As if yesterday's employment ads weren't weird enough, I saw one today for an assistant that was willing to do yard work as well as office work. I am not making this up.
I have seen a number of ads which say they want to see a photo along with a resume. I've been tempted to answer those with a photo of Miss Piggy or Maxine.
I didn't do a lot today but stay home and be domestic, in between bouts of scouring the want ads. I send off between 1 and 3 resumes every day. Even though I've had good interviews recently I can't assume I'll get any of those jobs.
I spent some time in the garden today, weeding and planting flower seeds. I was encouraged that I am seeing some sprouts in my seed pots. My side garden I call The Melon Patch got some soil nourishment in the form of bone meal and there are about 5 plants in there which are volunteers of some kind. I dumped a fair amount of compost and buried it this past winter. Could be cucumbers or melons, I am thinking. It's always fun to see volunteer plants appearing out of the earth, hearty and wanting to grow.
The rest of the post is about cooking and eating meat. If you're vegetarian you will want to skip it. Have a nice day!
I fixed a good dinner tonight, a very southern dinner. I made country fried steak [cubed beef with gravy], bisquits [Pillsbury frozen but they're as good as homemade] and Eggroll Cabbage. I also made mother's fruit salad, which is much loved around here.
I tried something a little different with the Country Fried steak - I put it in the crock pot to finish cooking. First, I took my pieces of beef, and salted and peppered both sides, and let them sit on a paper towel for about 30 minutes. Most cooks don't put enough salt on their meat and that's why it's tough and not flavorful. After that, I dredged each piece in flour and browned it in some olive oil. I pulled it out of the skillet and threw it into the crock pot. I then took two cans of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and put it in the skillet, scraping up the browned bits and flour. I added soy sauce, sherry, lots of onion powder, black pepper, and a big dollop of butter. I poured that over the meat, set the crock pot on low, and let it sit for 5 hours. It was fork-tender and delicious.
I made the Eggroll Cabbage a bit differently. I used some bacon grease and browned onions in it. Then I threw in the cabbage, seasonings, and soy sauce. Alesia asked if it had bacon grease and I said yes. She said her cooking teacher told her bacon grease was unhealthy. I sighed. I explained that if you ate half a lb. of bacon every day and had high cholesterol then yes, it would be quite unhealthy. I eat it maybe once a month in a small amount, and I have normal cholesterol. So does Mother, and she eats bacon every day. Alesia rarely eats bacon. It irritates me when I have to counteract the stuff the teachers at school tell the kids about foods. Almost any food is unhealthy if you eat too much of it.
Eating a high fat diet is not necessarily going to lead to an early death unless you are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol and heart disease, IMHO. We always have normal cholesterol. If any of us was diagnosed with high cholesterol or heart disease, then of course I'd change my ways, a bit. I already cook with olive oil 98% of the time and we rarely eat really fatty meats.
Recently, Alesia hasn't wanted to eat beef. I've told her we are a beef-eating family and I expect her to eat with us. If she really fussed about it I'd invite her to make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or turkey or whatever. Here again, I have to try and convince my own daughter that not everything she hears from a teacher is the gospel.
I've also told both my kids when they leave my house they can eat however they want to eat, but I am going to tell them my thoughts about food and good nutrition, and cook what we like. Neither of my kids is bad about eating a lot of junk.
I had another mother tell me the other day her boys were really excited because they were getting Tyson chicken patties for dinner. Huh?! My kids would not eat those things. Ditto for most frozen foods. I am one of the few mothers I know that fixes a good meal at least 4-5 nights a week. Sure, we usually do sandwiches from Jersey Mike's on Fridays, and sometimes Saturday we have Alesia's hockey puck pancakes, but we eat very well most of the time.
Everything in moderation, is a good philosophy.
Below is Michael and his friend Colton, and my friend Gary and his dad. Gary took them to the Braves game yesterday and they had a wonderful time. Michael had never seen a baseball game all the way through.
