food and cooking | matching tracksuits

Dinner

Wednesday 31 July 2024 | 0 Comments

The Girl has decided she needs to be cooking more, to learn how to cook more than mac and cheese and quesadillas. She’s done chicken alfredo a couple of times, but when K asked L to cook dinner tonight and suggested she just make the tried-and-true chicken alfredo, the Girl demurred. She wanted to try something new. Something different.

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Something Asian.

Long, long ago, when K and I were dating, she wanted to do the same thing — try something new, something different. She decided on something decidedly non-Polish, something from southern Europe. She chose lasagna.

Mother and daughter both chose pasta. They both had similar issues with the pasta. And in both cases, those they cooked for ate the dish with enthusiasm.

Saturday

Saturday 27 July 2024 | 0 Comments

K spoils us -- she really does. We all get up to freshly made racuchy topped with homemade blueberry preserves. Why? Because we asked for it? No -- because K just wanted to do something nice for us.

In return, L trimmed some of the hedges at the side of the house. To be honest, it wasn't really in return: K asked her, and L obliged. I'm not even sure she had any of the racuchy because got up late and ended up going out for lunch with her friend.

"But I'll gobble them up later," she assured me.

They're still in the fridge.

Still, the Girl did the trimming, and even put aside her teenager I-know-everything-why-in-the-world-are-you-explaining-this-ness and let K walk her through what she wanted.

In the afteroon, Ciocia M came for a visit (her girls -- L's and E's cousins for all intents and purposes -- are still in Polska) and we went for a walk in our favorite park.

A lovely day, in other words.

In the evening, we watch some replays of Olympic events -- beach volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, the individual time trial, and some tennis.

Jam

Monday 17 June 2024 | 0 Comments

This is the time of year we feel like we’re drowning in blueberries. We head out each day and pick berries, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a not-so-few minutes. Today, for example, I picked for about an hour; K joined me for about half an hour, and she was not even picking in a new spot of the bushes: she was going back over where I’d been, grabbing the berries I’d overlooked because they were hiding.

And the rest of the time? K was making the first batch of jam for the year.

Spilled Kasza

Friday 23 February 2024 | 0 Comments

That we even have it is a sign...

Kluski Śląskie

Monday 05 February 2024 | 0 Comments

Smoking Day

Friday 22 December 2023 | 0 Comments

Making Cookies

Thursday 21 December 2023 | 0 Comments

December Friday

Friday 08 December 2023 | 0 Comments

Today was our annual trip to the district's vocational school to give our soon-to-be-high-schoolers an overview of what's available to them there: everything from cosmetology to firefighting, from diesel engine repair to culinary arts, from mechatronics to nail tech. It's quite an impressive variety.

Once I got back home, I saw that the inevitable has begun: our poor widowed neighbor has moved out of her house and family and friends have already started on the house -- they took down the back deck that looked to be made of nothing but rotten boards.

"Wonder what kind of neighbors we'll get," will become a common topic of discussion, I'm sure -- not that we have any say in the matter.

For dinner, Babcia made placki ziemniaczane with mushroom sauce -- utter heaven.

And after dinner, a walk with the dog while the rest of the family went to church, a walk that included a street I haven't been on in ages. I'd forgotten about the holiday scene they create.