Sunday, February 17, 2019

A Mess Can Be A Very Good Thing


Ah- enough greens to call them a "mess." Do y'all say that where you live?
"Mama cooked a mess of greens last night."
Actually it would be more like, "Mama cooked a messa greens last night." To be accurate.

So, yes. I'm cooking a messa greens tonight. And baking a chicken. And I'm going to try the recipe to be found HERE for roasted yams. I only have sweet potatoes but honestly, I don't know the damn difference. IS there a difference? I am so enjoying my subscription to NYT's cooking. It has given me much inspiration and I am slowly adding recipes to "my" recipe box which is nice because it's a way to remember what I've cooked.

I've felt so much better today. When I woke up I thought I'd be spending the day in bed but slowly I came to life and actually did a little yard work. I trimmed a few roses although I have no idea what I'm doing when I trim roses. I don't even know when you're supposed to trim roses but this is Florida and things are sometimes forgiving of clumsy gardeners. When we moved to this piece of property there was a scraggly white rose growing in the back yard and the then-owner told me that no matter what I did to it, it would not die.
He was right.
Eventually, Mr. Moon moved it because it was in the way when he needed to pull the truck into that area of the yard and it has thrived in its new home by the garden. I cut it back hard today and mulched it with chicken house hay, which is to say, hay that has chicken shit in it. This will serve several purposes. Mulching, yes, and the poop for fertilizer, and the chickens will scratch around in it because that's what they do and will poop more and also loosen up the dirt around the rose.
Chickens can either be a gardener's best friend or their worst enemy, depending. Sometimes both. I will never be able to have pansies AND chickens at the same time because chickens love to eat the blooms. This makes me sad but not sad enough to get rid of my chickens.
Do you remember that I told you that Dearie had figured out how to flap up to the bird feeder to eat her fill of seeds? Well, now all of the chickens are doing it. Between the squirrels and the chickens, the cardinals and finches and so forth are left with little chance of getting anything to eat.
Such is life.
I also did a little weed-pulling and trimming in the front yard. Not much, but some.
And then I came in and ironed and no, that's not very exciting but I did find a new Netflix guilty pleasure to iron by which is "Dating Around." It's a short little Netflix original series. I'd not watched any of it because it looked like it would appeal mostly to the young folks, as they say, but I tried it today and got hooked. Yes, it's a dating show, blah, blah, blah but it's a little different and the people on it who go on these dates are quite varied. There are the usual young and beautiful straight people and there are gay people and there are older people and I like that. I think I've seen all of the episodes but one now and my favorite so far has indeed been the one with the older people. I say "older" because they were about my age and let's face it- I am older.
Older people don't have time for bullshit.
But hopefully, they do have time for love.

So now Mr. Moon has a least a week and a half's worth of crisp, ironed shirts to wear to work and that makes me feel good. Speaking of being older- there was a time in my life when I refused to iron. Just was not going to do it. It's not that I hated it so much it's just that I had some very unhappy associations with ironing but more to the point- why should I have to iron what he wore to work? And that's a valid point.
Now though, the kids are grown and so that part of my working life is over and yet he still goes to an office and it makes him feel loved and cared for when he puts those shirts on in the early morning. Plus, I just like to see his handsome self in them and as I have said before, ironing gives me a fine excuse to watch TV in the middle of the day.
It's a win-win for both of us, I think, that I would not have been able to experience as a crazy-busy younger woman with the responsibilities of children and part-time work and a house to keep up and meals to cook and the endless and never-ceasing chores of that part of my life when every moment that I was not obligated to spend on one of those things I hoarded and used for myself. I needed those moments as does every mother but things are different now.
And thus, I iron.

I just went into the kitchen to see this.


She is guarding the greens. Maurice is a good cat, despite her frequent use of claws and teeth. 
I suppose I better go cook them. 
The greens, I mean. 
Just wanted to make that clear. 

Here's to feeling better. 

Love...Ms. Moon






30 comments:

  1. My Mama always said that if a man's shirt isn't ironed 1) he's single and his mama never taught him how to take care of himself or 2) he's married and his wife doesn't think enough of him to want him to look nice (she was 75 when she passed ten years ago, so....). Needless to say, I iron out of guilt. I hate every minute of it, but I've accepted it. Well, mostly.

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    1. Well, that is exactly what the accepted wisdom used to be.
      If I hated ironing, I just wouldn't do it. I swear.

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  2. glad you are feeling better. I only iron when I sew and I hardly ever sew anymore, my week of skirt making aside. i don't usually but my roses back every year. depends on how big they got and how they look but when I do I cut them back to 12" - 18". it's always so drastic and the front flower bed always looks so bare until they finally grow a little bit. your greens look perfect.

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    1. For many, many years I only ironed when I sewed.
      I cut most of my roses back deeply. They'll come right back though, I'm pretty sure.
      Those greens were good.

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  3. We always called a meal's worth of greens a "mess" here in SC where I grew up!

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  4. If my chickens had access to the front yard, where my little bird feeder is, they would be able to just walk up the snow bank to reach it!

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    1. Mine finally remembered they had wings, I think. It's sort of ridiculous, seeing them up there, eating away.

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  5. glad you are feeling better..... and your ironing....well, it makes me smile. I watched my Mom iron my Dad's shirts for years. I detest ironing. I ironed scrubs for work for 30 years and since I semi-retired 3 years ago......I think I've only ironed twice! yes, there is a difference between yams and sweet potatoes ....... but for many, it is a matter of semantics, and a matter of how your markets label them!
    happy sunday evening! And I love Maurice *guarding* that mess of greens!!!!!!!!!!!
    Susan M

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    1. I think that most people use yams and sweet potatoes interchangeably. Anyway, my sweet potatoes were delicious!
      Glad you don't have to iron anymore. That must be a huge relief.
      Maurice was a good guarder. No one but me touched those greens. Ha!

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  6. Yes, when I retired I became the housewife I never was before, and gladly now (mostly) for my husband of 49 years, who's still working. But I never did iron except in emergencies, tho I can; and all his shirts are permanent press and good enough.
    I know quite a few women who fought hard against the housewife thing, but after they retired are falling into the role, some contentedly and some not so. After a long good marriage, I think it becomes about each other and not so much principles. Which you said much more elegantly, Ms. Moon. Thank you as usual.

    Re sweet potatoes--all the ones we see in the market are actually supposed to be sweet potatoes but a lot of people call the orange ones yams. True yams I've never seen but are something entirely different, or so I've read. Happy eating, whatever you call them!

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    1. Yep. In a very long term marriage, it does all become about knowing what kindness can mean to each other. It's rather wonderful. On the other hand, I've always hated cleaning and now I pretty much just don't do it. So there is that.

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  7. That Maurice has mighty fine taste. Or does she know I love marmalade cats? As you know, you don't go get a cat, a cat comes to you. My last two have been black and whites, but the cat who showed up before them was Scotty, short for Butterscotch. He was a butterscotch Emmy cat. All marmalades have an M in the middle of their forehead.
    You have a good week!

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    1. I just call them "M" cats. And yes, both of the cats I have now simply showed up and presented themselves as my new housemates.
      You have a good week too, Joanne! Did you see your towel under my greens?

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  8. Maurice is doing her bit for her human. Does she like to nibble greens? My Lukas does. So glad you are feeling better.

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    1. Well, Maurice may nibble green things when I'm not looking but she certainly didn't eat any of those. She's pretty picky and mostly only likes cheap catfood. And lunch meat. And Temptations.

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  9. Yams are a pale yellow cousin to sweet potatoes, with very little nutrition by comparison. We may often call what we have here yams, but they really are sweet potatoes.

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    1. Why would anyone eat yams, then? Goodness! I'll stick to sweet potatoes.

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  10. I always thought yams and sweet potatoes were the same thing, but I see above that's not the case. Who knew?

    At least you enjoy the ironing. That's the main thing! Oh, and we've learned that about roses -- they are amazingly durable and often the more you cut them back the more they reward you with new growth and flowers.

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    1. I think that some people say that yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing. Hell if I know what's true and what's not true. The internet seems to have mixed feelings about that.
      Yep. Roses can be pretty adaptive.

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  11. I still iron. I don't like it but I do it because I like my uniforms to look professional. The big guy doesn't wear shirts that need ironing but if he did I would iron them. I show him love by making him lunch everyday. He loves leftovers because in his previous life he travelled all the time so now he enjoys having leftovers for lunch. He also likes sleeping in the same bed every night.

    Maurice is a beautiful cat.

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    1. I make Mr. Moon's lunch every day too. He likes leftovers as well. And I agree- it makes him feel loved.

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  12. LOL about the ironing. When my husband proposed to me, I said yes, and the next thing I said was, um, I wont iron your shirts. He said, I didn't ask you to. So romantic. But you know what, I would definitely iron them now if he asked me to. Just the fact of this sweet man asking me to would be enough. I'm a whiz with that iron, too, when I do it. Which is mostly not at all.

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    1. Best to get these things sorted out at the beginning!
      I don't know that I'm really that good with an iron but I can mostly get rid of wrinkles. And I know you would iron his shirts if he asked you to. And he would kiss you.

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  13. You definitely sound better. Much more chirpy. That meal sounds tasty...and healthy too but why not roast Maurice in place of the chicken?

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    1. I would have had to skin Maurice and the chicken was already plucked so...
      Plus, who would guard my greens if I roasted Maurice?

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    2. Good point MM. I hadn't thought of that.

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    3. After trying to sleep with Maurice last night, I am rethinking the skinning and eating proposition.

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  14. I don't have chickens but I have flickers which are three times as big as the little song birds. They hang off the bird feeders and throw all the seed out in about 10 minutes. While making a terrible racket. Whenever I see them, I go out on the porch and shoo them away. The squirrels hang off the feeder in the front because they can reach it. Those feeders are expensive to maintain but I'm dedicated. We all gotta eat.

    My greens were smothered by the snowfall we had. I think I can eat the chard but the kale is a goner..

    XX Beth

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    1. Right now as the chickens are getting their roosting plans settled, cardinals are at the feeder, peacefully snapping seeds.
      We all gotta eat. Indeed.
      I wasn't aware that kale would die until it went to seed. Then again, mine has never had to suffer through such cold. Hurray for your chard!

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