Directness of Purpose...

It seems, in retrospect, that this phrase has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was young, my older brother and sister both went to schools that included "Directness of Purpose" along with "Self Reliance" and "Simplicity of Life" in their motto. I later worked at one of the schools and drew on the words for many a fundraising letter. Much later I married a man who attended that school as well. The phrase wove through my consciousness for many years.

Today as I was walking at the cranberry bogs near our home with my husband and our dog, we spotted a young man carrying what looked like a very heavy pack. It's an odd sight because there are no hiking trails or camping areas near there and he was too clean and pressed to be homeless (also too far from town). We assumed immediately that he was in training for something.

The way that the bogs are laid out, you often see people a long while before you encounter them so you have plenty of time to size them up.I guessed him to be 15 to 16 years old and immediately thought that he was preparing for a Boy Scout trip. My husband thought he was a little older - maybe 19 or so.

After a few minutes our paths met and we greeted each other with a smile. I asked him if he was training for something and he said with a smile, "Yes, the military... some day." He was a bit awkward but wanted to pet the dog so we spoke for a few more minutes. "What branch of the military are you interested in?" I asked. "The Army!" he said with a broad grin. We told him about my many nieces and nephews who are or were in the Army and his interest was piqued and he asked what they each specialized in. As we listed "Helicopter pilot, military police, mortar man, supply, intelligence" and each of the ranks (that we could remember), he was enthralled.

After a few minutes we wished him well on his military career and set off to finish our walk. "Directness of Purpose" came to mind. That young man with the perfectly smooth, barely (if ever) shaved skin, flushed cheeks, and proudly wearing a ball cap displaying the American flag has a Directness of Purpose like I haven't seen in a young person in a long while. He is clearly focused and preparing and planning ahead.

My husband and I spent the last several minutes of our walk talking about our personal thoughts about the military - coincidentally, both of us feel that a period of time in the military would likely have been good for each of us. My thoughts were that I could have used the structure and discipline to help me define my goals and desires in life a little early. His thoughts were that he was thankful he had decided against it as he surely would have been in the Gulf War and he knows how that could have ended for him.

I couldn't help but think about that boy for the rest of the afternoon. He's young. He's determined. He's an idealist. He's a hero in the making. Anyone willing to write a check for their life is a hero in my book. And I couldn't help but think "If I see him again in five years, will I recognize him? He will still be young but will he still be an idealist? Will he still believe as fully then that the military was a good fit for him as he surely thought today?" and I couldn't keep my mind from asking, "Will he be alive."

Pulled chicken - the other white meat...

Yesterday my husband excavated a big package of chicken from the freezer with eight breasts in it. I wasn't sure what to do with it so, because my crock pot is still sitting on the counter after the workout it got last week, I decided to toss them in there. I found some chipotle barbecue sauce that has been hanging around for a while and poured it over the breasts covering them well. I set it on low for about four hours and then when the meat was tender, I took the breasts out of the crock to "pull" them. (Pulling them just means separating them with two forks so it's kind of stringy.)

My husband made some baked potatoes, I sauteed up some kale/spinach/something else green I can't recall with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper (mixed veggies for the rest of the family - they don't appreciate the "power greens" like I do) and voila - with very little work, we had a fabulous dinner.

It was the first time my step-son's girlfriend came over for dinner so I decided that steering clear of serving my usual goodies (tofu, avocado mashed into baked potato, sauteed eggplant etc) might be a good idea. She seemed to enjoy the meal so I think she'll be back. :-) (She's a very nice girl, by the way, so coming back is fine with me.)

New Year's Resolutions...

I am not typically one to make New Year's resolutions because I've been famous (infamous really) for forgetting them by Martin Luther King Day. That's not a good track record. Pathetic really. Last year, however, I made a commitment to myself in December that I stuck to and it felt sooooo good that I've resolved to become a bit of a resolutionist. (It's my blog, I can make up words.)

In no particular order, here they are:

1) I will learn to knit this year. I visited a yarn store with a friend and some family members over the New Year's weekend and I realized that my need to have distracted hands while watching TV and my growing desire to be creative are possibly well-suited to knitting.

2) I will take the rest of the weight off that I didn't get to last year. Yep, that was my commitment to myself in December 2010 and without really killing myself, starving, or otherwise despising the process, I lost 50 pounds in 2011. It feels great. I now know what it takes for my body to shed the weight so why wouldn't I? I'll keep going till I'm just "the taller sister" not "the bigger sister". Borrowing clothes from my much more petite older sister has actually been a nice motivation - she's got more clothes that I like. :-)

3) I will learn to shape metal into artful, useful things. I grew up on a dairy farm with a blacksmith shop. It's in my soul and now I just need to learn how to let it out. I wish I could wind back the clock and pay closer attention to Uncle June's hammering and bellowing. The combination of fire, earth, wind and water to shape artful, useful things speaks to me.

4) I will continue on my current path of careerical joyfulness. I know. It's not a word but I like it. The past year has been a nice evolution in the enjoyment of my working life and I plan to continue to build on that.

5) Oh damn... I better finish off last year's project and write up the last few posts from my goal of experiencing 50 new things to do on Cape Cod and the Islands. I did them all, now I just have to finish writing them up!

That'll do for now. I don't want to go too overboard and experience resolution haziness come Valentine's Day.

Orange Blossom Deja Vu...

Earlier today I walked into one of our favorite lunch joints that smells absolutely amazing from the moment you get within a half mile (The Corner Store in Chatham, MA). I literally drooled when my husband suggested that we meet there. I think I could smell it from my office in Dennis. We've been going there for years and are big fans. I mean BIG fans. My step-son's picture is even on the wall because he wrote an essay about how good their burritos are when he was in 6th grade. It made the local paper and the owners gave him free burritos for a couple of years until he started to eat like a teenage boy. Did I mention that we are big fans?

I digress. So... for some reason, as soon as the spicy, smokey aromas reunited with my olfactories the words "I hope this is what Heaven smells like" crossed through my mind. It was a weird thought. I know.

As I stood inside breathing in the various scents (they have the most amazing burrito bar with all freshly-made things like today's special "Mango Chicken", homemade pico de gallo, corn salsa etc and fabulous paninis like the grilled chicken with pesto aioli, red onions, and cheddar cheese that I had today) I realized that the smells really aren't that heavenly after they linger in my nose and begin to creep into my clothing and hair.

My husband was running a little late so I had a few minutes to consider: If given a choice, what smell would I truly like to smell for all eternity? (I know. Who thinks these things in the prime of their life? I was hungry and had to distract myself from draping myself over the hot bar and dragging the magnificent smell into my lungs.) It didn't take long for my mind to wander to a scent from my life in the mid-90's in the central valley of California. The orange groves.

When the orange trees are in bloom, the scent is intoxicating for both drivers... and bees. Driving along the roads bordering the groves you are compelled to wind down the window and deeply inhale the ambrosial essence. But as much as you might want to, sticking your head out the window to enjoy the sweetness is ill-advised. Consumed with their pollinating, the bees are so singularly focused that their instinctive reaction to veer away is temporarily dampened by the luscious nectar. Inevitably they end up splattered and stuck to your windshield with their honeyed heinies. Orange-drunk drivers should take care not to follow suit.

The additional bonus of living in orange country comes on the other end of orange season - The Purchase. When you live near orange groves, there is an addiction that kicks in the moment that you see the first crates of the season loaded on trucks. An innate drive urges you to find the nearest roadside stand at the edge of a grove and buy a bag (or three) of oranges picked that morning for around a dollar a bag. Yes - that's about three dozen oranges for a three bucks! Try to match that in the grocery store! For the next few weeks, your life becomes dedicated to eating so many oranges that the canker sores are permanent (and you don't care) and finding as many ways to "put up" oranges so that in mid-winter, you might have a reminiscent moment with that delectable flavor. (At the time I lived in a cottage with no kitchen and had no way to actually "put up" the oranges... but it sounds quaint, doesn't it? If I lived there now I would definitely do it... so that has to count for something.)

Random insertion of orange-scented memory... Have you ever been to Disney World? We took my step-son about four years ago - the last trip that he willingly took with us - and went on the ride "Soarin'". During the ride (which simulates being strapped into a hang-glider and "soars" in front of a huge movie screen with rolling vistas of mountains, fields, rivers, skyscrapers etc below) one of the scenes was soaring over an orange grove and those clever Disney Imagineers piped in the scent of oranges to make it more realistic! I loved it!

So after that fond trip down memory lane while bundled up in long johns, fleece, and what I've recently come to figure out is a hat that makes me look like a man, I realized that yes indeed, I could smell orange groves for the rest of my life. It is truly a heavenly aroma!

After a tasty lunch and a wonderful walk in the woods with my husband, it was time to go grocery shopping.  In the store, I grabbed a bag of "California Oranges" without really looking closely. After I got home and put everything away, the oranges were calling me. I answered. As I opened the bag, I noticed that it said "California Oranges - Kings River Growers, Sanger, CA". Would you believe that my orange groves of the mid-90's that I was so fondly remembering earlier that very same day were those very groves! I lived in Sanger, CA. Amazingly enough, I had also been chatting with someone even earlier in the day who had just moved to Cape Cod from California and had mentioned Sanger (a very small town) and she knew it well.

I think it's a sign. I better have another orange to see if it helps me read it.

Feeding the masses...

When I tell people that I am the youngest of five kids, their mouth hangs open. Then I say, "We're Catholic" and they nod with understanding. Back in the 60's when I was born, large families like ours were the norm. At least they were in our neck of the woods.

Over the years we have seen the pros and cons of having a large family. Pro: We can field a basketball team with matching DNA. Con: We rarely are in the same place at the same time now that we have grown up and are each living our own lives. But despite the pros and cons, we tend to have a good time when we get together!

Recently we held a party in honor of my nephew in-law's recovery from testicular cancer - it was called "The Jungleberry Ball & Testicle Festival". We held it on my brother's farm in Tennessee on Halloween weekend and included Ugly Dress & Ugly Vest "contests", karaoke, dancing, apple bobbing, bounce house etc. It was a BLAST! Unfortunately not everyone could be there (that would be 37 people including my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and great nephews. Wow... I haven't done that math before... Wow!) but we did get 23 of us there for the party.

What do you do with 23 people that come for a long weekend? Where do you house them? How do you feed them? Easy. Assembly line. We aren't like the Duggar's so we don't have barracks-style sleeping or cafeteria grade kitchens. We have regular sized homes that we cram into for the sake of being together!

To prepare for the Jungleberry Ball & Testicle Festival, my sister in-law and niece started cooking and freezing food a week in advance. They borrowed an RV and set up their pop-up camper. From there, we just rolled with it! With relative ease, we fed and housed 23 people in a four bedroom, three bath house... and we had a lot of fun in the meantime!

So it's just after Christmas/New Year's now and my brother's gang arrived from TN shortly after Christmas to our hometown in Connecticut where we stacked everyone like cord wood and shared big family meals together again. Having recently broken in my crock pot, I headed up the food this time (my sister in-law who is usually Chef Extraordinaire is recovering from knee surgery) so I had some planning to do in order to make sure nobody went hungry. Yeah, right. Here is what I served ~25 people for most meals over five days (four dinners).

Breakfasts were easy - eggs, bacon, English muffins, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit. Superbly easy because I managed to not have to cook bacon once! I did do some quality control checks though. :-)

Lunches were easy - leftover ham (my gosh was there a LOT of ham!) for sandwiches, turkey chili, and leftover everything else.

Yes, lobsters eat BMWs.

Dinners:

• Spaghetti with spicy turkey marinara sauce, garlic bread, and tossed salad.
• Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy (duh!), green beans, and tossed salad.
• Lobster (yes... lobster!!!), homemade macaroni and cheese, butter... yes, butter is a side dish (see Dad's nutritional ideals), and tossed salad.
• Pulled pork, homemade macaroni and cheese (even better the second time around!), a shite-load of appetizers because I forgot to start the pork before I went skiing for the day, and tossed salad.

Okay, who am I kidding? Tossed salad = copious amounts of cookies.

We also ate baked brie, hard salami & cheese, sea salted flatbread, and the obligatory veggie platter. And cookies. Did I mention the cookies?