Lousy mood

If this week were a train, I would jump from the first open window or door I came upon. I’m simply not having a good week. I am in a pissy mood alternating between anger, fatigue, disappointment and just not getting enough attention from anyone. Even my cats are ignoring me. I am taking the afternoon off and hope to find something pleasant to write about or at least just take a nice photo. Stand by.

Oh, my blog!

I haven’t blogged since Monday because I have been waiting for something interesting to happen to me or waiting for some sort of clever conversation, shocking revelation or cosmic inspiration. None of that has happened. I’ve even thought about something amusing from the past to talk about. But as it turns out, I am blessed with a short memory. It is usually a blessing, but of course not always.

I completely buy into the idea of an internal calendar, that our brains store information and mark time regarding that information. It is why you feel lousy on the anniversary of something like a death even before you remember that this is the day. That calendar is responsible for reminding you, sometimes after unrelated provocation, that today is the day of the birthday of your best friend in 2nd grade. It’s what reminds us that we forgot something, like taking a daily pill. It keeps track of the little details and the Staggering Events in our lives.

I used that capitalization just for effect. Did you like it? Did you notice it? Staggering Events: maybe I should blog about those. Here's my opinion on Staggering Events: They suck.

My lousy memory relies heavily on my internal calendar. My friend Natalie’s cousin was getting married many years ago and she sent me a photo of the dress she was wearing for the event, which needed alterations. The dress, not the event. (note: awkward sentence structure should be corrected...maybe next time)

After a couple months, I followed up ever so thoughtfully with a query:

Caron: So how was the wedding?

Natalie: What wedding?

Caron: Your cousin’s wedding.

Natalie: It was nice. Why?

Caron: Just wondering about the dress and all.

Natalie: The dress? Oh, yea. It all worked out fine.

Caron: So how is married life treating them?

Natalie: Well, they’ve been married for two years now…

Henna tattoo

I promised a photo of the henna tattoo. It's on my right ankle.

Serbian Spinach Recipe

So here I am writing a letter to a friend of mine. Yes, a letter, like on paper and everything. I hope I can find a mail box.

When I got home yesterday, there was a letter from her all about how much she likes that I talk about food so much in my letters to her and also about running. Food and running (well, walking) are two of my favorite topics. So I am sending her two letters.

The first one is about food. The next, in its own envelope with a stamp and everything, will be about catching up, training (shut up) for the half marathon (oh crap, that's next month) and anything else I can shove into it for her reading pleasure. I was typing this (I used to write letters to her in longhand - a labor of love, eh?) and I already had been thinking about putting up a couple recipes here for all of you to read and wonder why I don't cook more often (seriously. shut up).

So far I have told her about cabbage with caraway seeds. Yum. And then about soda bread, which is one of my all-time favorite things to make thanks to the whole soda bread/biscuit thing my Grandma Betty started with me in her kitchen. OH I should write about my grandmothers and how wildly different they were. I should talk to my mom about this and do research...

Where was I? I moved on to pico de gallo, which I will be making this evening and then to this dish. There isn't really a theme as I also have mentioned both stew and seafood chowder, but she likes food so it's all good. No theme needed. I went from all that to spinach, which isn't even in season, but who cares?

If you don’t like spinach: knock it off. Spinach is good for you. If you do like spinach: woo hoo! I do not know why this is called Serbian Spinach, but it is and it is simple and tasty. It is from an old cookbook and so, like, it doesn’t say HOW MUCH cottage cheese, but go with 8 ounces and then everything is all broken into coarse pieces: So early-20th century.

The recipe calls for cooked, previously frozen spinach. I don’t cook it…whatever. It’s in the oven for AN HOUR. Just thaw it and squeeze all the water out or use a whole bunch of fresh (that needs cooking) or mix it up and use both (I've done this before) or just cook & drain.

Knock yourself out but keep in mind I am a genius. The original recipe in the book says "cooled and drained" and I figured out the typo all by myself. They just want it dry, I think. Say... if you need explicit directions for cooking, you may want to skip this.

1 carton cottage cheese (8 ounce)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ stick butter, broken into coarse pieces (or chopped, whatever)
¼ lb. sharp cheese, broken into coarse pieces (or shredded, whatever)
1 package frozen chopped spinach, cooked and drained
3 tblsp flour

Combine all ingredients. Bake in grease casserole at 325 to 350 degrees for 1 hour. Reheats well. Yield: 6 servings.

I'll take the emotional music category for $200, Alex

When I got to the local pub for breakfast this morning, I briefly sat with a man who was paying his bill. I wanted his table, so I asked if I could sit down. He said yes and we chatted for just a few minutes. He said he had previously interviewed Pat Murphy of Gaelic Storm who (he said) thinks music should not be categorized as Rock, Celtic, Classical, etc. He thinks it should be categorized by how it makes you feel. Not an uncommon way of looking at music, but it brings me to a post I had in mind all weekend.

Why do I like this music?

I like what is called Celtic, Gaelic, Irish music, yes. Yes, I do. But not solely for the reason you may think.

I like the way it makes me feel sometimes, but it is as frequently sad as it is happy and I prefer music that makes me happy. There is a certain sound I listen for, so not all of it qualifies even if it is genuinely Irish. It's the sound of elementary school and it reminds me of my dad, too. First, my dad used to listen to bagpipes and bluegrass. Also, I went to an elementary school for about 4 years in Dayton, Ohio that, in my memory, spent a good portion of every year teaching us about ... well, about our heritage, I guess. We learned square dancing and reels and jigs (like many kids) and our music teacher spent a lot of time teaching us Appalachian folk music and the art teacher taught stuff the same way - little dolls and crafts from Appalachia. Every year we had an event on the school grounds in which we did pioneer/Appalachia type things. I always wondered why and figured it was because our school was Shenandoah Elementary, but I never really knew for sure. I remember dyeing clothing in goldenrod flowers and baking bread and various other skills. I remember the music, mostly. I suppose a lot of it came from Ireland.

Tourism in Waterloo

I looked like a tourist this weekend although I was only in Waterloo. I felt like a tourist, too. At breakfast on Saturday morning, I walked past a kid sitting at a table. He had a shirt on that said Pella Christian and I was surprised enough to blurt out, "You go to Pella Christian?" He gave me the look that teenagers have and said yes. I sat down and had to laugh at myself because (for those who don't know) Pella is only an hour east of Des Moines. I felt so surprised to see someone from so close to home when I was so far from...I mean...um. There was no denying it and it kept up all weekend long.

Games

You may wonder, as I have, why I spent so much time watching these games. I don't really know. Most people know I get the whole kilt thing in a big way. It isn't for everybody, but I like 'em. No, no. The kilts were everywhere today, not the reason I watched the games.
Here we have:

The sheaf toss
Caber-throwing girls


An action shot!

Another action shot

Getting ready to pick up the caber.

I am too tired to do anything else. I saw some seriously good stuff for my Barely Contained idea, too heinous to be described here! I believe the layout of this post could be better, but again, I am just too tired to care enough to fix it.

Oh and I got a henna tattoo. Photo tomorrow.