I posted a couple of days ago about our dishwasher that gushed so much water that it went through the floorboards and into my washing machine below it in the basement.
We weren’t supposed to have a repair person come until the end of next week, but they were in Arlington and came this afternoon. Good news!
After some checking this and that, the problem was discovered. A mouse chewed a large hole in one of the hoses. That little filthy bastard! Of course they didn’t have one of those particular hoses in the repair truck since it’s not a part that usually “goes.”
The part will have to be ordered; they asked if Marty can install it himself since they can’t come back for 10 more days. They showed him exactly what to do, and he’s handy like that.
In late fall, we noticed a lot of mice coming inside. Marty set traps and caught 10 within a few days of each other. It seemed like every time he stopped; we noticed the telltale evidence of more mice.
Living in Vermont and not expecting to have mice is like living in NYC and not expecting to have roaches. It’s a part of life here, and you have to be proactive, especially in your home kitchen, or you can get very sick or worse.
Listen, I hate the idea of getting rid of mice and feel bad about it, but it’s like dude…you have the whole fucking state, don’t shit all over my countertops, or have a buffet in my pantry. It’s unsanitary; you will get closed down by the board of health if you are a food business. Without a doubt! #truth
So the little bastards got the last laugh, it seems. Revenge for taking out their friends. Or did they? Obviously, the mice are still alive and well here in the Irion household, and that has to end. I say mice because there is no such thing as having a single mouse; there are always more.
Now at least we know what the problem is and how to fix it. I am satisfied that the appliance store’s repair people squeezed us in on their route today. They were super nice guys, and we sent both of them home with a free package of spätzle to try since they both were curious about it.
Marty is bound and determined to find the part himself and have my dishwasher repaired by tomorrow afternoon, especially since now he knows how to fix it. What about the part they order for us if we don’t need it? They said it will now be a stock item on the repair truck.
Not an attractive photo of me with my ass sticking out, but this is how I have to wash dishes by hand; every single time, this is Klausie boys’ favorite spot to sit in the kitchen. He likes it, even more, when the rug runner is there.
Tuesday night, I turned on the dishwasher before I went to bed. It’s not even two years old. We purchased a better model this time, and it was on the pricey side. I cook a lot and have a lot of dishes; therefore, it made sense to get a good one.
Marty got up early Wednesday morning, and when he walked into the kitchen, the rug runner was soaking wet. After further investigation, the water seeped between the floorboards and dripped onto the washer and dryer in the basement below. The 1832 floorboards were so soaked that they are still swollen and buckled. They will shrink back, but there is a hump on the floor in front of the sink for now.
Marty was at the sink filled with dirty dishes when I got up, and the rug runner was out on the deck drying. Of course, I knew what was wrong. We think that a hose may have burst or came loose. We bought the dishwasher from a small, local, high-end appliances store. Normally, Marty would have tackled the problem himself, but we expect their repairman to come to fix it for the money we spent.
Marty left a message on the store’s answering machine. The message said they would return our call the same workday. My ass! That was Wednesday; they didn’t call back that day or Thursday and Friday. Seriously, when we support a small local business, I want and expect to be treated better than a big box store, not completely ignored.
Marty called again yesterday after production. They answered but immediately said they would have to call us back and not expect anyone for at least 3 weeks. They called back later and said it would be the end of next week. So that’s two and a half weeks of waiting after our initial call leaving a detailed message. They knew about the problem and chose to ignore it. Thank God it isn’t a washing machine we are talking about!
I believe in supporting small businesses 100%, especially since we are one ourselves. We try to give everyone, wholesale and farmers market customers, the best customer service we possibly can. We change game plans if necessary to fill customers’ orders or have to make an emergency delivery. We appreciate our customers and want to take care of them.
Waiting for a call back for 3 days never came, and such a long wait time for a repair is not acceptable. I do at least 2+ hours of dishes by hand in the production kitchen every day. Do I feel like doing lots of dishes by hand in the house? Um, no.
I know everyone is looking for help these days, but that’s not an excuse. If you can take our money, then you should be able to provide customer service. The store is only open from 9 -5 Monday-Friday, leaving a small window of opportunity for phone calls, sales, service, or repairs. Those are bankers’ hours. Even if they couldn’t schedule the repair for 3 weeks but called us back right away, I’d probably be ok with the situation.
Am I sorry I shopped at this local “high-end” appliance store? You bet your ass I am. We never had an issue with Lowe’s calling us back when we had a refrigerator problem that we purchased from them. The attitude today is…”Oh well, it is what it is or sorry.” Everything is good enough for people, well it isn’t for us. It’s another word for a cop-out.
We have a house guest coming for the weekend, and I am not changing my menus or eating on paper plates because of a broken dishwasher. I hate that instead of enjoying my company, I’ll be in the kitchen washing dishes. 😣
I still believe in shopping locally and supporting small businesses; next time, we will do our homework and ask around before making a big purchase.
The expression “Watching the grass grow” means to be dull or boring. We’ve been watching our grass grow for exactly one year, and it’s pretty damn exciting!
We built a packing room addition to the production kitchen in the fall of 2019. Needless to say, the ground needed to be dug up, and the machinery chewed up our lawn. The retention wall build for the addition was rinky-dink and needed to be redone.
We spent the winter and early spring of 2020 looking out our windows, especially during the lockdown. What we saw made me disgusted, anxious, and embarrassed at how bad our property looked.
When landscape workers could go back to work, they had spring clean-up to do and didn’t want anything to do with our retaining wall and lawn job. We couldn’t get anyone to call us back or even give us a bid.
So the hell with it, we did it ourselves and saved a load of money. Marty, of course, engineered and planned out everything that had to be done. I was the worker, the schlepper, gopher, and clean-up person. Even though I hate gardening, I never complained once while we bit the bullet and got the work done.
We rebuilt the retaining wall reusing materials Marty had. We got it done in just a few hours, and it came out good. This put some wind in our sails for the lawn project.
Next, we had to get rid of stones and rocks then level everything out. We got a few yards of topsoil that had to be transported and spread evenly. Next came seeding, putting hay on top, and watering it.
Yup, Klaus taking a pee…LOL
It was back-breaking work, and I was so annoyed we had to do it ourselves since we budgeted money to hire someone, but in the end, I’m glad at how much money we saved.
We had a gorgeous sunny, hot, dry summer that was glorious for us, but not for the grass we were trying to grow. It came in a little at a time but was patchy, and rocks kept pushing themselves back up to the surface. We stopped watering after the first month; we didn’t want to waste the water since it was so dry.
By fall, we accepted the grass for what it was and knew it was a lot better than it was the year before. It’s wasn’t even real grass yet, let alone a lawn.
After the snow melted in late winter and early spring, Marty got after it again. He fertilized and seeded. Then he repeated it a month later. Then he did it one more time. Last week he used some bare spot grass seed with mulch premixed in.
Mowing the lawn is now serious business. It has to be the right height so it can come in nice and thick. Not too high or too low to burn up. It’s really a science, and that why landscaping is big bucks.
Guess what? We have a lawn! Finally! I know many people don’t give a rat’s ass about the condition of their lawn, but we do. It’s our home and business, and we want it to look taken care of. We love walking barefoot on the lawn, and the dogs love lounging in it on a hot day.
I’ve always admired a nice lawn and can now really appreciate what goes into achieving one. We spent one whole year watching and waiting for the grass to grow; now, it seems like Marty had to cut the lawn every other day. I can see while he is mowing that he is proud of his lawn, and it’s not just another pain in the ass thing to do around the house anymore. ☺️
Marty, Aunt Eva & Vlado. Vlado recognized Marty’s blue eyes even with his mask on.
Yesterday, I began talking to a customer, and as I started my “spätzle spiel,” she told me she was a gluten-free baker and, like me, developed her own flour blends because the ones available didn’t work for her either.
I asked her where her bakery was located, and she replied, “Wolfeboro, NH.” Marty, who wasn’t paying attention to our conversation, looked up suddenly and said, “I have family in Wolfeboro. His name is Vlado.” Wolfeboro is not a very big place, so when she questioned, “Vlado? My Vlado?” The whole reunion started to unfold quickly.
Marty’s family came to America when he was very young; his father took a job transfer with his company Siemens. His office was in the Empire State Building, and the family moved to Queens, NY.
Marty’s dad, Hans, had a cousin Liesel who lived in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, Darko. Liesel and Darko helped sponsor family members who wanted to move to America just like Eva and her two little boys Milan & Vlado.
Since all of Marty’s immediate family was in Germany, they spent their holiday celebrations with Liesel, Darko, Eva, Milan & Vlado. The Irion’s relocated from Queens to Edison, NJ, when Siemens opened a new office in Metro Park, but still did the holiday thing with them taking turns between Brooklyn & Edison.
People grow up, move away, start their own lives and families. We realized yesterday that we hadn’t seen Vlado and his wife Beth since the early 90s at a party held by Marty’s parents.
We hadn’t seen Aunt Eva in at least 17 years when she visited us here in Arlington. I remember that I made a German dinner, schnitzel, spätzle, and red cabbage. I always felt a special connection with Eva. She was one of the only family members who “got me,” and I didn’t have to be phony with her.
Eva and I kept in touch via email over the years, but it petered out in 2017. 2017 was the year we started our spätzle business, so I’m sure I dropped the ball on that one.
Once Marty and Beth made the connection, she went and got Vlado and their son Nik. We asked how Eva was, and they said, “She’s here!” When we saw her, it was truly a special reunion. This was the first time Eva was reunited with her son and his family since Christmas 2019, just before the pandemic.
I took over the spätzle booth so Marty could visit with his family. They took a selfie and sent it to his brother Peter. Eva came over, and we had a short discussion. I confided in her years back when I was researching leads for biological family members, she quickly asked how it was going, and I said, “I’ve got a lot to tell you.” She also knew my adopted mother lied to me about many things concerning my adoption and never wanted me to find any information until she died. She asked if she was still alive after her stroke in 2013 and couldn’t believe she was.
Vlado & Beth’s family is gluten-free, which makes sense why she has a gluten-free bakery. Their son Nik lived in Schenectady, NY, before moving to Albany; the family, including Eva, were at the Schenectady Farmers Market one Sunday when we were vendors there. They also have had and love our spätzle; they didn’t know it was us! How funny, right? It just wasn’t the right time to reconnect the dots.
Before we said our goodbyes, we agreed that we need to have a proper reunion with Marty’s older brother Peter who also lives in VT. We exchanged phone numbers, and I sent Eva an email this morning. They all still know me as “Kathy,” so I explained that I left that name and girl behind.
You never know when things like this surprise reunion will happen. I honestly thought of Eva in the production kitchen last week while I was doing dishes. The belly dance song Brooklyn Baladi came on, which reminded me of her since that’s where she lives. Is this just a coincidence, or were the stars already starting to realign? It doesn’t matter; I was just so happy for everyone that it did.
The only photo I got of Sam today on his way to the pinning ceremony. He has plenty of photos that he promised to share with me.
It’s 7:45 pm, and we are about an hour away from home. We left Arlington this morning at 6 am for our son Sam’s pinning ceremony for nursing in Delhi, NY.
Sam had the whole day planned out, which we loved because we were his guests. We got to see many of his friends we’ve met before and met a few new ones.
The pinning ceremony…turns out we couldn’t even step on the college campus. We ended up watching the ceremony at his college family’s house with his friends.
We never saw a nursing pinning ceremony before. We didn’t know about Florence Nightingale’s lantern and what it symbolizes. We watched the ceremony with all nurses, and they told us a little bit about their ceremonies. I know I would have been choked up if I had been there, but it’s still not the same watching it on tv.
One important part of the ceremony is when each new nurse thanks those who helped, taught, encouraged, or supported them. It was supposed to be part of a PowerPoint presentation, which we didn’t get to see on zoom. All we saw on the screen were the words covid 19 and a bunch of shit about it. Yeah, we know all about it by now. Literally, we stared at that for 20 minutes. If we knew what we were missing, it would have been worse. We found out later when we saw Sam.
Sam graduated cum laude and was was one of 6 males in a class of 45 students. More than half the students he started with his freshman year dropped out of the program.
He earned an excellence award in medical and another for his community service hours with the Delhi EMS & Fire Dept. He ran an untold amount of rescue calls every week even with his busy school schedule, studying, working at the college part-time, and clinicals over an hour away while keeping a 3.79 GPA.
So today, he was welcomed into the nursing community. He wants to take his RN test ASAP. He will be an RN at 20 years old. I drank and acted stupid when I was 20 years old. He doesn’t take after me, thank God.
After going out for a celebration dinner, his friends, EMS colleagues, and college family all said how much they would miss him. I thanked them for looking after him and teaching him so much. He found a wonderful community, made friends for life, and had a great college experience even during a pandemic.
To say how proud we are would be an understatement. To say how tired I am right now while Marty is driving us home is an understatement.
We have to unpack a load of Sam’s things that we took home for him in our delivery van. Then we need to start packing up for the Troy Farmers Market in the morning.
Yes, we will be back on the road again tomorrow morning at 6 am. I’m so looking forward to Sunday…a day to rest. Real rest.
Happy Friday, guys! I am making myself a double dirty vodka martini when we get home; after packing up, I’m hitting the hay. 😴
I love belly dancing. I love performing. I am good at both. I LOVE teaching belly dance! I think I am pretty damn good at it too.
During the pandemic, I couldn’t teach or dance with my dance sisters for almost a year. I kept up with my technique; as a matter of fact, my technique got better because I wasn’t dancing; I was drilling over and over. Dancing alone sucks.
Our belly dance style is called…stay with me now, because its name keeps changing to make everyone happy. Fat Chance Belly Dance Style Global Group Improvisation Dance. Whew! When I started belly dancing 18 years ago, it was simply called American Tribal Style Belly Dance or ATS.®️
Whatever you want to call it, our style of dance is group improv, meaning we don’t choreograph anything, not even for performances. Our students learn moves, cues, and transitions. There is one leader and the rest of the dancers play follow the leader, then switch leaders. Sometimes we dance so tightly people can’t believe it is improv. That’s the magic and beauty of our dance form.
I’ve found over the last 17 years of teaching that everyone learns at their own pace. Some with a dance background pick it up quickly, while others with no dance background can learn and move up in their own time.
Some people are dedicated, practice, take and make corrections, while others get discouraged if they can’t get it right away. Some think they are better than they are and want to move up quicker than they are ready. Some dancers don’t get the whole group improv thing. They let their egos and diva-like personalities get in the way of learning and becoming a dance sister. None of those people were around for too long; don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
Last night Kathleen and I worked with two of our students Maria & Trish. Maria has written about her 4-year long belly dance journey on her own blog Full Moon Fiber Art. I love reading each blog post and how she evolved.
Maria came to class after being in the audience of one of our fundraiser shows. After the show, she decided she wanted to do “that.” The “that” was not only learning to dance but have confidence and an “attitude” like we had on stage. Most of all, she saw that we were having a blast.
Maria’s first class was a big step for her outside of her comfort zone. It was courageous to show up, not knowing what to expect with zero dance experience. For me, she was a blank canvas ready for us to teach the right way from day one.
Maria came week after week and slowly but surely got better each week. In the beginning, Maria could not step on the beat, it seemed she had no rhythm, but she did; she just never used it before. I kept telling her every week, “Don’t worry, it will come when it gets into your muscle memory.”
Trish started classes with all of the New Years’ resolution folks who come to the first class of the new year like bats out of hell. The 22 new students dwindled each week. It’s much harder than it looks, and people get impatient and don’t like when they can’t “get it.” They get super pissy and annoyed. It’s week one, for fucks sake; give it a chance. 🤦🏻♀️
Trish had balancing issues and didn’t know how to ground herself, let alone do turns. Week after week, like Maria, Trish slowly improved and moved up.
Last night was like light bulbs going off all of the place for the two of them. Kathleen and I can say the same thing about a move repeatedly for years, but one day it suddenly makes sense.
Maria and Trish both commented on one of the things that we were working on that, “I never heard that before” or “I never realized that’s what your hands, feet, arms or legs are doing!” Kathleen echoed what we have told them both for years, “We’ve said it before; you just weren’t ready to hear it before.” Ah…they get it.
These ladies worked hard on their technique and last night showed the biggest improvements ever. With each move of the week we teach, we start breaking it down with feet, legs, hips, chest and arms, hands and chin, finally looking up with a pleasant look on your face. Smiling is a tough one to get people to do. It isn’t hard for hams like Kathleen and me. Resting bitch face is not a good look when you are belly dancing. Lol!
Last night we also worked on musicality and the energy that comes out of you when you are dancing. We worked on their zilling and what they needed to do to improve. In Maria’s case, she needs to buy new finger cymbals or zills. The ones she has been using are fine for beginners just learning, but it’s time for her to upgrade to an “instrument” if she wanted her zilling to sound like ours. She tried mine on and heard the difference herself. ☺️
My face hurt from smiling because they got it, all of what we have been saying. There was so much excitement in the air. I was like a proud fucking peacock with both of their accomplishments they achieved in a couple of hours.
The thing about teaching, it makes us better dancers too. We have to do things correctly all the time. There is no laziness or excuses. We ourselves become students from teaching our students. We always say that all of us are students…everyone has things they need to work on and improve. It’s never-ending grasshopper…
Yes, I love to dance, but teaching is so fulfilling, like watching a seed that you plant grow into a beautiful flower. I really can’t tell you how much I loved seeing the smiles on their faces after class and how wonderful all the hard work on our part as teaches pays off! Yip!
Hopefully, soon we will be able to open our classes up to the public again. Having brand new students not only adds new energy to the dance space but also makes our current students better dancers because they are examples and big sisters to the “newbies.” Yip!
Great job last night ladies…I can’t wait until next weeks classes. 🙂
6 pm tonight the sunshine was beautiful, but it was windy and cold.
I got up this morning at 6 am and saw the sun was coming up. I asked Alexa what the temperature was…46-degrees! That’s a far cry from the 30s and frost. The first thing out of my mouth was, “Those bastards!” 😜
We went around putting all the planters back outside and uncovered the hanging baskets. The petunias weren’t totally happy sleeping under a sheet last night. I had to coax them back, give them a little encouragement and fluff up some of their branches.
Today was in the high 50s, but a cold 50. Windy??? Holy moly it was windy, which made the day even colder. It looked beautiful out inside the production kitchen, but when we were going from the kitchen to the freezer and walk-in refrigerator, it was cold.
I went from planning to make red wine braised boneless beef ribs in the oven like short ribs and make a stick to your ribs (pun intended) dinner. I was going to use the leftover mashed potatoes to make gnocchi to go with it. Then when I saw it was sunny outside instead of the rain that was forecasted, I decided to bbq the ribs.
After production and seeing that it was still pretty cold out, the thought of low and slow cooking outside was out for me. The wind alone was my deciding factor.
Now I didn’t know what to make. Since I already had the bbq rub made, Marty suggested braising the ribs with bbq seasoning and finishing the ribs on the grill. Sounds like a plan. I never did this before, but whatever.
I rubbed the ribs with my bbq spice blend, added a little apple juice and bbq sauce to the bottom of the pan, and covered it tightly with foil. I baked it at 275 for 3 hours.
I uncovered the ribs and let them cool in the refrigerator to be picked up and placed on the grill. If not, they would fall apart; then we would have shredded bbq beef instead of boneless ribs.
Now another dilemma…it’s forecasted to be going down to 38 degrees tonight. It’s like playing Russian roulette, deciding to bring the plants inside or let it roll. I am going to let it roll. Fingers crossed. This looks like the last night in the 30s. 🤞🏽
My favorite time to sit on the deck is between 4:30-6:30, tonight we only made it for 10 minutes before going inside to warm up.
Here’s the other thing…it’s too cold and windy to grill, we realized after trying to sit on the deck with a glass of wine. Maybe we were wimps or lazy assholes, but neither of us wanted to grill.
New plan. I slathered the ribs with bbq sauce, Sweet Baby Rays. Don’t judge; I didn’t feel like making homemade. Then I threw them under the broiler to caramelize the bbq sauce and reheat the ribs.
Boneless beef rib finished with a sprinkle of kosher salt, baked sweet potato with butter, cinnamon & sugar. A Dill pickle? To add some acid to a rich & meaty dish that balances it out. Don’t believe me? Watch Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix. A culinary game changer for me a couple of years ago.
With my very best Vermont accent, “ I tell you what, them there beef ribs were the best we ever had, by Jesus!” They were better than either of us imagined. Marty said if he got those ribs at a bbq joint, he’d be very happy.
The ribs came out tender and juicy. I really didn’t need the knife to cut it. Yum!
What a wishy-washy food day based solely on the weather. The sunshine was deceiving and the cold wind relentless, but the ribs were off the fucking chain! Booyah!
***If you are enjoying my blog, please tell a friend or two about it, or consider making a small donation to support my blog to keep it going strong. Thanks for your support. Jeez, I sound like the tv commercial from the 80s…Bartels & Jaymes. 😜
It happens every year; if it didn’t happen, I think I would be worried. They say never plant flowers or put in your garden until after Memorial Day here in VT. I always do my gardening on Mother’s Day because that’s when I want to do it.
I’ve been busy all day, I opened up Facebook, and I saw someone in our town post about frost tonight. I quickly went to my weather app on my phone and saw a frost alert. “Son of a bitch!” After that outburst, I started pulling in my planter containers, and putting them in the living room.
Then I ran to the basement to find a couple of old sheets for the big hanging baskets on the front porch. I don’t want to bring those colossal things into the house.
I found two white sheets and grabbed a pair of scissors. I cut a hole right in the center of each sheet. I love the “Peanuts” from when I was a kid. I did my best Charlie Brown imitation by saying, “I got a rock.” This was from the Peanuts Halloween tv show.
Of course this sheet was a bit too small, good thing for clothes pins. They come in handy like a butter knife, duck tape and zip ties.
By the way, as a side note, Marty and I both waited on the peanuts creator Charles Schultz when we worked at the Ralph Lauren store in Manchester, VT, back in the early 90s. He paid with a credit card, and his signature was exactly like in the comic strip. This was pretty exciting because the Peanuts were my favorite when I was little, and he was very nice. Each of us waited on tons of famous actors and singers. I know whenever something reminds me of one of them, I’ll be sharing it and their story.
I took care of my plants now at 5:30 pm because I didn’t want to wait to do it before I go to bed. Cover your plants or bring them in if you live in my area; or check your weather app.
We traded with our Troy Farmers Market neighbor Collar City Candle at the end of the market today. My candle is lemon sugar & cucumber mint. 🙂
If you’ve been following along, you probably have noticed I haven’t been cooking the elaborate shit I was cooking during the wintertime. It still feels like winter weather-wise here in VT, but our hectic work schedule feels like it’s almost summer.
I still have a well-stocked pantry, produce, and some meats in the freezer, which is the saving grace for throwing together some quick meals.
I’ve been digging deep this week to pull dinner ideas out of my old arsenal of recipes. I remembered one called Bombay Sloppy Joe’s and made them last night.
The food I’ve been craving isn’t light spring-like foods; it’s still warm and comforting stuff to have at the end of a long day.
Bombay Sloppy Joe’s I saw on the Food Network years ago made by Aarti Sequeira. These sloppy Joe’s are packed with flavor and heat if you choose. Last night, our spice level was on the lower side, but I was too tired to readjust it. It was still delicious.
It went quickly from pale and boring to flavorful and yummy!
The first couple of times I used Aarti’s recipe, I followed it exactly, but you know me, I have to make it my way. My way last night was getting as much flavor as I could get with only one pan, common pantry items, and a short cook time.
Instead of doing things separately, I made mine like I make my regular sloppy joes as the recipe reads. I started with the meat, in this case, ground chicken. I added the veggies & raisins, spices, tomato sauce, water and finished with half and half. I simmered it for 20 minutes, and it was done. Honestly, it tasted the same.
I didn’t toast whole cumin seeds, but I did use very fresh ground cumin and garam masala. Fresh, dried spices make all the difference in cooking. I buy mine in small quantities in bulk.
Bulk spices can be found in most co-ops or health food stores. I also pick up some of my “exotic” spices in ethnic stores. I don’t recommend dollar store spices or ones that have been on the grocery store shelves for who knows how long.
Another quick meal this week included bruschetta topped Angus patties with melted mozzarella. Sounds fancy and is one of my favorite things to eat. It’s even easier to make.
Brushetta topped grilled burger with mozzarella cheese. Some roasted parmesan potatoes in the background.
Ok, my Angus patties were frozen hamburgers, but they are still delicious cooked on the grill. The mozzarella cheese was a thick slice melted on the burgers at the last minute; while they were still on the grill.
The bruschetta topping consisted of dicing up some grape tomatoes, a minced clove of garlic, a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a dash of sugar, kosher salt, and black pepper. I finished the topping with some basil. In my case, I used the fresh basil and olive oil in a tube that I keep in my refrigerator for such occasions.
The other fast and easy dinner was linguine topped with quick marinara sauce, fresh ricotta cheese, and parmesan. Garlic cheese bread is always a must so that I can soak up the sauce on the plate.
I used that GF linguine I found in Aldi the other day, all our spätzle we had on hand was for our market.
Quick Marinara Sauce…in a medium saucepan add a couple of tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and sauté a couple of cloves of minced until fragrant.
Add a 28 oz can of tomato purée, crushed tomatoes, or I always use San Marzano whole tomatoes that I whizzed in the blender until smooth.
Add a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and kosher salt & pepper to taste. I added a handful of frozen basil from last summer but also could have used a teaspoon of that refrigerated basil in the tube.
Simmer for 30 minutes and let it cool. Reheat when ready to serve it; just serve it after 30 minutes. Easy. Quick. Better than any jarred marinara sauce, for sure.
How do I know that my quick marinara is better than any jarred marinara? A few years ago I bought I jar of sauce because I was being lazy. I hid the jar in the bottom of the recycling bin so no one would see.
I think I used the jarred sauce for chicken parm or meatball subs. Our youngest son Sam said after his first bite, “I don’t know what this sauce is, but it isn’t yours. Don’t even buy it again; yours is so much better.” Ok, duly noted Sam.👌🏼
What am I making tonight or for Mother’s Day? I have no clue. I am making mini strawberry shortcakes for Sunday dessert. I am not a big dessert person, but for some reason, I really feel like having it. 🍓
Enjoy your Sunday & Happy Mother’s Day friends! 💐🌸💸🌺
I have the gift of being able to remember people either by their faces, their names for what they ate or drank.
When I worked at a hotdog wagon, I impressed a whole line of people when I remembered two guys from the year before. I remembered exactly what they both had. They felt special. I did too because they gave me a $20 tip!
I’ve always loved it when we go to a bar, and the bartender remembers what we drink; it’s even better when they can remember even if we haven’t been there for a while. They always get a nice tip.
Today while we were on our NY delivery route, we stopped at the Capital District Regional Market. It’s where restaurants and other businesses buy produce in bulk. The produce market is only open from 5:30 – 7:30 am. That’s it on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
There are retail stalls that are open 6 am – 1 pm. Today I went back to see the same person we bought our hanging petunia baskets from last year. They were gorgeous and looked fantastic until early October.
Last year we were there dropping off a spätzle delivery to a farm to home service, and we found out the market is open to the general public. Luckily we had the place to ourselves just like last year. I don’t particularly appreciate shopping for flowers when it’s wall to wall people snatching plants from each other.
Today we walked around for a bit; then, I picked out two gigantic hanging pink petunia baskets. Here’s the part that I loved, the owner named Lisa remembered us. Of course, our spätzle hoodies and shirts gave us away until she told me what I got from her the year before. She really did remember us, and she remembered my name! She also gave us a nice discount. Guess where I am going back to again next year? Yup, to Lisa.
At our farmer’s markets, customers really like it when I remembered their names, children’s names, or what they made with our spätzle. It’s that same feeling, like being a bar patron from the tv show Cheers, “Where everybody knows your name.” 🎵🍻
After Lisa, the flower lady made my day by remembering me; I now know how special our customers feel when leaving our farmers market booth. Marty can recognize people’s faces, but he’s not good with names. He’s good at faking it sometimes, but I know he is full of crap when I am with him. 😂
My secret to remembering names is to connect first the face; then, I repeat their name 3 times out loud during the course of our conversation. Most times, I will tell people what I am doing so they don’t think I’m off my nut.
After the person walks away, I associate something with their name. When the person comes back another time, in my head, I see the face, then the connection I made, and can get their name right 98% of the time.
After putting the huge hanging baskets into the delivery van, which was almost empty since our big deliveries were done, I went back and got a flat of multicolored petunias to plant in containers on the deck.
I picked out my flowers then I took a selfie with Lisa. I told her I was writing about her; she was pleased. She gave me a break on the flat of flowers too, which really was nice of her. We give many of our loyal, regular customers a special “friends and family discount.” Again…now I know how nice it feels to be treated special.
As I am typing, we are still on the road and have two more delivery stops to make. I can’t wait to hang up my hanging baskets when we get home. I may plant my containers if I have potting soil; if not, it can wait a day. We’ve been up, packed up, and out since 5:30 am; I am not going out again today.
*** I love the hanging baskets on our front porch, and no I didn’t have any potting mix. Tomorrow is another day.
