meal plans – Life Off Headset

Shenandoah Camping – Day 1

We just got back from a camping trip to Shenandoah National Park. Originally we were all going to go for three nights, but then at the last minute the Husband wanted to work. The ten year old declared that she wasn’t going if daddy wasn’t going… so I said fine. Camping with two young kids is a lot easier than camping with two young kids and one grumpy kid.

Camping is never as simple as I want it to be. In my head, camping is an exercise in acetic living- nature, shelter and food. But the simplicity of nature, shelter, and food is certainly complicated for me to pull off- it requires lists and supplies and plans and gear. Maybe if I were the type of person who camped every weekend, prepping for a camping trip would be down to a very efficient routine. But as it is, I feel like every time I go, I’m figuring things out again.

Take food, for example- Running out of food while camping is one of my worst fears. So I draw up a detailed meal plan and make a list of snacks to bring. I juxtapose the fun of cooking over the campfire with the ease of just making curry ramen on the camp stove. I try to figure out what is simple but highly flavorful. Also what can pack efficiently. I think of snacks that are nutritionally dense and tasty, but hopefully not so tasty that the kids blow through it all in one day. Also fun treats that can be used to bribe the kids when they just can’t anymore while hiking.

Then I spent two and a half hours grocery shopping the night before I was to leave. Much of the time I was having an internal debate with myself as to whether or not something would be good to bring camping. There is a balance I’m still trying to find between camping being an excuse to buy all the fun snack food and also realizing that being out in the woods and being active actually requires healthy, dense food choices. I was at Trader Joe’s and I can’t tell you how many times the dill pickle peanuts went into my cart, then back on the shelf, than into my cart. (spoiler: I did take end up buying them).

Then after I came home, I spent a few hours prepping said food- parboil potatoes, making trail mix and meusli and energy balls. Cutting up apples so that I won’t have to deal with the cores at the camp ground. Filling Ziploc bags full of cut and marinated veggies. Freezing meats and water jugs to help keep things in the cooler cold.

Part of me thinks that camp food should not require so much prep. That there should be a simple equation of fire + food+ eating in the open air = tasty meal. But, no… for me, it seems like it takes a lot of prep for easy camping meals. Unless, of course, one does the freeze dried backpacker meals. I’ve done those before and while I think they’re fine, it wasn’t really my favorite thing. (Although I do find the idea of them so fascinating that I spent thirty minutes in REI perusing the freeze dried meal aisle. Everything promised to be so tasty and filling. If it were really so easy to have such varied meals, we should all just be eating dehydrated meals! Ah those packets of gastronomical mystery in their opaque foil pouches!)

At any rate, my goal had been to leave by noon and we left at 3:30pm. (Well, we pulled out of the driveway at 3pm, but my watch had chosen to die on me at 2:30p that day so we made an emergency Target run.) It took four hours to pull all the camping gear out, pull together everything on my camping checklist and pack all the gear, clothes, and food into the car. I’m writing this here for next time, when I wonder how long it will take me to pack the car for camping… let the record show- 4 hours. <gavel strike> (I did pack the clothes the night before, so if I were starting from scratch, I would say 5 hours).

The 3 hour drive itself was fine save for the two kids in the back who fought constantly, about who knows what. From what I could decipher through the screaming and whining and tears, it involved grapes being thrown, and sunglasses being stolen and possession of the Vox books. (Vox books are these amazing books with an audio book feature built in so the kid can follow along. Kind of like those books when I was growing up that came with a cassette tape and there was a chime when it was time to turn the page.) The only time they were quiet was when I agreed to play two episodes of Laurie Berkner’s Song and Story Kitchen. Steep price to pay, perhaps. Otherwise we listened to the audiobook of Roald Dahl’s The BFG and the perennial favorite, Hamilton.

The kid’s squabbling was starting to really get to me, when I turned onto route… and I could see Shenandoah mountain- silhouetted against the late afternoon sky. Then I started to get so excited that I was going to get to spend the next couple of days in those mountains.

It was six thirty by the time we pulled up to the camp site, and it took another hour and a half to set ip the tent and sleeping arrangements. (Let the record show for future me: it takes 90 minutes for you to set up camp by yourself. <gavel strike>). The two kids were not entirely helpful- at one point the baby got into the toiletries box and I looked up to see half a container of floss unspooled across our camp site. I guess in truth there is very little a 5 year old and a 2.5 year old can do to help in putting up a tent, though they were eager to help by taking things randomly out of the car, and they did fight for the chance to hammer in the stakes for the tent. Some day they maybe can put up the whole tent by themselves

By the time the tent was up and staked, I abandoned my original meal plan to have the leftover ground turkey “chili” heated up and eaten with corn chips. Chili and corn chips had seemed a simple meal when I put it on the meal chart, but at 8:30pm it was not simple enough and I just fed the kids Triscuits, summer sausage, cheese, and apples for dinner- all eaten off the cutting board because I couldn’t even with plates by that point. Of course deviating from my meal plan caused a low level panic in my mind at my carefully crafted and rationed meal plan being blown to bits…

Then we were got out flashlights and headlamps for one last trip to the bathhouse to brush teeth and go to the bathroom. Back to the tent to change into pjs and then snuggled into our sleeping bags by 9:45p, reading another Dahl book, The Enormous Crocodile, by the light of the camp lantern before falling asleep.

So that was the first day. A little chaotic, a little exasperating, but now we were there.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

I feel like this picture of my hand pretty much sums up a lot of my week.

First, there is the burn mark from where I splattered hot roux on my hand while making gumbo. That hurt like a motherf-cker. I now understand why boiling oil was used as a lethal weapon during medieval times. It could absolutely be a lethal weapon in current times. Despite the fact that every single gumbo recipe I read had some variation of the phrase, “Be careful not to let the roux splatter….” I still managed to do it.

Then there is the streak of pink nail polish from the late night when, as I was reaching for my toothbrush, I knocked a jar of nail polish on the floor, shattering it and splattering pink nail polish across our white bathroom tile. You know that horrific feeling you have when you look at a mess and realize how un-clean-up-able it is? Yeah that. I managed to find a jar of nail polish remover and got most of it off the tile. It is still imbedded in the grout, however. And I’m sure inhaling nail polish remover at 2am did wonders for me.

Then there is the general ugliness of an eczema flare up. I’ve had eczema on my hand since just after my oldest was born. When I went to the dermatologist about it he said, “Well, my suggestions would be to get a platinum wedding band and also to stop doing the dishes.” While I could totally get behind those two suggestions, I thought they were a little impractical. I stopped wearing my wedding ring and started wearing gloves to wash the dishes instead. Anyhow, the eczema tends to rear it’s head with the slightest provocation; stress, hormones, diet… Who know why, but it’s been particularly bad lately.

Which is all to say my right hand is kind of a mess right now.

Other things this week… We took family photos. Lessons learned this time around:
1) It’s all about the accessories. I think I tried on everything in my closet, but couldn’t decide what to wear. I finally settled on a very uninteresting grey dress and was decidedly lukewarm about it. This was about half an hour before I had to leave. But I decided that blah was better than nothing. But as I was getting my shoes on, I remembered – I love hats. So I put one on and then added a scarf and suddenly I loved my outfit. Hooray!
2) No one will wear what you want them to wear. And it doesn’t matter. I spent so much time trying to pick the perfectly coordinated a but not too matchy outfits for a cool fall afternoon. And then it was 78 degrees. And the eight year old decided that she didn’t want to wear the original dress because she wanted to save it for Halloween. And the three year old wanted to wear his pink panda crocs. The baby didn’t fit the original dress I picked and did fit in a cute outfit that didn’t go with my carefully curated colour scheme. Agh! Next time I’ll save my mental energy and it can be a free for all.
3) Take the picture of the kids first. We left the group picture of the kids for last, and by then the baby was losing her shit. I’m pretty sure in all the pictures she is either eating a goldfish cracker or bawling her eyes out. Next time, I think we’ll make sure to do the kids pictures first. Maybe even start earlier in the afternoon and have the Husband come later.

This week in drawing class we worked on value. That is to say lightness, darkenss, and shadows. I feel like charcoal makes every drawing look better. This assignment really challenged me to to look at light and dark as not stark opposites, but rather as gentle gradations leading to each other. I’m used to thinking shadows are dark, but really they often aren’t the darkest things in an image.

I call this one “Still life with child” – note the three year old’s contribution over on the right.

Lately while working on my drawing assignments, I’ve been listening to Elaine Paige On Sunday. It’s a radio show about musical theatre hosted by one of the super stars of musical theatre. There is something beautifully unironic about musical theatre – the bold wearing of one’s heart on one’s shoulder is probably considered unfashionable these days. Having big feeling is no longer cool, it seems. Any how, I’ve been loving listening to this radio show, even periodically singing along. I’d forgotten how many wonderful, clever, powerful, heartfelt songs are out there. I’m also enjoying hearing what is current in the musical theatre world. I’m (shockingly!) unfamiliar with Hamilton, but I think perhaps I will put it on my “to listen” list.

Another fun thing – One day the Husband and I went to the appliance store to look at ranges. The trip was shorter than anticipated because the store we went to had only one double oven on display and it wasn’t one that we were interested in. So here we were with some unexpected free time.
“Let’s go get milkshakes,” one of us suggested.
“And fries?”
“And fries.”

So we got milkshakes and fries from Five Guys and went to sit at the park. Salty hot fries dipped in sweet, thick milkshakes is one of my favorite food indulgences.

After we finished our shakes and fries, the kids went to play on the playground. I put the baby in a swing, which she loved with all her baby joy. Then the three year old came over and wanted on the swing. But there was not bucket swing available. So I put him on the regular swing and gave him a push. Then, I said to him, “I’m going to teach you something. When you go forward put your legs out. When you go backwards, bring your legs in.”

And he got it! He started pumping his strong sturdy little three year old legs! I nothing else, I have given him this one little life skill.

This week’s to do list:
-pay the bills
-vote.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Gumbo. The cause of the hand mishap. I actually made this on Friday so that the gumbo would have a chance to sit and improve overnight. This was my first attempt – I was trying to find recipes to use up some peppers and celery and I’ve always enjoyed gumbo at restaurants, so I thought I’d give it a try. Aside from the scalding roux, it was very straight forward to make, and ended up being quite tasty. Not sure if it was authentic at all, but I feel like one shouldn’t let what food should be get in the way of what it is.

Sunday: Cauliflower tacos with homemade tortillas! From Dinner Illustrated. I didn’t have mango, so I made the slaw with apples instead. I think cabbage slaw is one of my pandemic discoveries.

Monday: The Husband cooked. He made Greek green beans, pork, and udon noodles.

Tuesday: Eggplant noodle salad. From the Greens cookbook.

Wednesday: Dumplings and leftovers. We had tried to get wings, thinking that would be a quick simple meal for post photo shoot, but then the wings placed turned out to be closed. So we punted, went home and had dumplings from the freezer and left over noodle salad.

Thursday: Take out banh mi sandwiches. Second attempt at wings, but they were closed again. Bummer.

Friday: Pizza and move – Troop Zero. Movie about a group of scrappy kids who form a girl scout like troop. Full of great performances of quirky, heartfelt characters.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

Last weekend the eight year old had first Communion, and so we all dressed up and went to church for the first time in half a year. There was a limit on how many guests each family could bring – which we maxed out just by bringing the other kids. Each family had their own pew and every other row was empty. Everyone was masked. The eight year old was asked to do the first reading, and she did great!

I’m not the Catholic one in the family, but I’ve always found going to church soothing. The getting dressed up, the communal singing (which is now not allowed), and the contemplation. Our church is on the liberal side of things, and I find the homilies are often meditations on how to be more mindful about your actions and reactions. Though these days the two little kids don’t really sit still, so maybe not so soothing and experience in real life.

Afterwards the eight year old got to chose lunch, and she chose Indian take out. We ordered chaat papari, though I was a little nervous that it was going to be soggy, but surprisingly they bundled the yogurt and tamarind sauce separately. Even more bonus, there was more than enough, so now we have extra tamarind sauce in the fridge. Yum!

Monday was a day off from school, so the Husband took the day as well and we went to Longwood Gardens. In pre COVID times we would often go as a weekend trip; we’d book a hotel with a pool, and maybe also go to the Please Touch Museum. This time we took it as a day trip – leaving around 8:30a and getting home just after 6pm.

It was definitely a good trip. We enjoyed fall colour. I like seeing what vegetables they are growing in their gardens. And consequently annoying the Husband when I ask, “Why can’t we grow those?” We saw a frog in the lily pad garden. The chrysanthemums were prepped for planting. The chrysanthemum show is always breathtaking there. I’m not sure if we will get back this year for it, though. And trees. We spent lots of time among the trees.

One thing I’ve resolved to do this year was to take more pictures with the Husband. One of my mentors from my early stage management days sends these wonderful holiday cards and there are always great pictures of her and husband together, huge smiles on their faces. It makes me so happy and inspired to see them. Last year, I realized that I don’t have many pictures with the Husband, the way Mary does. I’m always so busy taking pictures of the kids, with the kids, or of random lovely things in my life. Or of the area I parked in. But no pictures of me and the Husband who is in a lot of ways the most important relationship. So this year, I’ve been handing the phone to the eight year old more often and asking her to take pictures of her parents. She’s taken some good ones and I love that I have them now. The three year old, on the other hand, is decidedly not quite up for the task:

Anyhow, it was good to get out of the house and be outdoors. Longwood is always beautiful, regardless of the season.

Some random thoughts from this week:

I am a terrible decision maker. I contemplate and ruminate and pro and con and go back and forth. This week, I came across something in Carolyn Hax’s column (second letter here) that really was eye-opening for me. The advice Hax writes is so clear eyed and wise and I really love reading her column and her live chats. She wrote, to a letter writing contemplating two career options: “When careful research shows neither option is clearly superior, that could be the definition of a tough decision — or the opposite. If neither is clearly right, then neither’s clearly wrong.” I have terrible FOBO when it comes to decision making; there is something freeing in this realization that if there is no perfect decision, then there is really no wrong decision either. I’ve been reframing some things lately – rather than saying, “There is no perfect solution here.” I’ve been saying, “There is no wrong solution here.” And it helps me move on a little sooner. I still obsess. But maybe with a little less anxiety and a little more grace.

Election season is ramping up. Last week was certainly one for the history books. We watched the presidential debates, which one commentator called “The worst debates ever”. It was really disheartening. And then the President tested positive for COVID. What a crazy week for the news cycle.

Every Wednesday, after piano lessons, we get breakfast sandwiches from Mr. Jay. The eight year old is in charge of calling in the order. Well two weeks ago when I went to pick up sandwiches, I had mentioned that it was the baby’s first birthday. This week, when I went to pick up the sandwiches, he gave us a present for her. It was so touching.

Loving this single little curl at the nape of the baby’s neck. I want to bottle it and keep it forever!

This week’s drawing class homework was to draw and area of the house over several days, layering one day upon the other. I chose our living room sofa. Each class begins with us all sharing our work, and I loved how this assignment seemed to really encapsulate pandemic living. One of my fellow students did a lovely piece of the front door with the coming and going of Amazon packages.

The assignment was inspired by a project that Joan Linder did where she drew her kitchen sink over a number of weeks. Exploring Linder’s work, I came across this series she did of baby gear, and I found it quite inspiring, the art and lines that she found in these things that are so utilitarian.

What We Ate:

Saturday: I’m not sure we had dinner. I think we were full from the Indian food at lunch. Maybe we had sandwiches?

Sunday: Cilantro Chicken with Tortillas and cabbage slaw. The recipe for the chicken came from our church cookbook, and it was basically cilantro, onions, spices, garlic whizzed together in a blender and poured over chicken. The original called for the chicken to be baked with the sauce, but given that our oven was broken, I stuck it all in the Instant Pot and it was tasty. This was also our first attempt to make corn tortillas with the tortilla press that I had ordered and it was easy and fun and really delicious.

Monday: Wendy’s on the way home from Longwood Gardens. Haven’t had this in a long time, and I have to say, one of the foods I miss most during quarantine is french fries.

Tuesday: Spinach Orzo with Pork Chops. The Husband cooked.

Wednesday: Sweet Potatoe Chicken Curry from Dinner Illustrated. We have an overabundance of sweet potatoes.

Thursday: Ratatouille. To use up some peppers and zucchini.

Friday: Pizza and Bride and Prejudice. Fun take on Jane Austen’s classic.

Friday Recap + what we ate

This was not a good week for me holding my shit together. But moving on.

I had enrolled the 8 year old in an online drawing class – I was hoping to get her some more interaction, and I think she enjoyed, but it meant that we didn’t get as much outdoor time as we usually do, and I think tempers were somewhat frayed because of that. I’m still trying to figure out what is the right balance of outdoor time and interactive computer time.

We finished up the tie dye projects from last week. The bight starbursts and spirals of colour really made me happy as they sat on the drying rack. The blue dye was more potent than I thought and it took four wash cycles to get to a place where the shirts did not bleed in the wash.

Our adventure this week was to the zoo. A lot of the buildings were closed so that social distancing could be maintained, but there was still lions, tigers, and elephants to be seen and ice cream to be eaten. I don’t know that I would feel comfortable going again; people were really good about wearing masks, but I would have preferred more distancing. I keep optimistically taking the kids to places that have opened with precautions in place, but then realizing that the variety in people’s risk tolerance does not really put me at ease.

I watched the Met’s beautiful production of Eugene Onegin starring Anna Netrebko. For once, I watched it on our tv rather than on my computer or iPad. There is so much opera content out there right now. I want to take advantage of the chance to see these operas, but I also want to remember to really watch and not just view. Hopefully being more choosy as to what I watch and watching it in a focused way will help towards that.

(Incidentally, it was a double Netrebko week – for Friday movie night, we watched the Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in which I was surprised and delighted when she made a brief appearance as “Opera Singer Anna.” The eight year old was really excited to hear opera in a movie. More so when she could identify it – “That’s La Traviata!” she shouted, as if it were trivia night. )

The 3 year old needed new shoes; his old shoes had holes in the toes. We made an appointment for our local kids’ shoe store and had a trip there. He chose some bright pink shoes. I appreciated how the lady at the store who fitted him did not bat an eye or try to steer him towards the rack of blue and green shoes. He is now a 10 extra wide. I asked about shoes for the just walking baby and our salesperson said that they weren’t necessary until cooler weather.

The Democratic National Convention was this week- a strange, slick affair of speeches and effusive partisan love. It was odd to listen to these rousing speeches devoid of audience applause or reaction; a certain momentum seemed lost to me. I was reminded anew about what a powerful and heartfelt orator Barack Obama was, and how inspiring he could be. The vitriol in his speech was a little surprising, but perhaps shouldn’t have be, given the occasion.

For me the most meaningful aspect of the Democratic ticket right now is Kamala Harris. More and more this year, I’ve come to see that representation in the mainstream matters. Everyone talks about Kamala Harris being Black, but I think it is equally important to recognize that she is half Asian. Part of the story that we were traditionally told about being the “model minority” was about being quiet and assimilating, being invisible even. I am recognizing, however, that the model minority trope is unfair and oppressive, and in fact hurts true diversity.

When the people that are seen in positions of leadership are all white and male, it is easy to think that is just how things are. Regardless of what I think of Harris’ past performance and policies, to see a Vice Presidential candidate that is from the same continent as my parents is amazing and can’t be taken for granted. When she was nominated as Biden’s pick for running mate, I almost cried as I stood in the kitchen listening to the news.

Here is what we ate this past week:

Saturday – Zucchini boats (using up leftover filling from last week’s zucchini boats)

Sunday – Shrimp and Broccoli Pad Thai from Dinner Illustrated. This was really really tasty. It was a lighter, tastier version than take out.

Monday – Salmon Tacos with Cabbage Mango Slaw

Tuesday – Stir fry (Eggplant, green beans, peppers)

Wednesday – Broccoli Quiche and Salad. Quiche made ahead of time, before we went to the zoo. Quiche is actually a pretty regular easy meal for us – I make a big batch of pie dough and freeze it, so all that I have to do is saute vegetables, blend milk (or buttermilk), eggs, flour, garlic, herbs together with shredded cheese. Put it all into the pie crust and bake. It feels fancier than it really is. Also great for using up bits of veggies in the fridge.

Thursday – Ginger Catfish, made by husband. Really tasty

Friday Recap + what we ate

The baby started walking in earnest this week. Which was quite a bit of surprise for us since the other kids didn’t walk until they were 14 months old.

Even more delightful was when she realized that one of the perks of being biped was that she could move around the house… while. eating. food!!!!!!

You could see the light of discovery in her face as she toddled around the kitchen clutching her half eaten plum.

The Husband says, “We now have a toddler.” My poor heart says, “No! not yet!”

Yesterday morning, I came down to the kitchen to find a Jackson Pollack-esque trail of milk swirling from the kitchen into the dining room, culminating in a puddle of milk on a very special stool that had belonged to my father in law in college. I had to admire the artistic swoops and dots, even as I banned the three year old from walking and drinking at the same time. We have long used the Thermos Funtainers with straws as a spill proof option for milk and water, but I guess spill proof doesn’t account for when your three year old turns it upside down while open.

Tuesday night we played Parcheesi. Well, the Husband, eight year old and I played. The three year old threw dice randomly and moved pieces. We pretended to him that he was playing, but he was having his own little game. I’m on the hunt for games that we all can play. He is borderline able to play Uno. He can play the right cards, he just has not concept of winning or the object of the game.

This was a rainy week, so we didn’t have an adventure, or indeed as many long walks as we normally did. Also, I had finally recognized that the eight year old needed some interaction and enrolled her in a theater class. Next week, I’ve scheduled her for a drawing class. I had resisted at first because I wasn’t sure what she would get out of it other than more time on a screen, but then I realized that it gave me more undivided time with the three year old (while the baby napped), so I guess that’s good thing.

We also just tie-dye some shirts. And a pillow case. And an old onesie. Basically anything I could find in the house that was 100 percent cotton and white. I had ordered some white shirts on Amazon for the project but most of them fit exactly no one in the family, hence the scrounging for things to dye. I think it will be a lesson in patience to wait until tomorrow to see the results. It was my first experience with tie dying and it was about as messy as I thought it would be.

Right now, the eight year old is folding laundry as she watches Turandot streaming on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. Earlier this week, I set up a Zoom play date for her and when we were trying to pick a day, I wrote to the other parent, “She needs to check the opera schedule first. I can’t believe I just wrote that.” I’m so grateful that the Met has made these operas available. It is a good incentive for getting my kid to do chores.

What we ate this week:

Saturday: Kielbasa (from the Kielbasa Factory – amazing place) and coleslaw. Super easy dinner – pretty much toss kielbasa on griddle, mix dressing and toss with chopped cabbage. It took less than half and hour to get to the table. I think I want to dub Saturdays “Simple Saturdays” and strive for these low maintenance type meals.

Sunday: The Husband called and audible and we had Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. I think one of the foods that I miss the most is french fries.

Monday: Zucchini Boats. I baked them a little longer than stated so that they were soft enough for the baby to eat.

Tuesday: Tofu Banh Mi from Dinner Illustrated

Wednesday: BLTs, made with bacon from the Kielbasa Factory

Thursday: Falafel Hash (a recipe from the Purple Carrot, a vegan meal kit, in its Mark Bittman days), and Greek Salad. Eaten in wraps.

Friday: will be pizza, as always, though I’ve also had the prospect of a meatball sub waved in front of me….