PRODUCTIVE DAY

Yesterday was kinda what I think of as a “getting things done” day. I moved things out from walls and vacuumed the downstairs, first going out to the garden for a great handful of the still-vibrant lavender, and throwing the crushed leaves onto the carpet. Vacuuming them up into the new-changed bag gave a lovely scent to the whole process, much more than the little vanilla granules-in-a-can which have been my choice for so long.

I went out back and trimmed the waning grapevine which shades the kitchen window, getting all the Summer’s debris and wisps and cobwebs cleared away, then washed the window on both sides, hanging up the fresh, gauzy curtain which makes such delightful hazy shadows over the sink. It's all green shapes and sunglints this morning.

With the floor all spiffed up, and five loads of laundry in various stages of process (not just clothes, but just-got-out tablecloths and the kitchen curtains and a chair skirt or two, as well as the linens from our bed---all got run through, coming out smelling fresh and wonderful and all ready for the FALL changes).

But first, I washed two bags of collards and put them on in a big pot with some soy sauce, sesame oil, a good bit of sugar, and a LOT of garlic:

Always, when I've done the whole collards, I slit the hard spine out of the middle of every leaf, but with these cut bought ones, the tiny inch-long little bits cook tender and lovely, an enjoyable little punctuation to the glossy softness of the green. They sent up their appetizing aromas for the two hours that they simmered away in the kitchen. There’s just something about having a good dish going in a big pot, or in the oven or crockpot, which makes the whole afternoon seem in gear, somehow, as if all things will fall into place, and the atmosphere’s nice, besides.

A nice slice of Pork Steak was brining in a salt-sugar icewater cure to fry (it’s kinda like the cut that would be round steak, I think, if it were beef---it’s a long round piece with a small blade-bone, and also makes lovely sandwiches when cooked long and slow in a braise with onions and peppers and seasonings).

And five small red potatoes were scrubbed and ready for the microwave, to be cooked in the hour before supper, to be cut and anointed with some of the special sauce while still warm, and then dressed with the usual boiled-egg/minced onion/green pepper/pickle/mayo/lotsa mustard dressing. To Chris, "fresh" potato salad is still a little bit warm:

I made the cornbread with a little Jiffy mix---a set of six I grabbed at Sam’s not long ago, just for a quick hot bread to give a little uplift to a really plain supper now and then. I added about a quarter-cup each of SR flour and SR meal (both Martha White) and made it up with buttermilk. It cooked hot and quick, and was golden and springy on top, though when turned out, it didn’t have quite the usual dark bottom crust. And of course, a bit of it stuck to the pan---I don’t know what’s got into my cookware lately. Yeah, that’s it---it’s not me---it’s that renegade pan or two, fomenting rebellion in the dark of the cupboards.

It was nice to just get so much done, no sounds in the quiet house save my little work noises, and the gentle tones of a nice voice reading “Little Women” on the Bose. Little Beth had just delivered the “worked” slippers to old Mr. Lawrence when Chris got home, and we just spent the next hour talking before supper.

A quick fry of the cut pork steak:

His plate, with a little side dish of the “forgotten” jalapeno that I chopped and forgot to put in half the cornbread batter:

Mine---both our plates old plastic trays, for an impromptu patio supper---I have the last of the lunch tuna salad instead of the pork:

And an after-supper stroll round to the park, for a few pictures of the few turned-trees in the sunset:

Hope your day was productive and happy, or whatever you wanted it to be.

Moire non,