What to do with so much left-over mac-and-cheese . . .

 . . . when there are only two of you to eat it?

A box of Kraft hit my buggy at the store. It sat in the cupboard for a couple of weeks. Till one night, on her night to prepare the evening meal, my housemate decided to prepare it.

Good eating, perfect creaminess, delicious. With collard greens/pepper sauce and a bowl of fruits and cherry tomatoes, a great meal.

The next night was my turn; can't remember what I prepped, but the following night, we ate mac-'n-cheese and collard greens again. Even with four meals gone, there was still a gob of leftover m-'n-c. 

When it was my turn, I Googled, or Bing-ed, "how to dress up leftover mac and-cheese." Many recipes flew to the screen. The one I selected contained everything I had on hand: oleo (butter), paprika, breadcrumbs, an egg, and shredded cheese.

Since I learned that m-n-c doesn't mix well when cold, I'd set the dish out on the counter earlier. Gathering all ingredients except the egg and oleo, I waited till nearly time. 

Here's the recipe I used: "Leftover Mac and Cheese Cups from kitchenathoskins.com

3 cups m-a-c. (I didn't measure but decided it was close enough.); 1 egg (lightly beaten); 1/2 cup shredded cheese; add tablespoons (not succinct) breadcrumbs; 1/2 tablespoon melted butter; 1 pinch paprika.

Directions: Add m-a-c to a bowl. (I chose to use a bowl larger than the one it was in.) Separately, I mixed the cheese and egg before adding to the pasta. Pack into WELL GREASED muffin pan. (Apparently, pasta with cheese is very hard to remove from either paper cups or the metal tins.) Stir breadcrumbs, melted butter the paprika together, and sprinkle over tops of muffins I spooned rather than sprinkled--it was messy. It made 6 muffins, just as the recipe said, so I guessed correctly, didn't I?

But here's the conundrum: Bake at 425 degrees until tops are golden. Gee, the crumb mixture was golden, so I set the timer for 5 minutes, leaving the oven light on so I could judge. I couldn't tell a difference, so I set the timer for 5 more minutes. Still, not sure, so one more 5-minute stint. Surely the egg would be cooked with the prolonged heat. 

Getting the muffins out of the pan intact--or as intact as possible--and looking like muffins was good enough for me. AM ate two and I ate one, so we STILL HAVE LEFTOVERS!!!

c 2023 Pat Laster dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA

Living in a generation-gap household -- again

 

         It just so happens that middle-age (daughter) and old-age (me) are living together in my house. Kid Billy, now 33, had hied from here to Hot Springs to Phoenix where he now has lived for two years. He’s just graduated from massage therapy classes. 

        No, this time it’s his mother. She’s moved back “home” (though this was never her home, per se) to the back room that’s always been “the boys” bedroom, except for the short time Grandma Flossie dwelt there on her journey to Heaven. The room has two windows opening to the screened-in-but-later-paneled back porch. An air conditioner covers part of one window. Sheer curtain panels cover the other. It was outfitted as a guest room.      

       The closet, always a repository of everything imaginable is still used thusly. Equipped only with a rod of horizontally hung crown molding, I’d begun using it as hanging storage for winter clothes.

                The room contains a twin-sized bed, two dressers, one with a mirror, Mom’s old pink recliner, a large container of Billy’s books and assorted other “stuff” from his era. Plus, extra bedding and pillows.

A large table lamp sits on a dresser, and, along with the ceiling light-fan, there’s enough light to read by or to work crossword puzzles. The AC is on 24/7.

                We both have writing/working stations on the dining-room table, and she has a living-room space on the sofa where there’s a lamp/table beside one end. Her “work” project, she set for herself, and I agreed, is to keep the gray gravel driveway free of grass--Bermuda, bitter weeds, clover and other types, that the $800+ overlay doesn’t keep out. BTW, that deal was as close to a scam as I’ve ever gotten, or it may have been a scam: a thin overlay of “road base” tiny granite granules rather than the small white gravel that I expected. However, I didn’t ask the young man what he was covering the driveway with, so it’s partly my fault. But I digress.

                Daughter and I agreed to eat morning and noon meals on our own, then take turns preparing a sit-down supper.  My Benton sister shared a tater-tot casserole that was good for two nights, and I stirred together a Mexicali Chicken dish, also good for two nights. I’ll probably use what’s left and make soup. One night’s meal was mac-and-cheese. A fruit jello from earlier was dessert. With vanilla Oreos.

                So far, so good.

 

               

 

 

 c 2023, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA

 

Things I didn’t know I didn’t know

 

 

                Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Philip Martin long ago had a series of pieces with the headline, “Things I Didn’t Know.” I don’t think he would be insulted or accuse me of plagiarism if I used this same title today. Oh, that’s right: titles can’t be copyrighted. Nor many other things, one of which is a group of words. So, I should be safe.

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT “trig” and “trigness of the house” as found in Mark Twain’s book, “Life on the Mississippi” meant smartness, neatness, trim, spruce. Makes sense in that context, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it without its math meaning.

                In the same vein, “texas” with a small “t” in steamboat lingo refers to the long, narrow cabin known as the crew’s quarters. Also the “hurricane deck” is above the boiler deck, usually the uppermost full deck. It’s also called the upward deck or roof.

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT a septic tank included a distribution box located several yards away from the tank itself. In this box—a smaller tank by half, I’d say—overflow water from the tank runs into the box, thence out into the leach or field lines in the yard. After son dug four or five inches of dirt off the thick concrete lid of the box, he found that the pipe from the tank to the box was clogged with a log of roots, which he managed to get out. Then he sawed around the sides of the box, loosening roots of all sizes and colors. After that, he sprinkled in a two-pound container of ZEP Root Killer. “Let’s wait two weeks before I replace the dirt on the lid to see what it looks like,” he said, and stuck an orange cone on the now replaced lid of the box.

                Two-weeks passed; he pried off the lid, looked around, proclaimed it looking good, replaced the lid and shoveled the dirt back on to the box. We set a marker in the middle of it, and returned the orange cone to the trunk of my Taurus.

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT enrollment in the Affordable Care Act is 16.3 million people. –Heather Cox Richardson citing DHHS.

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Walmart employs 1. 7 Million folks in the U. S. and is raising its minimum wage from $12 to $14 a hour.

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Peru has 33 million people and is the 5^th most populous in Latin America. –NYT’s The Morning newsletter.

                Or that about 80 percent of New Zealanders 5.1 million population identifies as Pasifika—a New Zealander of Pacific islands descent. –Raw Story

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Africa has about 30 percent of the world’s reserves of minerals crucial to helping [the world] transition to green energy. –Heather Cox Richardson.

                I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT a “Church Committee” was in government until I found out it was a Frank Church committee; a U. S. Senate select committee in 1975 investigating abuses by the CIA, NSA, FBI and IRS. I was glad to know this wasn’t a ‘church’ as in religion committee. In 1975, I had four children from 14 to 5, plus teaching, plus work as a church musician. I was ignorant of governmental affairs then. But I’m making up for it now.

March: lamb in the morning, lion in the evening

 

Spring is only a few weeks away, but it's still winter. But it's time to prune roses, plant new bulbs, rake leaves from flowerbeds and other places. 

Here are some comments about winter drawn from “The 2,548 Things Anybody Ever Said,” selected and compiled by Robert Byrne.

 “It was so cold I almost got married.” – Shelley Winters

 “Plant carrots in January and you’ll never have to eat carrots.” – Unknown.

“An old man in love is like a flower in winter.” – Portuguese proverb 

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” – Carl Reiner          

“I like winter because I can stay indoors without feeling guilty.” – Teressa Skelton.

And finally, from the compiler: “Winter is nature’s way of saying, ‘Up yours.’” – Robert Byrne.

                From “The Book of Lists,” compiled by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, that I bought because a Hot Springs writer once said that she didn’t like lists. She was an English teacher; may she rest in peace. The only entry for winter is this: “WINTER BALLOON FESTIVAL: Sixty hot-air balloons from twenty countries converge in Switzerland in January for the annual Chateau d’Oex Winter Alpine Balloon Festival. Tour members will join in seven days of flying, including mass ascensions of the entire fleet.”

                Do you suppose that’s where some of last month’s balloons drifted from? Oh, surely not!

                The only other list that deals with winter comes under the heading of “Esoteric Halls of Fame” that happens in Wisconsin, the International Snowmobile Racing Hall of Fame. “Each year three inductees are chosen, two in the driver category and one in the industry/support category. Notable honorees include Jim Aderua, who died in a snowmobile racing accident in 1975, and Audrey Decker, the only female member of the hall of fame.”

                On January 3 of this year, rally car driver Ken Block was killed while riding up a slope in Utah’s Wasatch County when the machine upended and landed on top of him.

                Trying to use some of the many books I’ve bought as fodder for my writings, I pull down the third one, “The TRIVIA Encyclopedia," by Fred Worth. Organized alphabetically, there was nothing under W for winter. But under S are three items I can use. “Snow Baby” – Admiral Pearcy’s daughter, Marie, born in 1893 in the Arctic Circle at Inglefield Gulf.

                The second: “Snowball” – Albino dolphin: (at this writing) only one known to exist. In 1962, it could be found in the Miami Seaquarium.

                Third: “Snowbirds” –the Canadian Air Force’s aerobatic team. Oh, and snowbirds in Florida are what we call folks who leave their northern climate come winter, and dwell in warmer temps for the duration. One daughter-in-law produces a Snowbird Magazine during these months.

                I’ll close with an item from the fourth book I consult, “4800 Wisecracks, witty Remarks and Epigrams for all occasions,” edited by Edmund Fuller. Under “Weather,” this: “Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring, that it occasioned a great deal of talk.” – Bill Nye.

                And with that, bye-bye.

c 2023, PL, dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA

               

READING MARK TWAIN'S "LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI"

 

          [TRY AS I MIGHT I COULDN'T GET AN IMAGE OF A STEAMBOAT TO LOAD. THESE ARE FROM MY COMPUTER FILES]

      I’m just now reading Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi.” And I can hardly put it down. Thank goodness the paperback I have is tightly bound so no pages are coming loose. I usually annotate where and when I got the book, but this one has zilch info.
            Samuel Clemens used several pseudonyms during his long writing career. But the author wrote his best-known works, including such American classics as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, under the pen name Mark Twain. Not surprisingly, Clemens adopted his pen name from his experiences piloting steamboats up and down the Mississippi.

                "Twain" literally means "two." As a riverboat pilot, Clemens would have heard the term, "Mark Twain," which means "two fathoms," on a regular basis. According to the UC Berkeley Library, Clemens first used this pseudonym in 1863, when he was working as a newspaper reporter in Nevada, long after his riverboat days.

                Clemens became a riverboat "cub," or trainee, in 1857. Two years later, he earned his full pilot's license and began piloting the steamboat Alonzo Child upriver from New Orleans in January 1861. His piloting career was cut short when riverboat traffic ceased at the start of the Civil War that same year.

                "Mark Twain" means the second mark on a line that measured depth, signifying two fathoms, or 12 feet, which was a safe depth for riverboats. The method of dropping a line to determine the water's depth was a way to read the river and avoid submerged rocks and reefs that could "tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated," as Clemens wrote in his 1863 novel, "Life on the Mississippi." 

                [Citation: Lombardi, Esther. "The Meaning of the Pseudonym Mark Twain." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/what-does-twain-mean-740683.]

            Later in the book I found words that I didn't know. They are below:

                I DIDN’T KNOW THAT “trig” and “trigness of the house” as found in Mark Twain’s book, “Life on the Mississippi” meant smartness, neatness, trim, spruce. Makes sense in that context, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it without its math meaning.

             In the same vein, “texas” with a small “t” in steamboat lingo refers to the long, narrow cabin known as the crew’s quarters. Also, the “hurricane deck” is above the boiler deck, usually the uppermost full deck. It’s also called the upward deck or roof.

Now that I've finished reading, I know so much more than I did. About so many things in and around the big river, the 1800s, the parts of Arkansas that are mentioned. But isn't that true of everything we read? I recommended it highly.

c 2023, PL, dba lovepat press Benton AR USA