Autumn Joy sedum in a container by my back steps. This is another of nature's most perfect plants, which thrives best on neglect. If you want some, all you have to do is break off a stem and stick it in some soil --- that's how I have big clumps of it all over the place, including in multiple containers. The gray-green succulent foliage is nice, but it's really beautiful in the fall, when it blooms green, then pink, then burgundy.
Up early to have time to drink coffee before Mass.
Today I need to finish my James Russell Lowell essay. I also plan to hit the supermarket for canned goods to replenish my own cupboards, plus supplies to take to the hurricane-relief drop-off at the pub tonight.
Dinner last night:
Peruvian chicken drumsticks with quinoa. I didn't really have a recipe --- just used the last of the carton of chicken bone broth to cover the dry quinoa in a casserole dish. How much quinoa? Enough to cover the bottom of the casserole dish to a depth of about 3/4 inch.
To this I added thinly diced onion, several smashed and minced garlic cloves, two red cayenne peppers sliced, and a large sliced jalapeno pepper. Spices were oregano, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and a little stevia. Generous slosh of lime juice. Salt. Into basically this uncooked soup of liquid and dry quinoa and flavors, I put the chicken drumsticks. I put the pyrex lid on the casserole dish and baked the whole thing for a long time, until the quinoa had completely absorbed all liquid and the chicken was done.
For a side: frozen diced sweet potato chunks sauteed in avocado oil with chili powder, cumin, lime, salt, thinly sliced onion, and more jalapeno pepper.
I don't have a Peruvian spice mix, and I really should get some, because I think there's probably a more complex and unique flavor profile that I can get that way than with plain chili powder. As it is, I just use whatever hot peppers I happen to have on hand to make things more interesting.
Dressed now and drinking the last of my coffee. It's still too dark to take a natural-light photo, so that will have to wait till I get back from Mass.
LATER (BUT STILL MORNING):
I'm back from Mass, marveling again at the amount of traffic on our little country highway. I still can't get used to it. The charter school between here and the church has expanded significantly in the last several years, with multiple new buildings, and school traffic just before 8 a.m. is heavy. It's probably been that way for some time, to be honest, but our parish hasn't had an 8 a.m. Mass in nearly a decade, so probably many of us are noticing this for the first time. Then between the Food Lion and the school there's also a fairly major turn-off to Highway 182 that doesn't have a light, and traffic gets backed up behind people trying to turn left there.
By the time we get out of Mass all that traffic has dissipated, but it's a big deal in the half-hour before 8.
Drinking more coffee now, contemplating what's for breakfast.
And now that it's light enough outside, here's what I'm wearing today:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M) in Dark Blue-Gray, or Charcoal Blue, or some color to that effect. Bought December 2023, last worn September 24. Total wears to date in 2024: 22.
*Secondhand Cynthia Rowley pink linen top, bought June 2024, last worn quite some time ago. This is one of those items that I don't wear a lot, but am glad I have in reserve as a way of varying up core outfits. I really like it with this dress as a pinafore --- the gray-blue with the icy pink makes a nice conjunction, I think.
*Thrifted Peruvian Connection alpaca cardigan, bought September 2022, last worn longer ago than I thought: September 12. I'm not keeping track of wears, because this cardigan has been such a staple, despite its rather stretched-out appearance and its lack of buttons. They were falling off, and I never buttoned this cardigan anyway, so now I just pretend it's an official open-front cardigan. I really don't think anyone notices that it isn't. It is deliciously soft and warm, without being too hot, and the color goes with so many things. I really like the combination I have going on here.
Another all-secondhand outfit.
It was cool enough when I went out this morning that I almost regretted wearing sandals. But the high today is going to be 81F, so I'm not giving them up just yet. Plenty of time to wear closed-toe shoes, and I will be sick of those long before sandal season returns.
My Day 3 hair still feels pretty clean, so I might just leave it in this updo for the day and evening. When I shampooed on Tuesday, I lathered twice, using my silicone scalp scrubber, and although I used 4 pumps of LUS 3-in-1, mostly for detangling, I didn't add any other product, except, later, a little Not Your Mother's Curl Talk leave-in conditioner sprayed on my hands and glazed on my ends, because they were kind of frizzly. The Not Your Mother's line, by the way, is inexpensively and readily available in drugstores and Walmarts, and for people who prefer a stronger fragrance, these have it. It's almost too strong for me, but I really like both their foam and their leave-in, which is a good detangler/moisturizer for dry hair (as in hair that has no water in it, not as in hair that doesn't have enough oil, though I guess that could be true as well --- I just mean that I use it sometimes between washes).
Anyway, my hair still feels clean, so I might just leave it another day, though I reserve the right to change my mind later.
Dog-walking, essay-writing, and my monthly trip to Walmart for dog food and other things I can't so readily order from Aldi. Again, I want to try to rebuild my stock of canned goods, which has gotten very low, and also to buy some more dried beans and lentils to have on hand. Anyway, that's my agenda for the day.
Better scrape together some breakfast now . . .
ALSO:
Still reading Tom Jones. I think I might finish this one, then go back and finish Don Quixote. I did finish, and adore, East of Eden --- a lot about it made me want to vomit (chiefly Cathy, but then she's supposed to make you want to vomit), but it's ultimately a beautiful novel: original sin, forgiveness, redemption, and human possibility.
LATER:
You could adapt the meal described above for vegetarians by simply substituting vegetable stock (you need roughly twice as much liquid as quinoa) and using beans instead of chicken. Quinoa and beans would be a decent vegetarian meal in terms of nutritional profile, as the quinoa adds some extra protein.
Currently cooking the pinto beans I boiled and soaked yesterday and overnight in the crockpot, so that once they're soft and cooled I can freeze them in quart bags. I just started some mung beans on the stove, the last of a bulk amount that I ordered at some point, to treat the same way. I think mung beans cook up faster than many others --- like lentils, they don't require quite the soak treatment. I THINK. I could be wrong about that. It's actually been a long time since I cooked mung beans. But they're good in curries and stews, and I want to use up this rapidly aging stock of dry beans that I have on hand, at least to render them in a quicker-cooking form so that I can just pull them out and add them to dinners. As much as I appreciate the convenience of canned beans, I'd like to go back to relying more on dried ones, which are cheaper per serving and, once you've cooked them, tend to taste better.
You can also eat soaked mung beans raw, and you can sprout them.
Really don't want to work. I just want to cook and dink around.
Maybe I'll go to the store FIRST, instead of later . . .