food | Oolala the Arty Life

Frozen Wasteland

by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Life | 4 comments

Brown things. The code name Mr. Spouse and I used for chocolate when the kids were young. Peppermint patties, our favorite. Consumed only when the kids were safely in bed. Three each. Because everyone knows four is the gateway number to binging on even simpler carbs. Like Gummies. Or Blow Pops.

We kept the Yorks in the freezer, way in the back. In an empty Garden Burger box. Under lots of other boxes unappealing to children, like spinach. And green beans. FirstBorn found them eventually. And it wasn’t by accident. When it came to candy that kid had the instincts of a drug sniffing dog.

But that was years ago. The kids are grown now. The Yorks are still in the freezer but are in plain sight. Which is good because A: we like them frozen and B: neither one of us can see worth a damn anymore. We know they’re in the top drawer, left front. Can find them by feel if we have to.

It’s been a while since I’ve indulged in brown things but I decided I wanted some tonight. I opened the freezer door and AHA!!! The lights came on, the music blared forth and I was struck upside the head by the spirit of Holy Crap! There’s a LOT of food in here. And all it’s doing is serving as a backdrop for peppermints. Because we don’t eat it. I just buy it, toss it in and hope to God we don’t have a power outage, in which case I throw it out.

Which is always nice because then, after I whine about how much food was wasted, I can start all over with a clean slate. This girl knows how to have a good time.

This is the top drawer. Yorks to the lower left. Always are. In case you ever break into my house looking for candy.

And this is the bottom. Look at all that food! I don’t even know what’s in there. Why, why WHY do I go to the grocery store every other day???

I am headed down the path to freezer burn. So I came up with a plan…. WE WILL EAT THIS FOOD. Imagine that! We’ll excavate the freezer one layer at a time until we hit bottom. We will save money and only shop for perishables like milk. Salad greens. Smoothie greens. Potato Chips.

I will not bore you with the daily details, unless I unearth something…interesting. Like the hamster that went MIA a few years ago. Or a really clever recipe for edamame. Which I haven’t eaten in years but occasionally feel compelled to buy. Probably to feed the hamster.

But I may say something about it while blogging about mixed media techniques. Like how the gesso reminds me of the bag of green beans I ate all by myself. Or something like that.

Feel free to hold me accountable to this. Feel free to join me in person or in spirit.

There will be photos involved.

At Ease

by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Life | 2 comments

I’m writing this post on Thanksgiving day. Got one pie cooked (pumpkin), another in the oven (apple). We did the turkey thing last week when family was in town. Today we’ll dine on roast beef. And veggies, LOTS of veggies. Carrots and onions roasted with the beef. Broccoli and salad served on the side. And pie. Don’t forget the pie. A lot of food for just the three of us–Mr. Spouse, Darling Daughter and myself. Enough leftovers to take us through the next couple of days. Which is good ’cause most days I’ve got better things to do than hang out in the kitchen.

Like make art. I’m itching to do that right now. And I quite possibly will. It’s a low key kind of day, you see. Guests were last week. I could slip away and no one would notice. Mr. Spouse and Darling Daughter are happy watching football while Studio Grande calls to me. It’s a good place to be on a rainy, cold afternoon. A quiet place for meditation, introspection, creation.

But for now I’m in the kitchen, sitting at the table. My favorite place to write. I can look out the window. See the forest. And the gray skies. Check out the ever changing parade of wildlife. Deer. Coyotes. Jackrabbits. Squirrels. Sometimes a bobcat or a bear.

Or I can look to the right, at the purple wall I managed to get past Mr. Spouse’s conservative paint sensibilities when we repainted last spring, and enjoy some of my students’ art.

Sophie was sitting on Mr. Spouse’s chair until she was displaced by the spouse himself, come to check his email. We both leave our laptops on the table, you see. Now she’s awake and concerned…there’s a couple of pies cooling on the stovetop–the apple came out of the oven since I started this– and she can’t have at them.

Sometimes it’s tough being a dog.

I’ve got a couple hours free now that the last pie is baked. Mr. Spouse is back on the couch watching the game. Sophie has given up on the pie. I’m heading down to Studio Grande to meditate. Love on Studio Quat. And quite possibly, paint.

Before I go I’m leaving you with this. A marvelous video courtesy of my friend Judy Shreve. It’s short, under 10 minutes. And watching it will change your day for the better. Guaranteed.

Supper Outside the Box

by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Recipes | 8 comments

Autumn is here, for sure. Mr. Spouse and I readied for the first winter type storm due to blow in sometime early in the week. He did the gutters, I raked pine needles and cleaned up down at the barn. Don’t need pictures of any of that, trust me. Grumpy husband, piles of pony poo. Really. Some things are best left to the imagination. Or better still, forgotten entirely.

After two hours of barn work I was hungry. And cold. And tired. And craving eggs and oatmeal. Go figure. By that time Mr. Spouse was on his way to the airport and Daughter Dearest, being an opportunistic self-feeder, had polished off the remains of the chicken in the fridge.

But I couldn’t have just eggs and oatmeal, right? Even though I really wanted ’em. This was dinner. And what’s dinner without veggies? Don’t say breakfast–too easy.

So while the oats were cooking–steel cut, by the way, solid substantial oats–I washed and chopped up some baby spinach. I’ve always got some in the fridge, kale too, because I loves me my greens. Look how pretty they are.