Things Get Back to Normal

With the end of the holidays comes a return to more normal schedules. With 3 adults and one cat, that is quite a bit of juggling.

Let’s first start with the cat as his schedule is fairly rigid: the first person up in the morning must feed him a slice of pre-cooked bacon. Then at 11 am, Midnight demands his lunch. 3 pm brings about his afternoon snack, and his dinner must be served by 5:30 pm. Failure to feed the cat can and will result in the mom being bitten until she gets the idea.

Midnight wants to know if there is any food in here for him.

Well, you try telling this cat that he doesn't belong at the table when we eat. Even a part-Siamese cat seems to feel as if this is his rightful place. After 11 years, we've given up and just accept this quirk of his.

And this is the honorary member of our family: Sam 'belongs' to the next door neighbors (you can see their house in the background), but likes to sleep on our porch. He would love to come inside too, but Midnight has vetoed that idea out of paw.

Kelley has different schedules, depending on the day of the week and what college classes she has that day, though she is frequently home for dinner. Again, not too hard to follow.

Then we have the husband. With his love of all things work, we never expect him home until at least an hour and a half after his bank closes. Of course, that is supposing that he doesn’t actually have any meetings that evening. All in all, it is not unusual for him to only be home for one evening a week. Fortunately, he is getting much better at letting me know ahead of time whether he will be home for dinner or not.

And then we have me. I have various errands to run during the day and weekly allergy shots, but that rarely impacts my family’s dinner schedule. My involvement with Master Gardeners necessitates one evening a month be spent running the board meetings along with general meetings that are held six times a year. As I am once again the president of my county’s association, I am automatically on the county’s Extension board, and must attend those periodic meetings. Thus, I will be away two nights this week. Fun times.

Today we had 3 people and 1 cat: all on different eating schedules. First I made an orzo salad with diced carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, chopped onion, celery and peas. The dressing was the juice of half a lemon, some grated garlic, kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper and extra virgin olive oil.

Oops, I made a Rachael Ray-sized turkey burger. We will not talk about the fact that this recipe is derived in part (a VERY little part) from Sandra Lee. That blame lays squarely on my husband's shoulders. He is the one who liked her turkey better than the real thing. But this is all about doing things right, using real ingredients. There, now I feel better.