It continues to be hot and smokey, and we continue to have no rain. Not my ideal summertime conditions, for sure. (Although, to be clear, we have it a LOT better than many.)
Here I am, all ready to half-ass some dinner plans for the week, and I just remembered that we will have houseguests starting Thursday. Perhaps I should come up with something a little jazzier than “scrounge around for something resembling food.”
Things that are hampering my planning:
We continue to have no reliable grill. Earlier this month, I had someone come out to look at our existing built-in grill and give us quotes for replacing it. I have never gotten the quotes. (Although, very oddly, the same salesperson who came out to examine the grill showed up at my front door last week. He was looking for someone else, and had mixed up the addresses.) I should call the grill company to follow up, and I should also get a second quote from someone else but I have done neither thing.
The heat makes me resistant to turning on the oven. Clearly I need to lean more heavily on my air fryer.
Are we still avoiding lettuce? I can’t keep up with the latest on the cyclosporiasis outbreak and have no idea what produce are okay and not okay to eat. It would be wonderful to have some salads on the menu but… is that advisable? Well, the NYT has an article all about that very question, and I guess the answer is: maybe, as long as it’s from the whole head of lettuce and not iceberg lettuce. That helps, slightly… although I feel more comfortable putting myself and my husband at risk than I do putting my child and houseguests in the same position.
I think I’ve completely talked myself out of making dinner at all, ever again. How’s that for a Dinners This Week?
Dinners for the Week of July 20-26
Pasta with Chopped Pesto and Peas: I can use fresh basil from my “garden” and frozen peas. Maybe I can make a couple of chicken breasts and salmon fillets in the air fryer for those who require a separate protein.
Beef and Veggie Stir Fry: Did I tell you that I jettisoned my wok? For years, my wok was my most-loved appliance. And then I just… stopped using it. Ever since we moved to this house (THREE YEAR AGO OMG), I have been making stir fry in my big chili pot, and I’ve never missed my wok. Not sure why I felt the urge to share this little tidbit with you, but there it is.
Shortcut Korean Pulled Pork: This recipe calls for kimchi pickles and shredded cabbage, but I could also/instead make a quick and tangy slaw.
I cannot think of anything else, but there’s always takeout.
For several months now, I’ve been operating under the “wing it” principle for dinners. It’s been too hot to want to eat, our schedule has been irregular what with summer camps etc., and the few times I’ve had something specific I wanted to make, I just… made it.
But it’s getting to the point, now, where the drudgery of discussing how to wing it each evening feels more onerous than the drudgery of planning out a week’s worth of meals. Also, I have been doing that thing where I end up needing to go to the grocery store multiple times per week, and then I end up spending way more money than I would have if I’d just taken ten minutes to think through a plan in the first place.
I still don’t want to cook anything, though. Well. Needs must. Here are some things I will make this week:
Dinners for the Week of July 13
Couscous Salad with Some Sort of Protein: Chicken breast for my husband, and I will probably do a filet of salmon for myself and Carla; she will have her couscous salad deconstructed, without any feta.
Szechuan Stir Fry: Literally the only thing that sounds appealing me to lately are fresh veggies. Of course, there is also the pesky cyclosporiasis outbreak hitting some 31 states right now, and no one seems to know where the parasite is coming from, just that it’s probably coming from veggies, so that’s fun. I love feeling like I’m taking my life in my hands every time I crunch down on a piece of cauliflower. Anyway, I have a bunch of fresh veggies and I’m going to wash them until they squeak and then throw them into a stir fry and then douse them in spicy sauce. I have some tofu that I may try to add to the mix. I am a little afraid of tofu, because I have made it only twice and very poorly, but the only way to improve a skill is to practice it.
White Bean Enchilada Soup: It is 100% not soup weather, but this soup sounds good, so I’m leaning into it.
Okay, three meals is pretty much all I can muster up enthusiasm for. Hopefully they will generate enough leftovers that we can stave off the “what should we have for dinner” question for a few additional nights.
June was a whirlwind, wasn’t it? I am still trying to wrap my mind around how it can possibly be July already. The past few days alone included: picking up my child from sleepaway camp, observing a belated Father’s Day with my husband, buying a new car, getting a new air conditioner installed, and celebrating my daughter’s birthday. For those of you who have been around since I was on the fence about having kids: THE KID IS NOW THIRTEEN.
I could only find the “birthday” portion of the “happy birthday” banner, which I think it more of an indication of my current level of discombobulation than lack of delight at my kiddo becoming a teenager.
I have been doing SO MUCH laundry, and there is stuff (camp stuff, gift detritus, air conditioner replacement debris) everywhere, and I cannot stay on top of the mess.
This looks much neater and tidier than it FEELS. It FEELS like being slowly suffocated on all sides by Stuff.
(Alert, alert: Lisa and Nicole, you may want to skip the next two paragraphs and the photo between them.)
The air conditioner replacement was a fun surprise. I scheduled a simple clean-and-check with my HVAC company, and the technician discovered that all the wiring had been devastated by mice. In fact, the only thing that was preventing the wires from being exposed completely was a giant mouse nest. I think you know how I feel about this, which is burn it all down.
How can something so small and kind of cute be so destructive?!?!
We’d already spent a pretty penny to deal with previous mouse-related air conditioning carnage, back in April of 2024, and it was one of those deals where we could shell out a bunch of money to repair the old unit, which could of course die at any moment and has already proved much too welcoming to rodents… or shell out more money for a new, slightly-more-mouse-resistant unit. Considering this week is in the 90s (30s C), we went with the latter option.
The air conditioner is not doing a whole lot for the top floor yet. Carla slept with her camp fan clipped to her bedframe last night. It really does a great job of cooling. (We got it for camp because it is one of the few options that requires only batteries, and not some sort of USB charger to keep it powered on.) Several of the stores we’ve been to recently have been selling fans, which makes me feel like I need more fans. But Carla and I plan to spend as much time in or near the pool as possible, as a heat-beating measure. She has a new turtle pool float and I have pool hammocks to lounge in and copious amounts of sunscreen.
Interrupting my husband’s day seeing patients with really crucial discussions.
Carla and I spent the afternoon of her birthday shopping, which was delightful and exhausting. She wanted to go into every tchotchke / novelty items boutique within a ten mile radius. Our adventure included Five Below, Home Goods, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Target, and the Dollar Store. We also went to Pet Smart, to look at the kitties.
During our expedition, we passed a new international foods store and had to check it out. They had a variety of snacks and treats from different countries. I snagged a bag of coriander flavored Doritos which are my new favorite thing. They taste just like cilantro and are SO GOOD.
Yummmmmm.
Carla was more interested to learn that this store sold squishies and fidgets that are currently all the rage. She persuaded her father to buy her a NeeDoh Fuzz Ball, but then when we got home, she noticed that it doesn’t have the NeeDoh logo on it. We got squishy scammed, y’all. My thought is that this store had no idea they were selling counterfeit NeeDohs, and so I am hoping we can go back and inform them about the problem, maybe get our money back, and definitely get some more coriander chips.
If you live in the U.S., are you celebrating Independence Day? I dislike this holiday because of the fireworks. They are loud and dangerous and it seems like a lot of people take the expansive view that the entire month of July is for setting off firecrackers in their yards at all hours of the day and night. I get very Grumpy Old Lady about the whole thing, and my husband and I typically prefer to spend the holiday holed up in our basement, grumbling about our neighbors (him) and fretting that a rogue firework will set our home ablaze (me). (Last year, we woke up on July 5 to find our driveway littered with spent firework shells.)
My in laws sent my whole family holiday apparel. This was a very kind gesture, and 250 years is a momentous anniversary. For all its flaws, I love my country. We have freedoms and opportunities here that I try not to take for granted. It is exciting and remarkable that we have reached this semiquincentennial milestone. And… I kind of feel that expressing any kind of patriotism gives an inaccurate impression of my beliefs and politics. I’ve driven past a lot of houses over the past month or so that have cheerful American flag bunting on their fences, or little American flags planted in their yards, or patriotic signs trumpeting their enthusiasm for the anniversary, and part of me feels a little lift of festive joy… and another part of me feels like I have an immediate – and quite possibly biased and wrong! – insight into what kind of people they might be and what kind of beliefs they may hold. UGH. By the way: I am not saying that people more conservative than I am are “bad;” I know many people across the political spectrum who are good, kind, loving people… who simply have different views on some topics than I do. I don’t know. It’s kind of unfair, is what I’m saying, that a symbol of unity should instead carry with it the weight of judgment. As usual, I am not the first or the most articulate person to note this; but it’s particularly noteworthy to me as we inch closer to the Fourth of July.
Let’s turn to a less controversial topic, which is my cat. Poor Lenny was shut away in my room for SIX HOURS while the new air conditioner was being installed, because the HVAC people kept going in and out of the house. He bore the injustice of his imprisonment with dignity. But he did develop a winky eye, which of course made me worry that he had something seriously wrong with him. Carla and I took multiple videos and photos of him, and examined his winky eye in various lights from various angles. I envisioned eye drop prescriptions and Rachel Green-style interactions and surgical intervention and loss of the eye. I called the vet and asked their opinion; their opinion is always “bring him in.” I scheduled the first available appointment, forgetting that there were five (5) strangers meandering in and out of my house for the foreseeable future. I called the vet back and got a later appointment. I fretted as the appointment approached because the HVAC people were STILL THERE. Finally, with about forty minutes to spare, the HVAC people left. I released the cat from my room so he could use the litter box. When he reappeared, his winky eye had resolved completely.
I had texted my husband earlier in the day to alert him to the cat’s almost certain blindness. His response was “Maybe an eggshell.” This requires some backstory, which is that my husband’s colleague sent him home with some fresh eggs the other day, from her chickens. She’d packaged the eggs in a little clear egg carton and had included some instructions with them that said they should be stored on the counter. Well. Lenny was obsessed with the eggs. He must have been able to smell chicken on them? He didn’t bother them until there were only two left. At which point, I came home from Carla’s birthday shopping extravaganza to find the carton overturned on the floor, one egg completely unharmed, and the other broken. I cleaned everything up, returned the surviving egg to the carton, and put a package of insect repellent refills on top of it to make it more difficult to bat off the counter. Not difficult enough, it turns out. The next morning, we came into the kitchen to find the eggshell I’d rinsed and left on the counter to dry once again on the floor, the makeshift carton weight on the counter, and the egg carton on the floor. The remaining egg was still intact. Hence my husband’s assumption that eggshell was the source of Lenny’s winky eye.
Screenshot
I made crème brûlée for Carla’s birthday dessert, per her request. The recipe called for five egg yolks, and I saved the shells because I read that they can deter slugs. Which I think are destroying both my coleus plants and one of my hydrangea trees. I love how pretty the eggshells are, or were before I baked them and crushed them. I hope they help my coleus plants! This is the third year I’ve planted coleus in the same location, and the first time that I’ve had an issue.
What’s up with you this Wednesday? How hot is it where you are? What are you making to eat when you don’t want to turn on the oven?
