1. I mentioned yesterday that I made a list on Monday of things to get done on Tuesday. For reasons that I can't explain and that no doubt defy rationality, I, well abhor is too strong of word, but I resist making to do lists (I'm fine with grocery lists). My mind, though, is wandering a lot these days. I'm not hanging on to things I think of as firmly as I used to. So, I relented. I made a list -- and I completed all but one task -- I'll do it, change the bed sheets, on Wednesday.
So, I got my laundry folded and put away, took the cat food cans to the basement, brought paper towels upstairs, emptied and then filled the dishwasher, cleaned counters, prepared the beans I would be taking to family dinner, prepared the HelloFresh meal of zucchini, tomato, and lemon ricotta cheese flatbreads to snack on over the next couple of days, and other things.
I enjoyed working in the kitchen with my laptop tuned into an episode of High Stakes Poker and especially enjoyed watching kidney transplant recipient Jennifer Harman play very well for most of the program. I hadn't watched her in action for a while and it's fun to see how she plays her cards and to watch her chew Double Bubble Bubble Gum and blow bubbles at the table.
2. The recipe I use whenever my sisters assign me to bring beans to family dinner is a slow cooker recipe.
For flavor, the recipe is superb. After I soaked a pound of pinto beans overnight, today I put the beans in the crock pot with a chopped onion, a quarter cup of brown sugar, a third of a cup of molasses, and six cups of water. Later, after the beans became tender, I added Dijon mustard.
This recipe is simple to make, but even though it's always a success at family dinner, I'm not happy with how liquid-y the beans turn out. I like baked beans to be thick and creamy and I've never achieved that when following this recipe. Today, for example, about an hour before leaving the house, I poured the beans into a Dutch oven, brought them to a boil, and then turned the heat way down, left the lid off, and hoped to cook the water down. It worked pretty well, but doing this risks making the beans mushy.
So (thank you for sticking with me if you are still reading this), I'm going to start looking for oven baked beans and see if I can keep the great flavor of the molasses, brown sugar, onion, and Dijon mustard, but also cook a creamier batch of baked beans that are thicker.
3. I transferred the slightly too liquid-y baked beans into a bowl and put them in a box along with a party sized bag of Lays potato chips and a six pack of Heidelberg tall boys and drove over the Carol and Paul's house to contribute to and enjoy the celebration of Molly's birthday.
The menu for tonight's family dinner was perfect.
Carol made mojitos for tonight's cocktail -- and I offered up the Heidelberg alternative. Paul grilled hamburgers. Christy made potato salad and brought two bags of Tim's chips, including a new product, Tim's Sasquatch Surprise chips. Carol presented a plate of tomatoes from her garden, lettuce from her garden, sliced onions, and dill pickle to put on our burgers.
This was an awesome meal and, to top it off, Zoe fulfilled Molly's request to have mango cream puffs rather than a cake. These cream puffs were just the way I like them: smallish, light, and very tasty.
Dinner conversation centered for significant stretches of time on our family's past visits to the Oregon coast. The Roberts have a trip planned to Rockaway Beach over Labor Day and so tonight many stories emerged about the 2009 trip that Mom, the Roberts, Christy, Everett, and I took to Rockaway Beach.
I didn't witness nor take part in much of the hilarity my sisters and nieces laughed out loud about at dinner because I spent quite a bit of time on that trip by myself, visiting state parks, doing some mild hiking, and taking photographs.
I had just been celebrating with my Class of 72 friends in Lincoln City. It was the year of our 55th birthdays. Debbie was traveling between New York, North Carolina, Chicagoland, and Texas.
Later in the month, I flew out to Chicago. Debbie had the Sube with her and asked me to come to Chicago so we could bring the car back to Eugene together.
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