Category Archives: family

Food

Posted on by
2

After she graduated college this past December, Younger Daughter moved back home to work part-time and figure out the next step – which is going to be wonderfully awesome, whatever it happens to be. In the meantime, I get the benefits of living with someone who is the healthiest eater I know. And she cooks! When I’m empty-nesting, my usual lunch is 1) breakfast, 2) coffee with friends, 3) steam-table civic-club meeting buffets or 4) Cheeto crumbs eaten standing in the middle of the kitchen. I like Younger Daughter’s way much better. Here’s a typical lunch she’ll sort of insist on fixing for us: Organic cream of tomato soup and stir-fried veggies with sourdough cheese and herb toast. She plans and preps and I clean up — a great deal for both of us.

Breakfast

Posted on by
Reply

I’m like many of y’all — in that wonderful period when my kids are grown, my work-at-home freelance-writing hours are flexible and my night-owl husband sleeps late. This means I can — finally, after years of otherwise — enjoy an hour or so of uninterrupted peace and quiet with my morning coffee. No carpools to get ready for, no homework to finish up frantically, no wild I’ve-got-nothing-to-wear closet marathons. I love it! So on a recent morning when it seemed as if 10 people ended up in the kitchen all with Important Things To Do Right At This Very Minutes, it sort of threw me off. But we all got through it. Read more at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100122/ARTICLES/1225004 — and have a great weekend!

Books

Posted on by
2

When only sitting in a toy box will do ... Almost 22-month-old grandson Capt. Adorable finds the best seat in the house for perusing his favorite read.

Recycling

Posted on by
4

My family’s weekly trip to the recycling center in Florence, Alabama — shamefully, our own nearby town doesn’t recycle — usually is simply one more item on the to-do list, but every once in awhile we’ll stumble onto a mystery. Such as a recent visit when we found this collection of remote-control toys carefully placed on the recycling altar and bravely waiting the recycling-forklift fate. We were immediately nosy intrigued and wanted the backstory. Were the robot, monster truck and fire engine broken? Was it a punishment: “If you hit your sister one more time, we’re taking your new toys to the recycling center?” Was a revengeful woman somewhere gloating over finally getting rid of her husband’s/boyfriend’s obsessions? Or — and this is the explanation my family favored — had we inadvertently stumbled onto some sort of Toy Story-esque rescue operation that got halted as we humans approached? And as for the Bob Marley poster … well, use your own imagination. I got nothin’ — except to say, “Let’s get together and feel all right.” (Which is the only Bob Marley song I know and that’s because of the Jamaica commercial. But I really like it.)

Football

Posted on by
2

Can you still hear the roar of cheering from Alabama as we look forward to celebrating a whole year of college football supremacy? Around here it’s always football season, whether talk focuses on recruits or practice sessions or the most recent game or the games that are coming up — which in this case is Sept. 4 at home against San Jose State with the first home SEC game on Oct. 2 against Florida. In fact, the release of the upcoming season’s schedule is eagerly awaited since nobody wants to schedule a wedding or anniversary party or other important event during an Alabama or Auburn home game — and if it’s during an away game, just be sure to have TVs handy. And since it’s all football all the time around here, I gave over my newspaper column this week to Dear Husband, a newspaper sports editor who still patiently explains to me the difference between fullbacks and linebackers. This week he’s answered questions I had about the Alabama v. Texas BCS championship game — with his own spin, of course. For example, when I asked why players jump on opposing players who are already down on the field and everybody ends up in a big pile, he said, “It’s a good chance to get off their feet for minute. Football is tiring.” Read it at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100115/ARTICLES/1155005 — and you’ll learn a bit more about football, too.

Beer

Posted on by
5

It was my Dear Husband who’s taught me that beer is much more than frat parties and ballgames. Beer has flavor! And variety! And depth and complexity! Who knew??? One of our favorite beer-eries is Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, a franchised chain of beer pubs in Tennessee, Texas and the Carolinas, where the extensive menu is a fascinating textbook in beer-ology. We’d been to the one in downtown Memphis several times, so when we were in Nashville recently we checked out the Flying Saucer in downtown’s The Gulch, where the renovated Union Station has sparked an urban renewal of restaurants and condos. The night we were there, temperatures were sub-freezing and we had trouble decoding the parking layout — we are simple country folk and are used to being able to park right in front of wherever we want to go — so we were quite happy to get inside and enjoy. The place was lively and just-right crowded — enough for a party atmosphere but not so much that you can’t move your elbows — and we were not the oldest people there, which is always good. We tried out a couple new brews while my husband drew on his vast knowledge of 1980s pop culture for the ongoing trivia game and I tried to figure out which of the commemorative plates decorating the walls were actually Antiques Roadshow-worthy hidden treasures. If you ever find yourself close to a Flying Saucer, go inside. You’ll be glad you did. http://www.beerknurd.com/

Restaurants

Posted on by
5

My Dear Husband is an adventurous eater but I could tell he wasn’t impressed when we first stepped in one of those Mongolian barbecue/grill places — too crowded, too many choices, too much work. I already had fallen in love with the concept of fill-your-bowl-and-let-somebody-cook-it-on-a-grill at the sadly now-defunct and much-mourned Fire and Ice in Birmingham, Alabama — and after his first taste, Husband joined the fan club, too. I mean, it’s like wandering through a grocery store and choosing your favorite ingredients for the best stir-fry ever and then letting somebody else do all the work, resulting in a bowl of pure perfection. Now Husband and I try every Mongolian place we come across, but our favorite is Genghis Grill, around the Galleria area in Franklin, Tenn. It’s on our must-eat list every time we head that way. In fact, Dear Husband starts talking about it days in advance. After all, who could resist the chance to create your own dish with its own can’t-be-duplicated flavors and the never-fail entertainment value of watching your carefully constructed bowl transform into lunch? Not us. Besides digging in to my freshly cooked bowl, one of my favorite Genghis Grill activities is matching other diners with their food choices as we all stand around the grill and covertly make sure nobody’s bowl is better than our own. Who, for instance, ignored all green items and went straight for meat and potatoes? Who’s the one who went heavy on the shrimp? And which liberal-leaning Greenpeace leftist went mainly with bok choy and tofu with a smattering of bean sprouts? Oh, yeah — that was me.

Shopping

Posted on by
5

Charmed, I’m sure! Recently Younger Daughter and I explored the latest addition to retail whimsy in Birmingham, Alabama — a boutique called Charm, on Second Avenue North across from Urban Standard coffee shop. I mean, where else are you going to find a glittery and sequined deer’s head but in downtown Birmingham??? This little gem of a shop specializes in vintage and locally handmade jewelry, scarves and handbags — but with attitude. It’s like rummaging through your crazy aunt’s closet while she’s out dancing on tables because the fleet has come in. Or something. Owner Chatham Hellmers had the late and great Jinx boutique in Birmingham’s Five Points that was always a must-stop destination for quirky jewelry and retro-hip style. Charm is a grownup upscale version perfect for browsing, especially if you’re looking for gifts. I was immediately delighted and impressed with Hellmers’ taste when I spied an “old” jewelry box made in the shape of a rolltop office desk — the same jewelry box I had growing up. The drawers and compartments are lined with a red velvet-type fabric, and I kept them lovingly stocked with silver turquoise rings and copper bracelets to show I was In Tune with Nature and One with the Universe and wide plastic cuffs to show I read Vogue. Hey — don’t judge! It was the 1970s, remember, and I was young(er). Anyway, find out more about Charm at http://www.charmonsecond.com/

Food

Posted on by
4

I am such a grocery-store geek. I love wandering around groceries, checking out what’s new and taking note of what they’ve got that our stores in northwest Alabama do not have — which is usually quite a lot. Take, for instance, this Kroger in Madison, Alabama (which is just north Alabama without the “west” part), which has an incredible international or global or ethnic aisle or whatever you want to call it. I call it, “There are some wonderful things here that I really should buy and take home and learn to cook.” Now, our local northwest-Alabama stores do have “ethnic” food, but it’s more along the lines of tortillas, salsa with some duck sauce and rice thrown in. This array, on the other hand, was  impressive — there’s even a British section that made me want to brew a cup of tea, put my feet up in front of a cozy fire and read an Agatha Christie mystery. While eating a digestive biscuit, of course.

Etiquette — and Elvis

Posted on by
4

Etiquette rules have loosened up considerably since the days when women had to make sure they had a pair of white gloves handy when they went out, but good behaviour never goes out of style. I thought, anyway. Recently Younger Daughter and I were at a popular local lunch spot in Florence, Alabama, and put our purses on a table to save it while we stood in line to order — only to find our table stolen and the thieves brazenly offering to let us sit there if we wanted. Uh, ‘scuse me??? We declined to share and plotted revenge all through our salads — spilling water and dropping plates of food figured prominently. Arrrggghhhh! Then later that afternoon, I posted about it on Facebook and got tons of responses and advice, plus the suggestion to write my next newspaper column about it. So I did: http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100108/ARTICLES/1085027

Also, happy 75th birthday, Elvis! If anybody needs something to do this weekend, go to Tupelo, Mississippi, and pay homage to the king at his birthplace — http://tupelo.net/things-to-do/birthplace-elvis.asp. And there’s a party going on at http://www.elvis.com/graceland/calendar/elvis_birthday.asp