Our newly painted roof, yesterday afternoon, against the brilliant sky. Today, however, the sun has fled. It's going to be about ten degrees cooler --- still not cold, fortunately --- and maybe a bit wet. Last night we had some rain, so that the streets were shining when we went out to walk the dog at half-past nine. And the coming week is supposed to be wintry again, with more rain, colder temperatures, even snow flurries on Wednesday, I think. I mean, we'll see if that happens. But it is in the forecast.
Last night's dinner turned out to be a skillet with quinoa and black beans. I cooked the quinoa (one part grain to two parts broth, with about 2 tsp salt) in my large cast-iron skillet, and while it was simmering, I used the other smaller cast-iron skillet to saute diced onion and the flakes of three dried cayenne peppers, first in a little oil but adding some more broth (I used chicken, because I had it and it doesn't strictly count as meat on Fridays, but if I'd had vegetable broth I'd have used that) and also cumin, chili powder, and paprika to make a spice paste with the transparent onion. I added extra salt and pepper as well, just kind of to taste.
I then added cooked black beans, probably about the equivalent of two cans (froze the rest in two quart freezer bags) to the mostly cooked quinoa, with more broth to keep the quinoa softening and to braise the beans --- this mixture was the consistency of a thick stew, and I stirred it a good bit to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pan. I folded in the onion/spice paste and kept stirring to help the liquid cook down.
Then I added a bag of frozen diced sweet potato, stirring that in to spread it evenly, and a can of corn (pouring off that liquid first before I added it) mostly for color. Black beans can look kind of monochrome and gloomy, turning everything else that you're cooking them with black, so I like to add in colorful vegetables for visual appeal, if nothing else. Also, black beans and sweet potatoes taste delicious together, and corn just makes sense in that context, as well as adding another note of sweetness.
Finally, I stirred in some grated cheddar cheese --- not too much. I think each serving probably included well under a quarter of a cup of cheese. It was maybe a cup and a half total, but this was a big skillet. I really try not to use much cheese, because it does just add calories without adding a lot of nutritional value (it is not a particularly good source of protein, for example, unless you're talking parmesan, which is both less fatty --- and therefore less caloric --- and more nutrient-dense). Here, I just wanted some cheesy flavor to balance the earthiness of the beans and quinoa, but not so much cheesy flavor that we couldn't taste anything else.
I baked the skillet in the oven for about half an hour, just to encourage the rest of the broth to absorb and the cheese to melt. We ate the resulting dish in bowls, though it wasn't really soupy, and it was a delicious one-skillet/one-bowl meal for a Friday night.
Today:
*dog walking
*maybe trying to get an essay started
*looking over poems --- I'm trying to put together a submission and doing final revisions for that
*changing sheets
*reading --- I want to start another Shakespeare play, but have been putting off starting Comedy of Errors, which is chronologically the next play. I don't know whether this means that I should read something else that I want to read more, or that I should simply suck it up and plunge in. I also want to read some more of Helen Castor's The Eagle and the Hart, because it's just compelling. I want to move on to her book on the Pastons after this.
*dinner --- again, I must decide what to make, but I think I'm going to cook up my two family-size packs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, since it's Saturday and I have the time. So whatever is for dinner will very likely be based on boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Wool& Sierra dress (S) in Washed Navy, bought November 2024, last worn January 20. Wears in 2025: 5
*Secondhand Icebreaker merino base-layer tee in Dusty Rose, bought January 2023. Entering a third year of wear.
*Secondhand Allbirds tencel-merino leggings, bought January 2024, entering a second year of wear.
*Secondhand Birkenstock Rosemead clogs, bought February 2023, ending a second year of wear.
So, an all-secondhand outfit for a day of betwixt-and-between weather, not very cold, but not really warm, either. I am really getting wear and enjoyment out of this pair of Birkenstocks, and I'm looking forward to leaning on them a lot in our late Lent this year. Birks really are my default shoe --- I like barefoot shoes as well, but nothing makes my feet happier than Birkenstocks. I am always kind of on the prowl for new pairs at decent prices, even if I don't strictly need them, because I know I will wear them with enjoyment. They resell often at high prices, but if you search often, you can find a pair in good-enough shape that someone just wants to get rid of. I always wipe down the insoles with rubbing alcohol when I get them, but overall I am not that picky about wearing used shoes.
This level of tolerance for rewearing someone else's shoes has served me well. If memory serves me, I bought the pair of Birks I'm wearing today for something like $40 (I usually don't go higher than about $45, unless it's a very rare pair, in strikingly good condition, or else boots). I don't know whether I've worn them 40 times yet, to reduce the cost-per-wear to $1, but then what is important to me is longevity, not wear count. I want to be wearing a beloved pair of shoes for years, if not decades, rather than a number of times --- especially if, in my race to a certain number goal, I actually reduce the lifespan of my shoes. Rather than setting a goal of 100 wears, I'd be more inclined to set a goal of 5 years, minimum, as a length of time to own and wear a pair of shoes. And Birks can be sent for resoling and refurbishment, so that you could conceivably wear the same pair for decades. With care and commitment to having them restored, I could own and wear these shoes for the rest of my life. That seems like real sustainability.
Anyway, again, I am counting wears for my dresses, because they are bigger-ticket items and I'm curious to know how quickly they start to return my investment. I'm also curious about patterns of wear, and time lapses between wears. But even for dresses, my real goal is longevity, not number of wears. Yes, yes, 100 wears does mean something --- but I think it really only means something over time. My real goal for the dress I'm wearing today, or any dress, is to own and wear it for a minimum of five years. That's less likely to happen if I am racing toward a goal of a certain number of wears.
I paid about $70 for this dress, a real steal for a Wool& dress, even secondhand, especially as it turned out to be in far better and more wearable condition than the seller had indicated. Yes, it has some flaws and signs of wear from its previous life. It's been on a Camino, for heaven's sake. But I was pleasantly surprised by how actually fine it turned out to be, and I do reach for it reasonably often because it's just so comfortable. Now, it's going to take me a LONG time to achieve 70 wears, because I have so many other dresses that I also like to wear. But that means that by the time I do reach 70 wears, I'll have owned and worn this dress for probably 3 years, maybe more. And that's a good thing, rather than otherwise.
The good thing about this dress, too, is that when it does begin to wear out for real, I know I'll like wearing it as a nightgown. My original Sierra dress gets worn almost daily --- but for me to sleep in. I'm absolutely getting my money's worth, having worn it extensively as daywear before turning it into a nightgown (by which I mean: I just started putting it on at bedtime instead of taking it off at bedtime). Ditto my original Camellia dress. I bought both those dresses in 2021, four years ago this summer and fall. I wore them constantly as dresses during the day for a good long time --- and if I hadn't worn them so hard on the front end, I might still be wearing them as daywear, but that's mere speculation on my part. At any rate, I do still own them. I do still wear them. They are still serving me. And this seems like a good thing. The less I waste in my personal economy, the better.
But as always, you do what you can. You may be in a very different place from the one I occupy, in terms of income, age, weight, and other life circumstances. Those life circumstances might very well demand of you a different kind of economy --- and that's okay. It's easy for me to anticipate wearing the same dresses for years, because I don't anticipate changing sizes that dramatically. It's easy for me to make the clothing investments I do because I am making some money (not that much, but enough to allow me significantly more purchasing power than I had five years ago). I also have time to do, and the luxury of doing, things for myself --- a luxury I didn't have, or didn't think I was entitled to, when all my children were at home.
The message here is not do what I do, for the simple reason that you are not me. The message is this is what I do, because maybe what I do will help you to think about what you can and should do for yourself, with reference to moral and ethical concerns that should be in the believer's sphere of ideas --- and in the unbeliever's as well. Some things just are good and right, and some things just are bad and wrong, regardless of how you come by your perception of them --- by which I mean, good things aren't good just because you believe in God, or because they come with some Catholic or Christian tag. They are good because God is objectively good and real, and good things, in reality, are objectively good.
Anyway. I'm thinking and writing from the vantage point of my Catholicism, but I think that what I think is relevant even if that's not your vantage point or your reason for doing things. I hope that any true thing that I say may point to the larger Truth which I believe is the source and origin of all truth. But at the very least, I try to say true things, and also helpful things, though I can't possibly know what will be helpful to another person, or in what way it might be helpful.
Also, you don't have to like how I dress, or want to dress this way yourself, to find some takeaway --- I hope! In any case, I am dressed today, and now it's time to let the dog out.
(Also, I've just realized I'm leaving on my Tennessee-Texas road trip a week from Monday --- time to travel-capsule plan, although thank heavens I don't have to pack it all in a carry-on. I can just throw it in the car).