fathers' day

In no particular order...

I made Stuart's favorite breakfast this morning: huevos rancheros, or at least, our version of it. I sautéed chopped onions, garlic (garlic scapes in this case, since we have a whole bunch from our CSA box), and jalapeño, then added grated tomatoes, cooked it down a little, and poached eggs in the juice. Serve with homemade corn tortillas (easier than you think - I'll maybe do a tutorial sometime) and grated cheese.

I had not yet put in my contacts before I made breakfast. BIG MISTAKE. For once, my hands weren't burning from the jalapeños, which are from the grocery store and not really so potent, but the hotness must have been lingering on my fingertips because I tried about three different times to put in my contacts and every time it resulted in unbearable burning. Yow. (Why did I try it three time? I guess I'm just dense.)

I seem bound and determined to injure myself today because I also banged my leg but GOOD on the back deck. There's a lump and a nasty little bruise that is guaranteed to be about three shades of purple tomorrow. It's nothing serious, but it still throbs badly enough I couldn't go on a run this afternoon like I'd planned.

I talked to my own dad on the phone for a while this morning. He's hard to get a hold of these days because he is spending several weeks at summer camp with the Boy Scouts teaching merit badge courses in Weather and Space Exploration. I suspect the merit badges from his classes are well-earned because my dad knows his stuff, is an excellent teacher, and won't let shoddy work slide, even at summer camp. He also has to endure hot, humid Kentucky summer weather, 11yo boys in large groups, and camp food. I felt a little bad when I told him what we had for breakfast this morning, because the best thing he'd consumed at camp all week was tepid Kool-Aid. (Until he got home for the weekend, that is, and ate my mom's wonderful cooking.)

We went strawberry picking this morning. Because our twenty pounds from the first haul isn't enough, apparently! This time we went to Jen Ehr, an organic farm near Sun Prairie (the first time was at Carandale, also excellent for strawberry picking, though not organic.) This time Anya helped pick instead of falling asleep in my lap. This time Stuart came along. This time we had just under five pounds of berries, which is enough for two batches of freezer jam, plus enough leftover for one generous recipe of strawberry shortcake and another pint to cut up raw and stick in the freezer.

Stuart watched World Cup soccer with our friend Sam, and they both had a mid-afternoon beer. They are also both considering playing hookey from their respective work obligations Wednesday morning to watch the next match.

Sam brought his 6yo daughter along, and I suspect she eventually got a little bored, but she did a great job acting as the ringleader for playtime, organizing a paper airplane event in the back yard, and playing other games with Daniel and Anya (this is usually MY job!) while I made the freezer jam in the kitchen.

I can't stand the thought of heating up and messing up the kitchen to make dinner, and I'm obviously not going to ask Stuart to make dinner, not on Fathers' Day, so the kids are having mac-n-cheese (Arthur-shaped, no less!) and we're getting Thai take-out. Mmmm...spicy fried tofu and noodles...

Comments

Steph said…
Susan. Have I never told you about the thing where you don't put your contacts in after chopping hot peppers? I have learned all contact lens vs. pepper-related lessons the hard way. I am lucky I still have functioning eyeballs.
Suze said…
Steph, I'm not going to admit just how many times I have had to learn this lesson. So many.

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