Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm 61 today. B got up early and made a can of biscuits for breakfast. He and his mom had biscuits and jam, but I made a pan of white gravy for mine. Then we watched the Sunday morning news shows, with B's running commentary, of course. He's still on the Trump train, even though he now says he never really "liked him." He's still quick to come to the idiot's defense.

Anyway, I heard from all three kids today. C and his wife H and baby G are moving to Tx in the next two weeks. They are going to stay in an AirBnB until they decide whether to buy a house. Ci and J and the grandkids opened their above ground pool and enjoyed it all day yesterday. D is doing fine.

For lunch, B asked me to pick, since it's my birthday. I had offered to cook, but he said no. He went to get us Cracker Barrel take-out plates. I had meat loaf, fried okra, turnip greens, cabbage, and cornmeal muffins.
Then, as is my usual pattern on Sunday, I took a nap, while B and his mom snoozed in their recliners.

Dinner was hot dogs. So I have recounted my 61st birthday based on food. Ha!

I bought an 8 qt. Instant Pot while I was visiting D in Seattle. It was here when I got home. I've been using it often. I joined some FB groups and have gotten some good recipes. Then, because I am a reviewer for Amz Vine, I got another 8 qt digital pressure cooker, not an InstantPot brand but a Maxi-Matic. I am not sure yet if I am going to keep them both. Then this week, I also got an air fryer to review. I like it, but only for sides. It's not big enough for much else.

Now we are about to watch Flea Market Flip. I love that show.

Washer konked out

My mother-in-law is an expert at finding things that need fixing in the house. She was doing laundry and lost a sock. When checking around the washer she found water. The water pump on our old washer had "bit the dust."

We went to Lowes. It was that or Home Depot and I think I remember HD being one of those pro-Donny businesses?? Anyway, Lowes it was. I got a top-loader because I don't want a washer that takes extra steps not to stink. I got a Maytag and hope that old Maytag repairman gets really bored like he does in the commercials.
Should be here tomorrow.

I'm watching The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu. If you haven't been watching it, I recommend it. It's much better than the book. It's hard to wait from Wednesday to Wednesday for the new episode.

My mother-in-law never did find her sock.

Questions and Answers

I had a comment on a previous post that someone didn't know I ever owned a business. So I thought I would write about that today. When I was in college, I worked as a tutor for student services, landed a job as a lab assistant in the math lab, and later began tutoring at a local tutoring center as their solo tutor while the owner was out on maternity leave. When I graduated, my plan had always been to teach in public schools. However, I really enjoyed working one on one with students. When I found out the lady I had been working for did not intend to come off maternity leave and resume her business, I decided to open my own business. I rented office space, put in a computer lab, tutoring cubicles, and bought math textbooks, manipulatives, etc. At one time, I was up to seven tutors working for me. We only did math and tutored grades 1-12. I also had a free adult literacy program.
I did that for about four years. I got so burned out. I had done all my own payroll and taxes. I had tutors who would call in sick right before their scheduled session. So I decided owning a business is not all it is cracked up to be. I have also taught in public school, which I don't recommend to anyone who likes teaching more than politics, paperwork, and babysitting.

Saturday Plans

We got up early and went to the farmers market. I had ordered honey from a local beekeeper and it was in. I also bought some greenhouse tomatoes. They had all kinds of greens, onions, squash, etc. I love the farmer's market and country cooking. If I only cooked for myself, I would have had a big pot of greens on the stove now. My favorite is collards. Bruce came home from work in the early years of our marriage to find I had been cooking collards. He complained about the smell from the minute he opened the door. After that, I would wait until he was going to be away on a business trip for a few days, and I would make a big pot the day he left and eat them all week. When I was growing up, my granny lived with us and she cooked dinner every night. She always started out with a pot of beans or peas. Then came potatoes-fried or stewed. Big iron skillet of cornbread. Sliced onion and sliced tomato from the garden. We only had meat maybe once or twice a week, usually meat loaf, salmon patties, or fried chicken. A real treat to me was when she made fried chicken livers. I guess we were practically vegetarian but didn't realize it. She was used to Depression era meals and meat was harder to come by. All those years growing up, I complained and wanted other things, "exotic" things like spaghetti or tacos. Now I am married to a man who ONLY wants tacos and spaghetti, and I want country cooking! We are going to drive a couple of hours away today to go to my granddaughter's piano recital. She asked me if I would come the last time they visited, so I wouldn't miss it. All is in progress for B to retire the end of May. I'm trying to plan better on our food spending, so have been putting all my recipes into the Cozi app. I like it because it can pull a recipe off the internet and put it in the app, then add the ingredients to my shopping list. We have an Aldi's here, and my daughter and sister both do the majority of their food shopping at Aldi's. Well, my mother-in-law is a big time brand snob, and the one time I took her there and she didn't recognize the brands, she declared everything "off brands" and "inferior products." I went and bought a few things the other day, and she knew it. I made dinner that night, a OG zuppa toscana copycat recipe, and she complained that it had an off taste. Neither hubby or I tasted anything wrong. I didn't use any Aldi food in the recipe, but there was no need to tell her that, because she had made up her mind. Hubby and I were talking about it this morning and he said are there other ways we can save without buying Aldi's? I said, "I'm going to Aldi's. I'm going to cook with Aldi's brands. If it does taste wrong, I won't buy it again, but if I like it, and you like it, and she doesn't, then she can make a sandwich." He doesn't know why I'm not as afraid of his mother as he is, I guess. Oh the joys of having your MIL living with you. And I guess this is a first world problem but one of the main reasons I want to do my part to reduce eating out and food costs is so I won't have to give up my cleaning lady. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻