Bad Manners and Brimstone

What a sweetheart!  ❤️

Congratulations!  Now you need to decide what you are going to be called. Grandma, Nana, Grammy, Gigi….  There are dozens of nicknames out there.

We had an Oma in our family (German nickname).

My heart is breakimg for you. I am so very sorry.

My ex-SIL mocked me for “wasting food” and popped the whole pod in her mouth and started chewing. She was obviously startled, but too stubborn to spit it out, and I just watched her struggle to chew that fibrous inedible pod. She actually swallowed it. When I offered her more, she said no thanks, I’m full.

Still roll my eyes every time I think of her.

I thought this list of salads using winter produce sounded great. I've gifted the article so you should be able to access it past the WaPo pay wall.

https://wapo.st/48QI4yP

Now for my question spurred by the two chopped salad options here... are you a fan of the chopped greens or do you prefer larger pieces of greens or do you care? I'm happy with either depending on what it is an the other ingredients but my son and husband are not fans on the chopped salads.

Thank you so very much!  I’m a huge salad fan and have at least five a week. I was getting a little bored with my same old recipes so these recipes are really welcome and all look delicious.   I’ve printed every one of them and updated my grocery list so I can make them soon.

Chopped salads please!  Large chunks of greens are hard to eat gracefully and can be messy. And I have TMJ so opening my mouth wide enough to eat the larger pieces can be painful. 

It’s a rude power move, and I am so happy to be retired and no longer have to deal with those folks. There are dozens just like Di in every company.

Next time she wants you to do something past your work day and says “Will that work for you?” you must say “I am so sorry, but my work day ends at 1:00 so I made a critically important appointment for 1:30. Can i make those changes first thing in the morning?”

Every single time. You must train her to stop taking advantage with either her horrible time management or her silly power moves.

My mother grew a LOT of potatoes, and stored them the traditional way in a clamp.

The most traditional place to put a potato clamp is actually dug into a hole in the ground, but if you have a cool dry cellar or larder, as Mum had, that will do fine. For an indoor clamp take a crate or box, and fill it with perfectly dry earth, straw or - in Mum’s case - fine leaf mould, with the (again perfectly dry, but not washed) potatoes scattered within this filling, making sure to have several inches of filling on top; keep this clamp in darkness. Then the potatoes think they’re still in the ground and that it’s winter, and will wait, conserving their sugars and nutrients, neither drying out or getting soggy. If they get no warmth or light or rain they won’t think it’s spring and so they won’t start sprouting. When you want to cook some you just rummage about in the clamp for as many as you want, and then make sure to leave all the rest well covered with earth again.

As usual Aleko, I learn so much from your posts!

My favorite is mashed potatoes. I make them with butter, milk, and cream cheese. They are really rich and tangy.