Cooking My Share

It has been a challenge not to waste the farm share we signed up for.  A lot of it goes to the boys next door.  While I was on my own Thursday night, I sauteed up a lot of green pepper and onion, along with a tray for "Special Today" beef.  The intention was to make filling for omelettes or  a hefty side portion for a couple of batches of "steak and egg"  breakfast.  In addition to the meat and veggie portion, I also boiled potatoes to have on the side.

Meat Alternative

 

I am the top cook in the house and also the primary grocery shopper.  With a goal to work only with whole foods, it's rare that I buy anything overly processed or with too many ingredients.  I like to cook and serve tofu -- but I stay away from Tofurkey.  I am not interested in meat substitutes -- they  have too many ingredients and are generally loaded with salt.  Even organic ingredients can't make up for a high level of sodium.  Sure I could work with textured vegetable/soy protein to make vegetarian "meatballs," but I prefer real food.  

Mushrooms are, in my humble opinion, one of the best meat alternatives out there.  If you are cost conscious, you will often find the larger white mushrooms which are intended for stuffing at the lowest per pound price as compared to other mushroom varieties.  The nice thing with that size, is you can cut them into healthy chunks that are sturdy and tasty enough to use in place of a meatball.  For me, there is a big difference between a substitute and an alternative.

Das Boot

She is in the shop and has been for the past week.  On our drive home, she broke down.  This was not unexpected.  After sitting idle for many weeks and not having had much highway time in recent months, the plan was to take her straight to the mechanic to have her fuel filters changed, lines cleared out, etc.  So the tow truck got her there instead.

The mechanic took things apart, found nothing wrong, put more gas in the tank and she started right up.  He waited a day and started her again.  She drove fine both days.  He called to tell me what he found and to get "the back story" on her.  There was a lot of curiosity on how and where I found her in the great shape she is in.  Alas, there are some issues with her turning signals and hazard lights and she needs a fuse for the odometer.  These are thing they need to figure out.  So for now, she sits in their lot next to very sexy vintage red convertible that is also a Mercedes.  They make a very striking pair.

Next stop after this is the upholstery/interior shop across the street.  She will get new carpet and a dashboard cap.  We will have an electrician put a plug for the engine block heater on the side of our house near the driveway.  I can't wait to start driving her and the waiting is hellacious!

For now, I am hoping her cassette player still works so I can dig my 80's music out of a box in the basement and get her ready to hit the road.  Because we are going to party like it's 1984!

Torpedoed!

We keep our liquor in a canoe bookshelf in the living room.  At least that is where the hard liquor lives.  When we drink hard liquor, it is generally in the living room, or else in the back yard.  As a result, I had to work with that theme when it came time to pair the new chair with a side table of sorts.  The new chair is Tom's "Scotch Chair." After spending  boo-coo bucks on the chair, the solution was to re-purpose something we already had.  My goal was to do something cool and an idea came to me in the middle of the night.  

Living Room Evolution

When we first moved in


 Our first efforts at decorating -- putting our old stuff into the room.

From Old to New

 After just posting about the ancient car I bought from the side of the road, I'm turning in the complete opposite direction and posting about new furniture.  This week we donated 80% of our living room furniture and splurged on new pieces.  While I'm not one to be matchy-matchy, I could not help but make a beautiful exception.  At least I think these pieces are gorgeous.  The end table has a match along with a living room table.  The lamps were a set.

My New Classic

Sometimes if you want something bad enough, and you're willing to wait until you can afford it, the opportunity to have it will come down the road.  Or in my case, you'll drive down the road and find it.  Case in point, my "new" Mercedes station wagon.  I have wanted an estate wagon for years and years -- even before I had a dog to haul around.  I've also always wanted a Mercedes but on my meager career-girl salary, that wasn't possible.

Last week, driving down Lake Road, we passed a Mercedes wagon on the side of the road with a "For Sale" sign on it.  My heart did flip-flops as we drove by.  On the way back to camp we pulled over to look.  The last week has been spent researching how we'd insure it and who'd be our mechanic.  We have both lined up and went to meet the owners on Saturday.

The Driveway is Done

The concrete was finished for our driveway on Friday.  They need to come back to remove the framing and give it one more wash-down.  We are happy with the result.  In another  month, we will seal it -- and they are lending us a sprayer.  We only replaced the sections that were badly cracked and hope to do the remaining segments next year.