Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

You are here: Home / Archives for Uncategorized

Roasted Olive Dip

   Company is coming!!!  We’re having a little dinner party, and I want to have this cold cheese dip ready technically as an appetizer but truly so I can snack indulgently all day leading up to the fun gathering.

   About halfway through making this exceedingly simple yet exceedingly decadent appetizer, I thought maybe someone else might want to know about this and make it.  We are, after all, fast approaching Labor Day weekend, a great time to roll out a snazzy new recipe.  This qualifies as snazzy in my book.

   You only need a handful of things from the grocery store and about half an hour in the kitchen plus a day or so to let the stuff meld its flavors in the fridge.  It makes you feel a little fancy to serve this, a  little bit gypsy or something.  Now while these ingredients are a bit pricey for one finished edible item, do try to factor in how far this goes.  One recipe will feed several people for two days or one very gluttonous girl for a week.  
What You Need:
   about two cups total of at least two flavors of olives (I use pimento-stuffed green olives and pitted ripe olives)
   a few Tablespoons of Italian dressing
   3 bricks of cream cheese (8 ounces each)
   2 small buckets of feta cheese (drained)
   dash or three of your favorite hot sauce
   a few shakes of garlic salt
What You Do:

  • First, let all of the cheeses come to room temperature.  Have you ever tried to stir cold cream cheese?  Nobody should be that strong.
  • In a 400-degree oven, roast the olives in a coating of Italian dressing, for about 20 minutes.  This smells incredible.
  • Once they are all roasty and tender and shriveled, pull them out and let them cool a bit.
  • Now coarsely chop the little gems and set them aside.
  • As thoroughly as possible, mix together all the cheeses and season with hot sauce and garlic salt, to taste.
Yeah, I use cheap seasonings sometimes.  So what?
  • Now just add the chopped, roasted olives.  It looks like edible confetti.  I swear, it makes me so happy.  And Handsome doesn’t have to worry about finding this particular confetti under the seat cushions or inside the fireplace.  Or in his hair.  Or in the buffalo’s hair.  Because we eat this confetti.  At Least I do…

   That’s about it!  Now I would place a sheet of waxed paper over the top, wrap it up in plastic like your life depends on it and abandon the fruits of your labor to the cold fridge overnight.  Serve this manna with crackers or just a spoon.  It is so good.

P.S.  This is what a pimento looks like when it’s about to explode.

Instant Gratification

   I am totally in favor of maintaining and chipping away at a list of long-term goals.  These are generally the accomplishments in life that are closest to the heart and therefore most deeply satisfying .  Keeping LTG lists, it’s just the grown up thing to do.  I personally have multiples.  I have multiples of these in every room of my house and every pocket of all my worn out jeans. 

   Which means that I also have a chronic and nasty case of dissatisfaction with how much I am accomplishing at any given time.  On days when I feel like going to bed in utter despair just one more time might be enough to push me over the edge, I try to regroup and spend some energy on short term goals.  You know, the things that when finished (quickly) give you that sublime sense of Instant Gratification.

   Here are some things I know will scratch the urgency itch for me.  What I find particularly miraculous about this stuff is that every single item here on the STG list corresponds to something on one of my LTG lists.  Even these baby steps, satisfying in and of themselves, all build toward a larger, more beautiful end product.  That is just how AWESOME life can be sometimes.

  • Stop everything and go get an incredible work out!  Sweat and burn for twice as long as you normally do, then stretch until you want to fall asleep.  You will feel better instantly, and it will be worth every minute.

  • Mow the front lawn, weed JUST the flower bed, sweep the sidewalk (for me this includes scooping horse poop), and then water everything.  It takes less time than you think, and it makes the whole front of the house look pretty incredible.

  • Paint something.  Anything.  Preferably with either red or turquoise paint.  Or chalkboard paint.  

  • Make exactly one phone call that you have been dreading.

  • Empty and scrub every single trash can in the house then cut one fresh flower bouquet for every floor of the house.  Light candles in every bathroom.

  • Skip one meal and instead make yourself a fruit-yogurt-honey smoothie and follow it with some ice cold water with lemons.  Let the inside of your body rest for a few hours.  Use the time you would have spent cooking and cleaning up doing something you’ve been really, really, really wanting to do.

  • Groom exactly one of the animals moseying around the farm.  Groom him or her from head to toe.  Pour your tender lovin’ care all over that beloved pet as if it is both the first and last day you have together. 

  • Choose exactly one project on Pinterest that is within reach today.  Do that thing.

  • Good grief, take a remodeling shower already and give yourself an at-home mani-pedi.  Lotion up.  Fix your hair.  Wear some perfume.  WHEW that’s better, and check it out…  You can still work and be productive!

  • Gloss up the house, make something wonderful to sip, and sit down to write an inventory of both your blessings and your answered prayers.  Allow your focus to shift from problems to comforts.

  • Clean the floors mercilessly.  Like a shining clean sink, clean floors are contagious.  So are dirty floors.

  • Make contact with the people who are always on your mind.  Show some love.

  • Bake something incredible for Handsome, even though he INSISTS he doesn’t want any more sweets, because when you DON’T bake he might think you don’t love him so much anymore.

  • Lay in the sun and read about fifty pages of something that loosens up your mind.

  • Repot a living plant or reframe a beautiful photograph or some artwork.

  • Choose and prepare fabrics for one sewing project.  Cut the pieces and package them together with the pattern.  If you have time to sew it, go ahead!  But if not, that’s cool.  You are half way there for next time.

  • While doing laundry in the garage or starting a meal in the kitchen, STAY PUT.  Stop multi-tasking and just stay in the room where the big action is.  See what you can accomplish there during the waiting times.  Pretend there is a force field at the doorway.  Resist every urge to wander off and layer in other activities.  Organize, clean, or decorate exactly one room at a time.  Seriously, girl, focus.  F-O-C-U-S.

  • Do a good deed that you are pretty sure cannot be found out.  Help someone in secret then walk like an Egyptian.

   One final note, I see a common thread amongst all of these actionable ideas:  NONE of them requires a list to be written or a plan to be made.  They just invite me to get really Nike about it and soak up the sense of accomplishment in a short amount of time.  That can dispell the nagging sense of “I can’t get it all done” in just a few hours.  Bueno.  Muy bueno.
What do you do for Instant Gratification?
What place does quickness have in your daily life?

XIV

   Today our youngest daughter is celebrating her FOURTEENTH birthday!  She is the sweetest, smilinest, song-singinest, hug-givinest girl you will ever meet, and I am just floored that another year has already passed. 

 Just for fun I would really groove on sharing some essential truths about this beautiful human being whom I am blessed enough to call Daughter.  Who is fourteen years old now.  Which hardly seems possible.  Because time flies.  It is slipping slipping slipping, into the future, right at this moment.

At an animal refuge in Tuttle,. OK, Februrary 2007
   Carrying her in pregnancy was easy and comfortable, and carrying her as an infant was just delicious.  She loved to cuddle then as much as she does now.
   She greatly prefers sour candy to chocolate and delights in challenging family members to see how much sour they can tolerate.

   Given a choice, she’ll always pick bowtie pasta over spaghetti noodles and marinara sauce over alfredo.

    She loves long showers and can often be heard singing in them.

   She is a talented writer and voracious reader, despite some difficulty getting started in the reading department years ago.  There is no adult in my life whose conversation about books I prefer to hers.  She is insightful and sensitive far beyond her fourteen years.

   For most of those fourteen years, orange has been her favorite color.

 

Spreading her very happy eagle wings at Martin Nature Park, OKC, eight 1/2 years old

   She laughs musically.  And regarding smiles that light up a room, there is no comparison to hers.

   She can COOK.  I mean, not just pretend to cook like some kids, which is adorable, this girl can COOK.  She is trustworthy in the kitchen and a true asset to the family meal.

       She can identify wild tomato plants just by sniffing their fruitless stems, and she understands that lemon and basil are nature’s perfume.
       She has impeccable telephone manners. 
       She is an avid rope jumper.  She used to practice jumping rope while her older sister practiced with the basketball team, and I would count for her.  One day she jumped a consecutive 694 times!  No break, no joke.  She was rightfully amazed.
       She is as tireless on the trampoline as she is with a jump rope.
    She is gentle with animals, endlessly affectionate, and has a calming nature about her. 
    Her pet rooster named Rocky knows he is her favorite and has made her his.
   
   She is loyal to a fault, defending her siblings and her close friends against all pain and all opposition.

   She knows how to pray; she knows that God heals; and she will share her faith with people, but gently.

She would swim 24 hours a day if we let her but never compains when it’s time to dry off. 
Handsome and I gave her this boat for her twelfth birthday, late at night,
and she was so excited that she filled it with pillows and blankets and slept there. 
The next morning she was on the water before breakfast.



   Once upon a time our girl was elected Chaplain of her Sunday School class, and while she held that office she took the job very seriously.  I used to love hearing the scriptures she selected each week and then her personal comments on them.  She displayed the best poise, the greatest respect for the Bible, and the strongest sense of teamwork I have ever seen in a child at church.  Noone was prouder than Handsome and me.

   She has always become deeply attached to her teachers at school.  And her teachers have always had lovely things to say about her, constantly praising her passion, discplined efforts, and sweetness-without-borders in the classroom.
   She loves to fall asleep having her back tickled and her hair stroked, listening to Raindrops on Roses or made up stories about the Pine Forest.
   She likes cranberry-orange juice in the morning and warm milk with honey at night.
   She endured brain surgery twice as a toddler and recovered miraculously both times.  The details and memories are seared into my heart, and the resulting gratefulness for her survival and healing keeps bitterness over other things sort of mild.  God has surprised us over and over again.

   It seems like nearly every friend of hers has claimed her as “BEST friend.”  Because she really is. 

   When she turned thirteen last summer, she had just moved into the upstairs “Apartment.”  We’d installed brand new carpet, very soft and exactly the color she wanted, and one of her wishes was a vacuum sweeeper all to herself.  We bought her a smallish, bright pink one, and she swept the entire floor I think every day for two weeks.  She would then empty the canister and survey the contents, evaluating whether people might have been walking in her room with dirty shoes. 
   While it is fun to receive gifts you really, really, really want, it is even more fun to give those gifts to your children.  The sillier the beter.  She isn’t here now, but every time I see this pink sweeper I giggle.

Kinda looks to me like Picachu knows exactly what’s coming.  Yikes.

   She is a MAJOR fan of pinatas.  Looking back through her birthday party pictures over the years, I found only three that did NOT include a tissue-covered, candy-filled object of pretend childhood wrath.  She is tiny but quite strong.  And every year that Handsome strung up a pinata for her and her friends to bash, she did so with ferocity and laughter that would frighten Katniss Everdeen.
   In addition to being super clean, she is a born nester.  Once, I discovered she had applied personalized wall vinyls to her bed nook without any help, and she has always enjoyed rearranging her bedroom, fluffing pillows, changing doll clothes, organizing her book shelves, etc.  I cannot wait to see her own adult home in the future!
   She values modesty, even in her new adolescent beauty.  Which is enormous, by the way.  She is one of those true ladylike beauties, needing no embellishment but knowing how to use it tastefully.

   Like any parent, I could write non stop for days and days about my child.  She and her sister are the light of my heart, the sheer amazement of life.  
   My words cannot do justice to her beauty or her spirit, so I can only close in saying, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHICKEN!!!  You are the picture of softness and sweetness and vulnerability.  You have been given treasures of femininity and love that not many women enjoy.  You have a heart for the Lord.  You are the sort of friend everyone needs in life.  You have a voice that fills empty spaces and drives out shadows.  Your tanned, skinny arms are strong enough to squeeze the breath out of a grown adult, and I miss them.  Be happy, be healthy, take it slow, and enjoy every day.  I love you forever, no matter what, no matter where we are, no matter how long!  Love, Momma.”

Pinterest, Where Have You Been All of My Life?

   So do you Pin?  Do you know about this newest way to spend the lion’s share of your computer time?  If you are even just slightly visual, even the tiniest bit prone to magazine inspiration, or otherwise on the hunt for soaking up other people’s great ideas, no matter the subject matter, then you need to join Pinterest.  By that I mean you need to get invited to join Pnterest.  They have a unique system.
   But I should warn you, the site is addictive.  Moreso than Facebook and waaaay moreso than just flipping through print magazines or browsing your fave decorating-gardening blogs, this new internet activity has the uncanny ability to numb your clock-watching senses. 
   Because on this site you get to gather up all the images that groove you and move you.  By clicking on the images you like and organizing them into virtual bulletin (Pin) boards, you can collect, organize, label, and share inspiration to your nest-feathering little heart’s content.  Then you just sit back and enjoy your pinned boards as if you are the magazine editor of all of your own favorite things.
  
Sigh…
   The thing is, on top of reallocating my laptop time to include less People of Wally Marks and more Pinterest, now I also have to reallocate my doing stuff time in order to accomplish some of these fantastic home-worthy ideas.
   Here is a link to my Pinterest page, where I have started with just a few different boards.  As mentioned before, there is no end to the inspriation available on the Web and little end to how much time can be spent looking, drooling, and Pinning.  So browser beware; don’t let any one thing, not even a thing as awesome and cool as this, suck your life away. 
   Gotta go.  My blogger buzzer just sounded and real life awaits.

Chicken Lover Praises Shredded Paper

   Several weeks ago my personal assistant Handsome agreed to bring me some shredded paper from his office.  I requested it on a whim during one of those Hot Tub Summits, thinking it would spread nicely around plants in need of mulch, etc.  I had been experiencing trouble with weedy straw and needed a fresh approach.
   Two unexpected things happened:  First of all, Handsome brought me not just the one bag I mentioned, but four, all crammed in the hatchback of his two door show car.  That was just the first day.  Then he brought me five another day.  Then a week or so later he drove our pickup to the City in order to surprise me with another seven bags. 
   “That is a lot of shredded paper, Sir.”
   “Yes, ma’am.”
   That is just how he rolls.
   The second unexpected event was our gradual discovery of exactly how far one bag of Shred can go.  Ummm, FAR is the precise answer.  And it is extremely versatile around the farm too, making it my second favorite supply to keep on hand now, next to heavy cotton drop cloths.  More on that some other time.  Right now I am pretty jazzed up about Shred.
   I could rattle on for pages about its gardening applications, but your imagination can serve you just fine there.  It works, it is cool and different and environmentally friendly, enough said.  Instead, let me tell you about how good Shred is for chickens…
This Tomato with one of his rooster cohorts.
They are so patriotic.

   Yesterday evening I spent a few hours doing clean-up chores in the front paddocks of our place, including sprucing up the chicken yard, pond, and coop.  Cleaning the chicken coop used to be one of my least favorite chores, but now with Shred in my arsenal it is an enjoyable, rewarding task again.  Incredible!!  I feel like I am living a rural infomercial.
   If you keep chickens you MUST try filling their boxes with Shred instead of hay or straw.  Check it:
  • The edges of the paper strips are roughly textured, so it all sticks to itself really well.  It is very grabby.  This allows the soiled Shred to be lifted out in large, unmessy, almost weightless clumps.  I just hooked it with the tine of a small garden fork and Voila!  Clean.  The paper absorbs all of the droppings and even broken yolks, so you have virtually no extra clean up to do before refilling the boxes with more Shred.  AWE-some. 
  • The Shred definitely seems to attract and retain fewer bugs, too.  Even in this crazy heat!  HUGE bonus.
  • The glaring white of Shred is visually cooling in the concrete hen house.  I realize this may benefit only me and not the chickens, but I could have SWORN I heard Red talking to Lucy Loo about the new decor and how sexy it makes her feel.  And even if it only SORT OF feels cooler in there on a 108 degree afternoon, then I am a believer.
  • While handling the mountains of gifted Shred, I noticed that a handful could expand into twice or thrice the volume it appeared to possess.  This makes it not only economical (on top of being free) but also REALLY fun.  It is like playing with dry snow in the middle of an Oklahoma heat wave-slash-drought.
  • The dirty Shred is 100% biodegradable of course and so can still be composted right along with your kitchen scraps, other dry manures, etc.  In fact, it is arguably BETTER for your compost pile becuase it contains no weeds.  Especially if you have clay you’d like to bust up, I think the paper would be a good start.
  • Do you have allergies?  I bet you’re less allergic to paper than you are to hay.
   So there you have it, six solid reasons to use Shred in your chicken coop rather than straw or hay.  Chances are you know someone with access to excessive amounts of this office byproduct.  Maybe you have a home shredding machine and a kid laying around with nothing to do; you can keep your kid busy, destroy sensitive financial documents, and keep your flock clean and healthy all in one quick project.
   If you try this, please let me know what you think.  I think it’s jazzy.