My Tuesday

Hello friends,

It's another glorious and beautiful day here in Vancouver. After a period of heavy rainfall early in the Fall we have been having warmer than average temperatures and lots of mostly sunny days. I'm happy about that.

As you can see from my garden everything is pretty much finished for the year. The hardy geraniums are hanging on and their bright colours still make me smile when I look out. All the other plants are done for the year except the trees on my patio garden.

Even the pansies are done for the year. In fact the leaves look like they have some black spots on them which I didn't notice earlier.

I have an appointment on Wednesday morning so I'm using today to get caught up on my housework and cooking. First I've prepared a vegetable medley to go in the oven. It is primarily made up of cubed butternut squash, some eggplant, onions, a couple potatoes and whole cloves of garlic. I've mixed them up with olive oil and fresh rosemary and thyme. This will all be roasted at high heat, uncovered for about half an hour to an hour, depending on how small you chop the vegetables and how fast your oven cooks.

These vegetables are meant to accompany the barbeque ribs which I'm marinating in the bag (in photo below) with a mix of brown sugar, ketchup and vinegar.  Sometimes I add other ingredients like mustard or Worcestershire sauce for more intense flavour.  The ribs will be roasted for a couple hours on low to moderate heat (275 to 325 Farenheit) so they will be popped into the oven to cook for an hour or more before I crank up the heat and add the vegetable medley.  I don't usually make ribs because of the sugar that goes into the sauce. I think once in awhile won't hurt the blood sugar too much as long as I eat healthy most of the rest of the time.

Also I have a pot full of dried chick peas in my rice cooker.  I boil them for a minute after soaking for a short while. I boil them for 1-2 minutes then turn it off the cooker and let the chick peas sit in the pot for an hour or so. Then I boil them again in the same pot and water until cooked. I always have chick peas on hand whether canned or dried.  They are versatile and I never know when I will get a craving for hummus.

I used to be one of those people who was put off of using dried beans because of the time it takes to prepare them. I would soak the beans overnight and then cook them up the next day.  I found this rather inconvenient for my schedule.  Several of my readers suggested I prepare beans using the  quick method (boil for a minute, sit for an hour then boil until cooked). It does save time and doesn't require much pre-planning.  If you have the dried beans on hand and the time on any given day to prepare them, you are good to go.

On the stove top I am boiling up some vegetable stew made with the left over butternut squash, eggplant and onions. I've added green onions and carrots for more flavour and colour and a few potatoes will be thrown in as well. The base of the soup is chicken bouillon (store bought not home made) to which I will add some tumeric powder.  Finally, I will add a few cans of chick peas to make it nice and thick. This stew is intended for lunches Tuesday and Wednesday.

I hope to mix up some no knead bread before I am done for the day. It will need to sit overnight and be baked tomorrow.  I've made it before and posted on my blog but for the time being I can't locate the post. It is a nice bread if you don't like kneading but it does require time to let it rise overnight or all day before baking.

After all this cooking I still have to sweep and wash floors  and vacuum the front room. Fortunately I did most of the laundry on Tuesday. There is still more to do. Where does it all come from?

So that's what I'm busy doing today. I'd love to hear what you are doing.

Joining Our World Tuesday today.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Boyhood

A friend invited me to a movie she's been wanting to see for months and it seemed like we could never get together. But Friday we finally made it. Believe it or not, the same movie was playing at the same cinema as when she first asked me. That is very rare!

The movie is called "Boyhood" about a young boy of 6 or 7 named Mason.  He  ages throughout the movie and we see his life unfold in different situations until he leaves for college at about age 18. It is touching and realistic.

Mason, his sister Samantha (played by Lorelei Linklater), and his mother Olivia (played by Patricia Arquette) first live in a single parent household.  As time progresses you see them live their lives through 3 failed marriages and all the milestones that come as children age and parent's achieve different milestones of their own.  Their biological father, Mason Sr. is played by Ethan Hawke.  It is nice to see him in a role where he learns and grows and takes his fatherly responsibilities seriously.

It was intriguing to see a movie made over such a long time span with the same actors, playing the same parts.

I laughed a lot.  I nodded my head too a the realism in the scenes.  I cried too.  Especially when mother Olivia, single again, is moving into an apartment on her own.  As her son Mason prepares to get in his truck and make the drive to college, she starts crying and says “I just thought there would be more to life.”

Olivia has been in several failed relationships and marriages, earned a master's degree, had a successful life as a college professor and raised two well adjusted children.  But as her children leave the nest and moving on to make lives of their own, she realizes she is on her own.  She realizes that her life will totally change.  No longer to be measured by her children's birthdays, achievements and graduations, she says the next milestone is her funeral.

Her son asks "aren't you jumping ahead 40 years!?"  That cracked me up in a good way.  At the same time there is this intensity of motherhood, life and letting go, there is also levity.  So much like real life.

The music tracks are a wonderful feature of the movie.  The tune that plays in the trailer (above) is one that stayed with me. It also plays as Mason Jr. drives along the highway hurtling toward college and his future. So I had to look for it on line. The song is called "Hero" and is sung by The Family of the Year.

Just before Mason sets off on that longish drive along the highway, he and his first love have had a huge argument. His girlfriend has also broken up with him and he cannot understand why.  It makes his drive all the more touching.

Young love. I don't miss it at all.  But everyone must pass through it. 

If you get a chance check out the movie. It is so well done. All the actors are wonderful, the music is great and the scenes of life are very touching and realistic.