Sunday, July 31, 2022

Down Home Sunday


Here's a little shot of what Mr. Moon calls my "clown decor." He was raised in a very traditional house with a very traditional decorating scheme. Curtains that weren't made of old pieces of vintage bark cloth, pictures on the wall instead of someone's thrift-gift of ceramic hand-painted Senors y Senoras. Probably no cool postcards of Frida and Diego stuck in a mirror in the kitchen. 
I think my husband would probably be a little happier if I did things like have stenciled borders on wallpaper in the bathroom with towels to match but whatever. He loves me. He tolerates my eclectic and fanciful style. I think he's even come to love it in a way although I may be overstepping myself with that statement. 

I have been so lazy today! It's been a fuck-it day. But I've enjoyed it. I made a big pot of my favorite NYT's recipe's Best Black Bean Soup which has been simmering all afternoon. I started a loaf of sourdough last night by making a sort of sponge with the starter and half the flour and some water and let that sit all night and then this morning I mixed in the rest of the flour and water and salt and it has had two rises today and this is what it looks like. 


Is that not the saddest loaf of bread you ever saw? I mean, it's not baked yet but still- it's as lumpy as someone's face after running into a bee hive. 
Oh well. We shall call it "artisan."
I cannot really figure out how to time the rising of sourdough in order to bake it just before supper. If I make up the dough and put it in the refrigerator the night before, it can take all day to warm up enough to even begin to achieve the height it needs. If I wait until I get up and get moving in the mornings, it certainly doesn't have enough time. Not really. Any suggestions that do not involve me getting up at six a.m.? Because that ain't gonna happen.

Looks who's home! 


The Weatherfords are back in Tallahassee! We have not seen them yet but those two boys will be spending the night tomorrow. Jessie has a staff meeting on Tuesday and Vergil will be working and they have a lot to do to unpack and get settled so those boys will be here for a good visit. I hear that last week, Levon got his first crush. He and a little girl who was camping where they were, bonded over the fact that they both had stuffed black dogs as favorite cuddle toys. 
It went from there as these things do. 
I have a terrific picture of them but since I don't have the slightest bit of permission from the young woman's parents, I won't post it. In it, they are both sitting in Jr. size camp chairs, Levon looking a bit bewildered while trying to look cool, while Hazel, the lady of his affections, is holding BOTH black dogs (so you know he loves her if he let her hold his) and looks entirely in charge of everything. She has a band-aid on her left knee which only adds to her charm. So you can be sure I will be asking the boy about her. Of course, when they get here, they will walk right past me, say, "Where's Boppy?" and head his way. 
If I were of the jealous type, I would resent this but actually, it makes me so grateful that I married a man whom the grandchildren love so deeply and dearly. I done good. 

Okay. Here's a random picture. 


It is a recently deceased beetle whose formal name is Eophileurus Chinensis, aka Rhinoceros Beetle. You can see why. We found it in the Glen Den last night. For whatever reason, these guys do not bother me like, oh- roaches do. 
I saw a roach in my bathroom the other night that was so big that I just apologized, turned off the light and closed the door. And then- that very same evening, just as I turned out the light, some insect flew into my left ear and I was so freaked out that I almost woke up my husband who was already asleep. I have feared a bug flying into my ear my entire life. And here I was, in my BEDROOM, and it had happened. All I could think of was that it was a German roach, which is a much smaller version of the giant cockroach I'd just seen in my bathroom and which look like this. 



What to do? 
I picked up my phone and turned the flashlight function on and held it next to my ear, hoping that the insect would be drawn to the light and exit my ear canal. I guess it did because I'm pretty sure that it's not still in there. 
Man. That was traumatic. 

Oh, Florida. Why do I live here? Probably because I've never moved to Mexico or Puerto Rico or Belize. The exotic is erotic to me, at least in some instances. Not all. 

I suppose I should go preheat the oven to bake the loaf of bee-stung bread. Isn't it funny how bread-making, like gardening, can be done for many decades and yet never be perfected? 
I think the best things are like that. 

Love...Ms. Moon


17 comments:

  1. I mix 2 tablespoons of oil and a scant teaspoon of sugar plus starter and flour in my dough in the morning let it rise on the counter all day and by evening I plop it in a loaf pan and it makes a perfect sandwich bread. Xo

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  2. That sounds right. I know that for awhile I was mixing up my dough with a tiny bit of milk and sugar and it made a lovely bread. Thank you.

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    1. Here’s the basic recipe I use. https://thefeatherednester.com/sourdough-sandwich-bread/

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  3. One night a small german roach did crawl in my son's ear. He came and woke me up as it was in his ear! Tried the flashlight thing but didn't work so I thought, well, I'll flush it out with alcohol (don't ask me why I thought this was a good idea). Well, it didn't flush out the roach but it did kill the bastard after it danced on his ear drum while it spasmed to death which was kind of traumatic for my son. Took him to an ENT the next day that sucked it out with a little ear vacuum.

    I have no advice about the bread.

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  4. I don't have any ear anecdote except the probably mosquito that got in my ear while I was sleeping. Blood all over in the morning. I thought I'd cleaned all up. But my doctor found something in my ear when I said it felt funny. Sent me to an ent who used all kinds of instruments to remove a large solid mass. Berlood bwahaha. And he clearly thought I'd done it by poking at it. Insisted on explaining proper ear care which I knew. Then offered to fix my deviated septum which I didn't know I had up to then.

    No I'm not going to get my nose fixed! This doesn't relate to beetles or roaches.

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  5. No no not roaches. In my NY apt they are the bane of my existence. The humidity and heat this summer has made them particularly horrible. It is a constant battle for dominance and everyone's dirty little secret. I have never heard of them crawling into an ear. Thanks a lot Ellen now I will never be able to sleep in the apt again.

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  6. My grossest bug story involves one of my sons who got a tick on his testicles! He had been at a soccer camp sitting in the grass. So I had to look up how to remove a tick because it wouldn't let go when I tried to pull it off with a tweezers. So we had to light a match, blow it out and quickly put it on the tick's back while it was hot and it let go right away and his testicles were saved from the tick! I was a hero for him that day and he has 2 kids now so no damage was done to his nuts!

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    1. Eeeww, my oldest got a tic on his penis when he was about 10. I said I'd go over to my neighbour (she has dogs) to borrow her tweezers. He begged me not to tell her so somehow we figured it out between us, although it did feel weird telling him to "here you hold this"!

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  7. My mom, who is the good kind of nutso crazy, went to the doctor for a preop appointment years ago and they found a dead ladybug in her ear. She had no idea it was in there. But that is just the sort of thing that would happen to her. She once came very very close to dying from a poisonous mushroom, so a little ear bug didn't surprise any of us!

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  8. You have almost convinced me to try a sourdough starter. As for bugs, if they have legs I'm ok. It's worms that freak me out.

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  9. Oh yes, that's a German cockroach. My first apartment had them in the kitchen. My aunt told me to kill them by putting borax across their trails; they would drag it home and kill the nest. I doubt that latter, but we did keep them at bay. PS: My first apartment was in Cleveland. Ohio, not Tennessee.

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  10. And there I was thinking that one of these days I was going to ask you how you almost always seem to time your dough perfectly to bake it for dinner! It's the main reason I quit making sourdough since I never got the hang of it.

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  11. That bug looks like the lawn beetles we have here. they lay their eggs just below the soil and when the grubs hatch out they eat the grass roots, which results in patches of dead lawn all over. Just like mine is right now.
    Can you set the dough without putting it in the fridge? Just somewhere cool like the bathroom? I know you are in a heatwave, but isn't there anyplace that stays a bit cooler overnight?

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  12. Oh I feel you on that bug! The other night I walked into the bathroom and as I put the light on a HUUUUGGGEEE grasshopper smacked me in the face. I don't know who was more panicked - him or me! Took me about five minutes to get him out of there but it felt like hours! I suppose on the positive side, he was so big he couldn't have gotten in my ear - I'm glad I kept my mouth shut though!

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  13. Okay...you all need to stop with the bug stories....*shiver*

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  14. I would have lost my everloving mind if a bug had flown into my ear.

    German cockroaches is what Gracie had at our rental house. She couldn't get rid of them because you actually have to clean your house. They're gone now, a new tenant who doesn't leave food on the floor and a good exterminator. Yuck.

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  15. that beetle is the best looking bug ever! How gloriously shiny and perfect it is.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.