Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

I feel that the test is coming. The past couple of weeks in yoga, our instructor has been reminding us that fall is a season of change that we might feel in our bodies, our hearts, our minds, our souls.  We may be experiencing a sense of disequilibrium as the days shorten, temperatures fall, and we can see through the trees to branches rapidly becoming bare.   Right now in the upper Midwest, fall color is peaking.  Earlier sunsets are often sky filled blazes of wide swatches of pinks, purples, oranges.  In that respect, it makes it easier for me to accept the falling temperatures, the constant chill in the air that both intuitively and intellectually I know will only grow deeper and more intense over the coming months. You all know that I am a warm weather girl, truly the warmer, the better.  I park my car in the sunshine year round, never in the shade (I mean, come on, why?).  My gravity chair has a place of honor in the sunniest spot in the bac...

We've been ripping our basement apart, a retirement activity if I ever saw one.  We demolished a powder room that we stopped using a couple decades ago--fortunately, when we opened the toilet, we didn't find any dead critters in there.  We pulled down sheetrock from waist-high down, which means ripping out the insulation as well.  There was a unused bar in the basement and it's now in the dumpster.  Finally we pulled up the carpet from the basement stairs.  That night, we sank into our matching recliners in the family room.  Dan looked wearily at me and said, "We're never doing that again." Damn right. Anyhow, while demolishing, I've had a lot of time to think, too much time perhaps.  Pulling down the powder room walls, I composed the following letter to my Congressman, Erik Paulsen (R-MN).  I originally intended to send it to all members of Congress and the President.  However, as I researched doing that, it became clear that members of ...

Remember how I said I was going to follow the New York Times recipes to the letter ? Um, not so much.  At least not today, St. Patrick's Day of all days, for a traditional Irish meal. This morning when I opened the NY Times Cooking app on my phone, there was a lovely looking recipe for Guinness Pie .  My oldest daughter had invited herself to dinner (in fairness, we usually have dinner at their house on Friday nights); I thought I'd invite my son and his family, too.  All this on account of us watching the 3 Grandsons at our house because Friday is not only Flip Flop Friday (cf: my Facebook page), it's also Grandpa Dan-o Child Care Day.  So that recipe was calling to me. During the day, I recalled our trip to Ireland almost 13 years ago.   The first meal I had was a very yummy Guinness stew.  Actually, it was about the best meal I had the entire week we were in Ireland.  The Irish are know for their whiskey and beer, not their food.  S...

Yes, the above is a plate of deliciousness. For about the past year, I have been bringing dinner over to my daughter and son-in law's.  This conveniently coincided with the birth of my youngest granddaughter, Georgia Rose. While I was working, I would stop and pick up a meal on my way to their house from work.  We really varied where we ate.  Indeed Bucca was among our favorites, but we also tried different restaurants in St. Paul (since that's where they live).   But now, since I'm Cooking the NY Times, I'm able to either make the meal and home and transport it or cook at their house. Yesterday I used the chuck roast that another daughter turned down to make Stracotto:   https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1650-italian-pot-roast-stracotto?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page&region=pot%20roast&rank=0 Scroll down the list of ingredients and you will see red wine.  I believe the recipe calls for robust,...