Today's Supper and Other News

Tonight's Supper: So, I think this is day three (or maybe four) of the Food From the Freezer experiment. I let a package of ground beef unthaw and cooked it up with some diced onion, garlic and basil. Added a 2 Cup measure of canned tomatoes left in the pot from my last batch of canning 7 quarts. Decided to make lasagna as I realized tha container of unopened cottage cheese in the frig was dated Sept 24. A bit more poking around in the frig and I came up with a half jar of salsa (a brand we don't like) and two sliced tomatoes in a Ziplock container. So, I chopped the tomatoes, mixed them with the salsa and poured that over the top of the lasagna. I don't make salsa and we rarely eat it so it had not spoiled. Got to be more vigilent about what's in the frig. Life was easier when I didn't have a frig - and quieter.

The lasagna is in a 9x12 inch pan covered with tin foil - which has been washed and reused numerous times now - and sitting on the woodstove. Yeah, silly, you don't really need an oven to make lots of things you typically "bake" in the oven. I don't boil the lasagna noodles. Just layer them as usual in the pan and make your sauce a little bit juicier.

Called My Sons: I have two sons, ages 30 and 33. The younger son has owned his own business since age 17; the older son owns two homes and rents out one of them. The younger son has two children and pays hefty child support on both of them; the older son has no children. Both are single and living alone. Both have multiple TVs, TWO cell phones each (plus youngest son's two children each have cell phones that he pays for); a godzillion DVDs/CDs and assorted adult toys like snowmobiles, ATVs, personal watercraft, numerous pets and some debt besides. Gotta keep with that typical American lifestyle, you know.

So, here's Miss Back-to-The-Lander Mom (as they refer to me), sitting here in the country, "prepared for Armageddon" (as they say), and I express concern about them. Guess it's that maternal instint. Youngest son says his business is down but it's been down for three years so he's working harder on customer service and branching out into complimentary "facets" of his business. He seldom ever cooks at home and only stocks Minute Rice, when he does. He's a vegetarian and rents a house in town about half a mile from his business. He spends LOTS on his children every weekend during visitation (Candyland Dad syndrom) and again at birthdays and holidays. He has whittled his business debt down from $250,000 to $62,000 in two years and has no personal debt. He has one full time and one part time employee and none have benefits. He has some retirement investments and life insurance. Older son is another matter; eats out every day of his life except when he invites his brother or sister over for a meal once a month. Just talked to him and he said he paid off a bunch of old bills to help his bad credit and is just about broke. The dummy does this repeatedly; builds up his cash, spends nearly every cent in one swoop and then struggles until he has it built up again. But, he claims he has to do this because he has no credit. Yeah, if you don't have credit you need to operate on cash - but to then turn around and spend it all is suicide. And we have all, over the years, helped him out of a few rough spots.

So Miss Back-to-the-Lander told oldest son he needs to buy some food and stay home. He laughed. I asked if he was aware of the government/financial fiasco. He said, "Hell, mom, that ain't enterainment (think some of us would disagree)!" So, as usual, I said, "One of these days you're going to wish you had listened to me."

Oldest son is one of those charmers. He said, "Mom, that's why we all want you to move up here. We miss you and we know you'll take care of us. You're stocked for Armageddon, remember?"

So I gave up for now and left him with this thought: "If we don't manage to get up there before it all goes to hell, then what are you going to do?" He said he'd call me back later.

Whatever!