Thursday, December 5, 2013

Calamities Prevail

Just call me Calamity Jane. That's what I feel like lately. December has arrived suddenly. What happened to November?

I never Spring clean. When the weather turns warm and things start popping out of the ground, I am ready to totally abandon my house. I want to spend every waking moment in my gardens. As the weather turns cooler and the leaves abandon the trees, that is when I go nuts cleaning. I bought a broom the other day. It has two heads and an extension handle. The shape of the heads will go into corners and crevices. I love this broom! One head is for sweeping the floor and the other is for the ceiling! I swept my ceiling! And my walls.

And then I sort of went a little crazy and took my sewing room apart. I moved every single thing and then put it all back. I found fabric I had totally forgotten about. I am now inspired to either sew or reorganize every room in the house.

I decide that I should finish sewing all the things I have cut out. Spaghetti is sounding good for supper, as the temp is dropping. So I go to the freezer and pull out the ground beef and tomato sauce in the Ziploc freezer bag. Tomato sauce made from my bountiful garden of the summer. After I have my coffee, I head to my sewing room.

I take pictures of all my organization and the doxie socks. All to share here with my bloggy buddies. While the ground beef is browning in the pan I attempt to download the pictures. I have a brand new computer, an early anniversary gift from He Who loves me (or was really tired of me using his computer). I cannot seem to figure this out. Doesn't work like the old computer. I simply give up and decide to wait to ask someone. The ground beef is nicely browned and crumbled into very fine pieces. I add all the appropriate seasonings and onions. I let it sit, since the tomato sauce is still frozen.


I trip on the dog's bed as I am tending the wood stove and bash my hand on a table while blocking an almost fall. My shoulder is better, but still not 100%. My hand hurts, but I am thankful I didn't twist the shoulder again. Off to the sewing machine and a Scott Turow novel on audio. All is right in my world. I finish a vest and skirt and cut out a shirt for my Granddaughter, Zara.

I take a break and realize that the day is getting away from me and I need to get the sauce done. Into the kitchen I go, with all good intentions. I whip up some beer batter bread and have it all ready to pop into the oven. I grab the Ziploc bag and dump the contents into the pot with the crumbled, seasoned, oniony ground beef.

When I put those tomatoes in the freezer, I did not season them, just peeled and cooked them. I stand there stirring and decide that something is not right. The consistency is right, but it smells ..... not right. Not bad, like spoiled, but not like tomatoes. It looks, I don't know how to describe it. Not red, but, not all tomatoes are red. Not really an orange, but sort of.

Nothing to do but taste it, right? I sniff it again and decides it smells sweet. Tomatoes are somewhat sweet, right? I grab a spoon and do the deed. PEACHES! I remember now. I wanted to make jam, but wanted to wait until it was cold out, so I precooked them and froze them. I did not, however, LABEL the bag. I was in a hurry. There were weeds and grass calling out to me.

So, there I stood. How to salvage this? I am not opposed to actually eating this concoction. Peaches taste good grilled with pork chops, right? Individually the components are all good. Maybe if I had not already seasoned the meat I could have pulled it off. If it had been a small amount of peaches I could have made it into a barbecue sauce. But, as it was, it was just gross. I toyed with thoughts of asking He Who will eat anything covered in cheese to taste it.

I confessed my mistake to He Who loves me lots and, bless his heart, offered to go get some take-out. I took out more ground beef and some tomato sauce (clearly labeled) in a jar. I cooked it too fast and burned part of it. I salvaged what I could and added some left over turkey. Not the best meal I ever made, but I covered it with Parmesan cheese and ate it anyway. The bread was good and I couldn't mess up the salad.

Ventured back into the sewing room. Tripped over a cord and hit the cutting table. Broke the needle on the machine. Still can't get the pictures from my camera onto my computer. Perhaps I should just go to bed .......

8 comments:

joanne said...

Oh no! So glad you didn't hurt yourself or burn the house down. Peaches over spaghetti might not fly over here either! Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Val said...

Mama said there'd be days like this. "There'll be days like this," my mama said.

Brian Miller said...

ha. there are some days it is just better to go back to bed....smiles..oy

Linda O'Connell said...

OMG I can't stop laughing, and that peach spaghetti will get lots of mileage today as I share this story.
Today is a new day, read the labels, watch your footsteps, and have a great day.

Pat said...

This is how great recipes are made! By trial and error!

Always love your stories!

ellen abbott said...

I think you've learned a valuable lesson here. Label label label.

Sioux Roslawski said...

Kathy--Thanks for your comment. My brother did a "better" job than your sister-in-law. My mother died and was buried before I even found out she had died. (She was in a home out of town, close to where he lives.) I found out she had died a week after she had been cremated when her home called. She had some left-over things--pictures of my family--that my brother had left behind.)

So, does my brother win "the prize" or should your sister-in-law get it? I think that makes us both "losers" because we both have some really dysfunctional family members...

mamahasspoken said...

WOW this day sounds totally bad, hope tomorrow is better for you.