Friday, August 14, 2015

WWPE?

Lily texted me this morning saying that I didn't have to come with them to get haircuts but I never pass up a chance to see Ms. Melissa. She is just one of those people who make you happy. She's a gift to this world and we all adore her. And cuts hair really, really well.

So. Here are the boys.



Owen wanted a faux-hawk as he generally does and she carefully created one which almost entirely hides the semi-bald area he created with scissors the other day. This is the third time he's done this. He just gets the urge. I think we can all relate.
But then he's really embarrassed. He didn't want Melissa to know but she assured him that this was not even the first time this week she'd encountered this same problem. 
He got over it. 
As you can see.

And then we went and had our really, really last lunch out before Owen starts school. We went to a pizza joint where you order your own personal pizza if that's what you want and we did. Trying to eat all healthy and shit, you know, I should have ordered mine without cheese but I did not. But besides that, it was pretty healthy. Whole wheat crust and all nice vegetables. And I didn't eat it all. 
Although I could have. 
What IS it about cheese? It is just so incredibly delicious. Name one thing that doesn't taste better with cheese. 
I'm waiting. 
See? 
Meat, pasta, fruit, vegetables. They all taste so much better with cheese. Broccoli being the main example of this if you ask me. And it's pale, pale cousin, the cauliflower. 

Okay. Moving on. 

To bacon.

All right, all right. I'm easing into the eating-all-healthy-and-shit. 
Last night Mr. Moon and I shelled about half a gallon of peas from the garden and I have them on the stove right now and I cut up and added one half of one piece of bacon to them. 
They look like this:




Crowders and purple hulls. 
I grew those beauties! I will never get over the joy that eating what I grow gives me. It's like magic.

So. I have not found my simmer mats. I'm just going to order another one. 
One. 
Because if there's a simmer mat poltergeist in this house, I don't want to lose two again. 

Mr. Moon's out starting a fire to cook some chicken over. Soon we will have a martini. The chicken is all free-range and organic and shit so I don't feel quite as guilty about eating it as I could/should. I have it marinating in mojo and garlic. Tomorrow I will use leftovers to make chicken enchiladas. Or at least what I call chicken enchiladas. I just tasted the broth from the beans and they are going to be heavenly. 

I think about food way too much, don't I?

Well, we all have to eat. Might as well make it good. And as healthy as possible. As close to the dirt as possible. 

One of the main characters in South Moon Under is a woman named Piety and I find myself thinking, "What would Piety eat?" Talk about eating local. 
Piety would eat hog and deer and squirrel and fish and chicken and eggs and peas and greens. And sweet potatoes. Grits and cornbread, too, from her own corn. Gator if it came to that. Whatever she could get and grow to fill her belly. Cane syrup on whatever needed sweetening. 
That's how people around here used to do it and although I am grateful that I do not have to limit my diet to those few things, I do believe that basically, those foods were fine and healthy and if she used lard as her grease, well, she worked it off, plowing her fields to grow her corn and peas and greens and sweet potatoes and cane to boil into syrup. 

All right. I've gone on long enough. 
I'm grateful for this day in which I got to spend time with people I love, in which I am spending the evening with the man I love, in which we are going to eat a very fine supper of good foods, many of which Piety would recognize. 

All of this and I don't have to cook my beans over a fire nor make my own soap nor fill up giant pots with water to heat up to do my laundry in nor plow my fields behind a mule. It's like I have the best of all worlds. 
Including a dishwasher. 

Which I need to now go unload. 

Love...Ms. Moon




17 comments:

  1. Who on earth are those children?! How did they get so big??? Wowza. They absolutely look like big brothers now.

    And ... wait, crowder peas are black eyed peas? I had no idea!

    Look how much I learn from you!

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  2. NOLA- No, no! Crowders aren't black eyes. They're the rounder ones. They're a completely different pea. But the purple hulls are. I KNOW you would love them both.
    And yes- those boys- my god but they're growing up!

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  3. The boys are beautiful and charming and funny and wise. What a lucky little sister they will have.

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  4. Angella- I swear to you- I didn't really believe that we'd have a little girl until I just read those words. "A little sister."
    Oh my god. Thank you.

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  5. Everyone in the health food business has rowed back on cheese - it's carbs that are the problem! Cheese ok. Bacon would be ok if it wasn't full of preservatives that'll kill you. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/06/24/fat-is-back-experts-say-its-time-to-stop-limiting-our-total-fat-intake/

    That Owen though - I guess he's going to grow up to be one of those guys who shaves his head frequently.

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  6. Jo- Fuck if I'm going to give up bacon entirely. All things in moderation. Right? And if Owen does grow up to be one of those guys, he'll be just like his granddaddy.

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  7. I just finished a bacon and tomato sandwich. The tomatoes were from out garden. Yes, I should have put cheese on it!

    Owen starting kindergarten. Oh, it goes so fast.

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  8. Your boys are precious! You're right, life is too short to give up bacon or anything entirely. C'mon, you walk, you garden, you clean, you work off your bacon! So what if life ends a week earlier because you enjoyed a little bacon!

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  9. I dunno... NYT is now reporting that carbs are ok, and are part of our dietary heritage. Everything in moderation.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/science/for-evolving-brains-a-paleo-diet-full-of-carbs.html?_r=0

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  10. I adore crowder peas, and my mouth is literally salivating at midnight on the west coast where there are no crowder peas to be had. Poor, poor pitiful me.

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  11. I'm not sure it qualifies as pizza if it doesn't have cheese. It would be tomato bread or something.

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  12. Birdie- Tomato and bacon sandwiches are perfect in and of themselves. They neither need cheese nor lettuce. Especially lettuce which only mucks up the perfection.

    Joanne- Amen!

    Allison- I agree. Come on, people. Get it together. We need a wide variety of food. Food. Not weird processed stuff that they make because they can and people will buy it.

    Elizabeth- Maybe you could grow a tiny garden of crowders. Just enough for YOU!

    Mwa- Too true, my dear.

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  13. The boys' haircuts look great, as do the peas. I like cheese, but only in small amounts. Actually I think olive oil is better with both broccoli and cauliflower, and I swear I am not saying that in order to sound like I'm eating all healthy and shit.

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  14. Steve Reed- Oh dear me. You eat naturally all healthy and shit? You must. You are as thin as your last name. And of course you can walk fifty miles in one day hauling your camera about.
    You are my hero.

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  15. all three of my grandgirls are coming out here next Thursday so they can get haircuts before school starts. I convinced one of them to get Maria to cut her hair and she convinced her sister to get Maria to cut her hair and now they both have convinced the third sister. Maria does a great job.

    and bacon. yes, just buy uncured. and cheese. and butter. I don't believe anything those food/nutrition/diet 'experts' say. they change their minds and backtrack every few years. just eat real food and all things in moderation. easy.

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  16. Ellen Abbott- I agree. All things in moderation. Which is simple but for me, not always easy.
    Pictures of Maria giving haircuts, please!

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  17. Your garden yield is amazing. We haven't had terrific production this year. I assume it was the heat and the rain that came in torrents as opposed to gentle all day raining. We have gotten cukes, some beans, eggplant, squash, and a few tomatoes. Maybe the fall crop will do well.

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