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Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Thursday, December 11, 2008

Slacking Off

Between online ordering, actual shopping in a store, the decorating of hearth and home
gift wrappingand other lifely requirements, I have been doing mostly maintenance cooking around here of late.

I've been sticking to casseroles that are tried and true, ones that will provide leftovers to reheat for a second meal, sandwiches, tricked out pizzas, and the occasional dinner salad. All very filling, certainly nobody is starving around here, but when all was said and done, there didn't seem to be anything much to post about, cooking wise.

Actually, I did try out one new recipe, took the requisite photos and everything but once we actually moved this dish from the theoretical to the taste bud?  We were really, "meh!"... We ate it, or most of it, anyway, but we threw out the leftovers, almost unheard of around here, and I already took the page the recipe was printed on and recycled it into my grocery lists to be stack.

If this recipe were going to star in an upcoming movie it would have to be "He's Just Not That Into You".

My philosophy of food when things get really busy is to get people filled first, then dazzle them with the fancy cooking if there is time left over. That means the drill around here lately has been running a bit like this.

On Stage: A Living Room in Central Texas, populated by two clearly non-starved adults one working on a computer while sort of watching the Lehrer News Hour...the other gazing at the decorated tree....
Adult the First:  Honey, what did you have for lunch today?
Adult the Second:  Looooooonnnngggg pause. A salad.
AtheF:  So would you be OK with pizza for dinner tonight?
AtheS:  Sure!

Riveting stuff, yeah?  

I did post on the garden site however so you can check that one out here if you haven't already, and get some sort of an idea of why we aren't feasting on home grown veggies at least.

And I pinky swear, if anything remotely interesting happens around here I'll be back to share. 

At the moment however, much of life's current drama seems to be surrounding the Governor of Illinois and the debate around how stupid he was to practically list Barack Obama's vacated seat in the Senate for sale on eBay.


How about you? Are you baking cookies 24/7? Roasting chesnuts over an open fire? Does Christmas mean extra super duper fancy cooking around your place or do you find yourself happy if you are not using the microwave to prepare the entire meal? Share in the comments if you dare... Me? I'm out to pull the covers off the lemon trees and hope they aren't a lost cause.

4 comments:

Flapjacks said...

Surprising as it may sound, I actually do not celebrate Christmas. New Years is a big deal though. That's when I like to cook a mean spread...

TexasDeb said...

I am not that surprised actually. I read a fascinating article recently that was pondering a question. If you are not a Christian, and/or you are not willing to engage in a consumer frenzy late in December, then what exactly WOULD you celebrate on 12/25?

It is a valid question I think.

A day off might be one answer. A lot of people taking extra time to provide some form of community service is something to celebrate as well.

For me, New Year's has generally been the night I most dreaded having my hub be on call for the Emergency Room. On NY'sEve the ER is one happenin' place unfortunately.

Flapjacks said...

i've heard that. i like the poster casually in the background of the stocking picture.

TexasDeb said...

Those in the photo are our cat's stockings.

Yup. That's right. Our cats have stockings.

The human stockings are bigger and are hung by the chimney with care.

You are admiring a Shepard Fairey sticker put together by MoveOn to celebrate Obama's election victory. I like Fairey's work a lot but can't afford the posters.