Pork Cutting and Mole Feeding: Fly on the Wall

Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 2 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.

I was on a grocery store website, trying to make some decisions for dinner next week. College Boy had asked for fish, so I typed in cod, just as I heard the door open.

Me: Here, what do you think about me doing something with this for dinner on Monday?

College Boy (looking over my shoulder at what I'd brought up on the website): I don't know, Mom, you're good but . . . how were you thinking of cooking that?

Not sure why he didn't think I could cook cod, I turned to see that the page that had come up wasn't for cod, the fish, but Call of Duty, an Xbox game.

Yeah, I'm not so sure I'm up to that challenge either. 

 

 

I usually shut down the TV and the laptop sometime between 9:00pm and 10:00pm and read for a few hours. I'd gotten to a good part of the book so I just kept reading, didn't get to sleep until about 2:30am.

The next day, as you can imagine, by about 3:00 in the afternoon I was pretty tired. Hubs wanted to know if I wanted to go out back and do some work in the garden.

Me: Why don't we split up the chores?

Hubs: OK.

Me: You go pull the weeds.

Hubs: Alright, what do you want to do?
Me: I'll stay here and get a head start on the obligatory after gardening nap.

I have a 2 shelf cabinet in the kitchen where I keep all of my food storage containers. I put them in there with their covers, but they never stay together. I think gremlins come in at night and move everything around.

After dinner one night I was looking in the cabinet for a container of the size that I needed. First I couldn't find one, then I couldn't find the cover. I had containers all over the floor and was swearing under my breath.

I finally found what I needed, but then had to put all the others away. I shoved them all in, slammed the door and held it. Gently letting go and stepping away, everything stayed in and the door stayed shut. Phew.

About an hour later, I was walking by the cabinet and the door was open just a crack.

Which is how Hubs came into the kitchen to see me wagging my finger at the cabinet and saying "don't you threaten me."

Hubs must have assessed the situation and correctly decided that it was in his best interest to not say a word and just keep walking.

I was writing up a recipe that included an apple. It needed to be cored and chopped. Although I'd decided not to peel it, I wanted to leave that up to individual tastes. 

As I was writing it up, I'd said "Core (and peel if desired)." Proofreading, I decided to add a comma after "peel," which I did.

Once done, I was proofreading one final time. Apparently when I added the comma, I put it in place of instead of after the "l" in "peel."

So my recipe read "Core (and pee, if desired)."

Not exactly what I meant . . .

Hubs and I were watching the Red Sox. It was in between innings so I got up and headed to the kitchen.

Me: Let me know when it comes back on.

Hubs: Where will you be?

Me: Just over in the kitchen, cutting the pork.

Hubs: Cutting the pork? What's that a euphemism for?

Me: Nothing. I'm literally cutting the pork.

I had bought a pork tenderloin and was cutting it into pork chops to marinate for dinner. But now I'm not sure I'll ever look at a pork chop again without wondering about dirty double entendres.

Barbecued Pork Enchiladas

Same day, watching the same game:

Hubs: Some of these new players are barely out of their teens, watching them play makes me feel old.

Me: You feel old when you're watching baseball? I just have to try to stand up from the couch to feel old.

I bet you know that the MLB network shows baseball games, but did you know they solve word puzzles?

While watching the game, I was working on a word game called Phrazle, where you have to guess the phrase. Through your previous guesses, you know which letters are not in the puzzle, which are in the puzzle and in the right place, and which are in the puzzle in the wrong place. 

I'd taken 2 guesses. There were 3 words. The first word was "A," the second word had 7 letters with an "i," an "o," and ended with an "e." I was fairly confident the third word was most likely "mistake," but I was stuck on that second word, "a costly mistake" didn't fit. Nor did anything else I was trying, for almost 15 minutes. I was frustrated. Then, suddenly . . .

Me: OMG. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Hubs (looking at the TV): That run was the other team, you're supposed to be rooting for the Red Sox.

Me: Oh, I wasn't thanking the team, I was thanking the sportscasters.

Hubs: Why?

Me: They just solved my puzzle.

The run, according to the sportscasters, was made by a rookie.

Rookie.

A rookie (has an "i," an "o," and ends with an "e") mistake! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We back up to woods, so we often have issues with moles. They're really destructive, creating tunnels all under our lawn and in our gardens. Hubs has put these sticks in the back yard to try to keep them away. They semi work, and now he's had to put them in the side yard too.

One day, though, I caught a glimpse of one in my outdoor reading nook, to the left of the front door. No way, not sharing my spot.

I did some research, then went back out front.

Hubs: What are you doing?

Me: I noticed a mole out here, I'm spreading around coffee grounds.

Hubs: Umm . . . just for clarification . . . are you deterring them? Or feeding them?

And now I’m wondering what “feeding the moles” might be a euphemism for . . .

Sometimes (OK, often) I wonder about how Hubs thinks.

I walk around the house barefoot, pretty much year round. I'll put on shoes and socks when it's cold out, if I'm going somewhere.

Hubs wears socks every day, even if he's not leaving the house. And, of course, shoes if he's going out.

But when he mows the lawn, he takes his socks off and puts on his sneakers to mow.

Just me? Or does that seem backwards to you too? 

Hubs: It's a jungle out there.

Me: Fine, I'll shave my legs. 

 

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother

Barbecued Pork Enchiladas

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

3 boneless pork loin chops, cooked

3/4 cup barbecue sauce of your choice

2/3 cup canned black beans, drained

1 (8.75 oz) can corn kernels, drained

1/4 cup sliced pepperoncini

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

6 medium soft flour tortillas

4 slices sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan, and pour 1/4 cup water into the pan.

*Finely chop the cooked pork chops and put into a bowl.

*Set aside 1 TBSP of the barbecue sauce for serving. Add the remaining sauce into the bowl with the pork, along with the beans, corn, pepperoncini, and shredded cheese. Mix well.

*Lay out the tortillas. Divide the pork filling into the center of each of the tortillas. Roll up, keeping the filling in the center, and place into the prepared pan, seam side down.

*Top with the slices of cheese, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

*Drizzle the reserved 1 TBSP barbecue sauce over the cooked enchiladas.

Deferred Maintenance: Word Counters

 

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks  a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with. 

 This month's number is 43. 

It was chosen by Diane of On the Border!

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I'm talking about Deferred Maintenance.

~ It was late, I shut my tablet, Hubs closed his laptop. When heading upstairs, I heard him mutter about "deferred maintenance."

~ I'm self-conscious on a good day. Between aging and having been isolated during Covid, he was right, I'd let myself go.

~ Looks aren't paramount in life, but I used to feel good when looking my best. Not THE best, but my best.

~ When did I last shave my legs, tweeze my eyebrows? And pulling out the grey hairs will soon leave bald spots . . .

~ Maybe I could be a little less . . . ahem . . . aggressive . . . with taste testing responsibilities when baked goods are the day's recipe attempt.

Very Berry Bundt Cake

~ Next morning over coffee, he broached the dreaded subject. "Deferred maintenance," he said. Should I start with an apology? Action plan?

~ "Every six years the assessor's office requires us fill out a form. You know, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, a finished basement."

~ "They also ask about deferred maintenance. All I can think of is we really need to replace some windows. Anything else?"

 

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Very Berry Bundt Cake         
                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3 TBSP sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup sour cream

3 eggs

1/4 cup blackberries, quartered

1/4 cup raspberries, halved

1/2 cup blueberries

2 TBSP blueberry jam

1/2 cup chopped strawberries

2 TBSP strawberry jam

3 TBSP flour, divided

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle all over the inside of the pan, all the way up the center and sides.

*Beat the cake mix, milk, oil, sour cream, and eggs for 2 minutes. Move approximately 1/4 of the batter into a clean bowl and about another1/4 of the batter into a third bowl.

*Toss the blackberries and raspberries with 1 TBSP of the flour. Fold into the 1/4 of the batter and pour evenly into the prepared pan.

*Toss the blueberries with another TBSP of flour. Fold into the original bowl, holding about 1/2 of the batter, along with the blueberry jam, and spoon into the pan.

*Toss the strawberries with the remaining TBSP of flour. Fold into the last bowl of batter along with the strawberry jam, and spoon into the pan.

*Bake for about 35 - 45 minutes, until the center springs back to the touch. Allow to sit in the pan for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing from the pan to cool completely.

Do the Right Thing: Use Your Words

 

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s  participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them. I'm using: wild ~ loops ~ consistency ~ absentee ~ lost ~ Xanax
They were submitted by Jenniy of Climaxed.

                          

A little piece of fiction today. Hopeful fiction, actually. Hopeful because I'd love for it to be fact. I know, actually, that it should be.

Consistency is necessary, he thought. Not concurrence, in this small group of ours. Quite the contrary. Differences is the foundation from which we act here. Intelligent discourse, deep thought. It requires that we all think for ourselves, present our views and perspectives and interpretations, work together to come to very consequential conclusions. We are, after all, tasked with some of the most pivotal decisions of our time.

This isn't just about law, which is an ironic thought, it's about morals and values. It's about standards. Conformity. Behavior consistent with, not just societal standards, but higher standards, reflecting the level of influence we hold, the level of power with which we've been entrusted.

Consistency, conformity, standards. At the very least.

It would be nice if there were mutual respect and admiration among us. There had been at least the semblance of that in the past, a picture of civility. That's no longer how we are perceived. 

We don't have to break bread together, but we do need to comport ourselves with dignity. Both on with each other, and in public.

Apple & Honey Chicken Salad

I can no longer sit on my hands. That man's crazy as fruit loops wife with her known involvement in a wild, deadly insurrection, added to his not having recused himself from the issues involving her isn't playing well. Add to that his reckless acceptance of gifts, multimillion dollar gifts, from people with an agenda, to sway, to influence. 

And that on top of the last few among us having lied to get here, in private meetings and in public hearings, in front of the whole country . . .

We need to show that we respect ethical boundaries, and when we don't, we must agree to sanctions. And yes, even expulsion.

We are compromised, and the entire country knows it. Our approval rating in has hit a low 40%. The time has come. I have no choice, I can no longer be an absentee Chief. 

It would be in the best interest of the country if Thomas were to retire, just get lost. But, of course, he won't. This institution is in jeopardy due to my lack of leadership. I'm just going to have to put on my big boy pants robe, and take steps to have him removed, thought the Chief Justice, swallowing a Xanax.

 

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

On the Border 

Climaxed

 

Apple & Honey Chicken Salad

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast, cooked and cooled

1 small apple

1/2 cup walnut halves, shelled

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp honey

1 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
*Shred the chicken and place in a bowl. Core (and peel, if desired), then chop the apple. Add to the bowl. Coarsely chop the walnuts, add to the bowl. Mix.

*In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, apple cider vinegar, and cinnamon. Pour into the bowl with the chicken an mix well.

*Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.