School is back in session - up here anyway...

I forgot what it was like not having to worry about the school zones on my way home. Well, yesterday was a little slap in the face reminder... lol!  I left work at 2:30, glad to be on the road knowing I would have some daylight hours when I got home. As I rounded the bend on Murray Lane (where I took the pictures of the deer), I came upon a huge line of cars parked on either side of the road. There were kids galore, dads and moms with strollers, little brothers and sisters, older brothers and sisters, grandmas, you name it. I guess it was orientation or meet the teacher, or who knows. It was mayhem I tell ya! The little twerps were everywhere. You would think their parents would hold their hands or at the very least keep them on the inside away from the moving vehicles on the road. But noooooooooo - that was not the case.

None of them actually ran out in front of me but you know how it is, you expect one to at any given time.
The parents were acting like it was meet your neighbor day, chatting with each other while on their way up to the school driveway and the kids were pretty much doing whatever the heck they wanted to. It didn't take me long to get past the social hour but it was a little stressful, especially when I'm now used to a totally stress-free zone :)

The rest of the ride was nice and peaceful. I didn't see any deer on the way home but I rarely do. I always see them on my way in and now I'm keeping a daily count. Monday there were 5 in one spot alone and 9 total. There were two more on Sneed Road and two more further down by where I first come into Brentwood. Of those last two, one was going poo... just thought I'd throw that in there since was kind of funny. Not that you know where any of these areas are but I'm learning where the deer typically hang out.

This morning I had come so far with no sightings that I thought there wouldn't be one. I was kind of bummed out because I just started my daily count on Monday and now I was looking at having nothing to add to it. Well, as it turned out, you'll be happy to know, I did finally come upon some deer. It was very foggy and I had just rolled down my driver side window when I saw them. They were in the valley of a large grassy knoll and it was two does with their little fawns. The spots had already faded but they were still quite young - standing only a little higher their mamma's knees. I saw that and I said "oh, hello little babies, you are sooooooo cute!"  They didn't reply. ha ha ha.

So Monday was 9, Tuesday was 2 and today was 4. Not bad for 3 days driving.

My CSA basket was overloaded with goodies! I have a huge bag of Pink Eye Purple Hull Peas that are just dying to go in a pot with a thick slab of that smoked picnic ham we bought a couple weeks back. I bagged it up into "ham for dinner" and "ham for beans" bags so I can easily find what I need. The basket also had okra, green peppers, summer squash (it never ends! lol), cantaloupe, lots and lots of heirloom tomatoes in all shapes, sizes and colors (some of which get eaten before the basket even gets home), climbing cucumbers and an Encore Lettuce Mix. This lettuce is like the spring mix you see in the stores. YUMMY for my tummy! Not bad for the old waistline either :)

In her newsletter, Trish wrote that upcoming will be watermelon and beets (woo hoo!) and other tasty surprises! I had heard that a second crop of beets could be forthcoming so this is really good news unless you're Neccy. Even though I do plan to grow my own, just in case I don't do it right, at least I can count on the farmers! One of the tomatoes from the basket is so big it doesn't fit in the palm of my hand. I think we'll have it with supper tonight.

I took a picture of last night's supper and my lunch salad but I have to wait for Wally to send them so I can post them on the blog. If we go to Pee Wee's tonight, I'll get his phone and send them while were on the road. I know you've been biting your nails in anticipation of what my lunch salads look like, LOL. Hey it might inspire you to make a salad for your own lunch tomorrow - you just never know...

Daryl gave me another bag of tomatoes. I'm hoping there will be enough to make another batch of Bloody Mary mix :) Those jars just look so pretty up on my bookshelf. I know that's a strange place to store them but the pantry is full to overflowing so the jars had to go somewhere. I put the jars on either side of the frame that holds the pictures of my dad in his garden. Between the squash and the Bloody Mary mix, you almost don't see the cookbooks. If I do too much more canning, I'll be storing the jars in my closet...lol!

Speaking of the picnic ham, we had a couple slices of it for supper last night. I cooked some field peas with snaps and some corn that I had scraped from the cobs. The peas had to cook for a while so I put my lunch salad together while that went on. When the peas were softened enough, I chopped up a slice of white onion to go on top and served up the corn with some cilantro bouillon and black pepper. The ham, it just speaks for itself. Even though it's smoked, it doesn't have the smoked flavor you would immediately think of. Instead it's more of a preserving method than a cooking method. I added just a little water to the skillet, slid the ham slices into it and let it heat up. Since this type of ham isn't fully cooked, it does have to simmer for a few minutes. We had it cut pretty thin so the cooking time would be quicker.

It was very good with some sliced homegrown tomatoes on the side. As I sit there at our table, eating whatever meal it happens to be, I'm reminded of when I was younger. Our house was always filled with people and for whatever reason, they seemed to always congregate at the kitchen table. It wasn't a big table, in fact there were probably only 2 or 3 chairs at any given time. It was always cluttered with mail, newspapers, ashtrays, whatever. That didn't matter. People would just stand in the kitchen or in the back porch area (it was open to the kitchen) and hang out. It seems there was always someone over for dinner and especially on Thursday nights. Thursday nights were the best because it was left-over night! Mom would either have me drag out all the left-overs or she would do it when she got home from work. Glenn Morse was rarely missing on a Thursday night and he was a great guy and a very good friend to my parents and all of us kids. He let me drive his car when I first got my permit. Brave, wasn't he?

Every now and then he would bring over a huge bag of Krystal burgers and fries - man, that was the biggest treat in the world for us kids. We never ate at fast food restaurants so we thought we were really missing out. Hey, we were kids. We know better now. We would literally attack that bag when Glenn showed up. I think he got a kick out of bringing the 4 of us a surprise.

I remember the first time Mom and Dad took us to McDonald's. I ordered a cheeseburger but to my disappointment, I couldn't eat it. I didn't know they put ketchup on them and more than anything else, I cannot tolerate ketchup. I'm like Neccy with the beets, except I've actually tried ketchup and I've re-tried it on several occasions. No can do. My taste buds never developed a liking to it. I'll tear up some tomatoes but if you squirt that messy goo on my burger - you can keep it. I'm pretty sure Davey ate that first burger of mine and I'm very well sure that I was happy to give it to him. YUCK... I did enjoy the fries though :) and have ever since. McDonald's rules when it comes to fast food french fries. Hands down.

These days I couldn't eat fast food "anything" without it upsetting my stomach. My system just isn't built like that anymore. I crave the flavor but avoid it at all costs. To those of you who can handle it, have a quarter pounder with cheese for me one of these days, please leave off the ketchup - I'll take the fries though! ha ha ha.

My dear, sweet, friend, Gabby called me today. She was sent the link to the blog and just had to call. She didn't know I had moved to TN. Some friend I turned out to be, huh? lol  Well it was just wonderful to do some catching up with Gabby. She's a darling lady and one I'm very happy to be back in touch with. She's the type of person you meet and know immediately that you'll be friends and friends for life.

Folks I gotta go for the day. It's quitting time - can you hear the bell? I hope you had a good hump day and remember, as Kathy always says, tomorrow is Friday Eve! Nothing wrong with that :)

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” Mark Twain