No Wonder I'm Not Skinny

 

The other day a friend and I were texting and I told her that I was going to cook some sea bass filets for our supper and she said that when she was a child, she was constantly getting fish bones stuck in her throat and someone would throw her a piece of Wonder bread and tell her to roll a piece up into a ball to swallow to push the bone down. Now this is how fish bones in the throat were handled in my house as well, and as I told my friend- it must have worked. We are both still alive. 
But I did not buy that loaf of Sunbeam bread, which is just as white and soft as Wonder bread, because of its bone-in-the-throat treating properties. I bought it because Mr. Moon had a tooth pulled today and can only eat soft foods for a few days. He said he'd like some chicken noodle soup for his lunch and I asked him if he'd like some lightly toasted cheese sandwiches on white bread to go with it? 
His eyes twinkled at the very thought. 
So, I got in the car and drove to the DG and bought two cans of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and that loaf of Sunbeam. I think he loved his lunch. And when he feels better, he can use the rest of the bread to make little dough balls with to fish for bream. That's what we used to fish with for catfish off the dock in Roseland. Tiny little dough balls made of squished-up bits of bread. Worked a charm! And now that I think it about it, it's a bit ironic to catch a fish on a hook with bread balls and then use bread balls to get rid of a bone in the throat when one is eating the fish. 
Not that we ate those catfish. 
Ick. We just caught them and let them go. Hell, we'd catch the same one over and over again. Catfish are not that bright. 

So it's been a quiet day around here. It's been raining off and on, and is relatively cool, which is a huge blessing. Mr. Moon's mostly been in his chair, icing his jaw and probably napping. The dentist told him he'd give him some pain pills for after and Glen said, "Nah, I'll be fine," and the dentist said, "Well, I'll prescribe you a few just in case," and my husband said, "Okay. Make sure to give me the big boy pills in that case."
Which reminds me of when Keith Richards was going to have surgery on his brain when he fell off a branch and conked his head on it at the beach. He told the anesthesiologist, "Remember- it takes a lot to knock me out." Probably the understatement of the century. 
Now Glen has very little experience with strong pain medication- I want to make that clear. But I love his cockiness in asking for the Big Boy pills. 
He hasn't taken one so far. 

I trimmed the garlic this afternoon. 

See how little it is? 
Sigh. 

The best part was when I made a Dr. Seussian arrangement out of some of the blossoms. 

It'll probably be there for about three years or whenever I next grow garlic. 

And then, having taken the trash and trimmed that garlic and gone to the Dollar General and done some laundry, I got out the canning jars and the cucumbers I've gathered, the canning kettle, the vinegars and pickling salt, the dill seed, the peppercorns, and...more garlic. The kind that's already dried, etc. 

Man! Making pickles out of cucumbers is so much easier than making pickles out of green beans. Every single bean in a jar has to be trimmed to a specific length and getting them all in the jar is sort of a Jenga-like activity. Or maybe a Rubick's cube. Whatever. It takes some time and I can't tell you how many chopsticks I've broken using them to arrange the beans in the jar for Maximum Bean Occupancy. 

But cukes just have to be washed and sliced and since they are so much bigger than green beans, it takes far less time to fill the jars. 

I made eight pints, using the same recipe from the Joy of Cooking that I've been using since 1979. 

They are a very simple pickle. 

And now if I can just collect enough more to make a crock full of the 14-day sweet pickles, my life will be complete. 
Well, sort of. 

I'm not really seeing that happen though. Although the vines are making some cucumbers, it's happening slowly and sparsely. 

Sigh.

And that's been about my whole day. 

So, y'all- I have become slightly enamored of a guy on TikTok (which I promise you I only watch on accident, like if it's on FB) who goes by the name of Landon. Landon Talks is the name of his...what do you call it on TikTok? I do not know. He also does longer stuff on YouTube called Landon Discusses, I think. 

But his deal is, is that he talks about how things are done in the south and unlike most social media in this vein, he does it gently and lovingly and he's got it right. The boy knows whereof he speaks. Here's one that I love because it absolutely describes what happens about a half a block from me at the flashing red/yellow light which every one tries to make into a four-way stop. 
Landon would understand. 

All right. It's raining again and although I seem to have spent my entire day on purchasing food (or, rather, food-like substances), and preserving food, I now must go and cook some food. 
I think Landon would understand that, as well. 

But before I go, here's a picture of Maurice. 

I took that last night when I sat down to work on my puzzle. Can you see that tail? Uh-huh. She's not happy. 

And now we're at zero days and counting since she drew blood. 

And yet I love her like a child. 
Someone else's horribly mannered, rather wicked child who could probably benefit from an exorcism, but still- a child. Who is dear to my heart. 

Love...Ms. Moon