended up with mis-matching boxes of chicken stock. Actually I didn’t want *either* fat-free or low-sodium but. I shoved my lurking OCD over into the corner where it belongs. It’ll be okay that I have two different kinds of chicken stock. It’ll all taste the same in the end. It’s not as bad as when you grab tomato paste with “Mexican” seasoning in it or whatever.

choreday3I also bought cereal for Chex mix. Mouse was here not long ago and she needed a snack and we didn’t have a lot of snacks and I remember her saying that even Cheerios would be okay. Without looking up into the cereal cupboard, I said that I thought no one was really eating cereal around here since the GG retaaaaared and so any Cheerios we had around were probably stale as all get out. Today I bought rice, corn, and wheat chex. I got that stuff home and well. Not only is there an UNOPENED box of Cheerios up there, there was an unopened box of rice chex (so now we have *two*) and *two* unopened boxes of grain cereal. All I can say at this point is EAT CEREAL!!! Jeebus.

Well and then there was when I walked outside and the Ninja was kinda covered with snow a little bit. Hey, Ninja, are you ready for another winter with me? You are 8 years old and I am kinda thinking about what might be next. But I love you soooooo much! I’m not quite ready to change you up yet. I am thinking about when I drove you up to Tahq in late September and how much fun I had shifting you into whatever gear we needed and how beautiful I felt getting out of you at that rest stop just above the beautiful mouth of the Tahquamenon river. Let’s do another winter together. I can drive the Frog Hopper if I need to or I can telecommute.

2 Responses to “Typical kitchen misadventures”

  1. gr8gerty Says:

    We had hard time finding turkey thighs, the man working at the Meijers said they hadn’t been able to get them, neither drumsticks nor wings and he didn’t know why.
    For chex mix try seasoning some of them with steak seasoning and I think the rice ones are the best ones since they are the ‘lightest’. Kix work too. I will want Lizz new address so I know where she is.

  2. Margaret Says:

    I love chex mix! It’s expensive to make though! Both my girls have kept me out of their moves since college, for which I am profoundly thankful. (I find it incredibly stressful!) Ashley moved from one apartment to another in Santa Monica, but she hired hunky Russian movers to do the deed. 🙂