A Different Life II

[Por Sonia]

Thank you, Maggie, for this thread, which has always given me sustenance through the years, with your wisdom and cooking skills . . . as I enter a new different life of my own!

And thank you for the support and encouragement on my health issues.

Peter

[Lily&Me]

Aww, Peter…thank you.

You are a pillar of this community, and any help I can be to you is absolutely my privilege.

Glad you are on the mend and back amongst the posters.

Maggie

[Por Sonia]

Thank you.

[Lily&Me]

Made it to darling daughters this afternoon, overnighting in Pennsylvania last night, and completely without incident.

It is a beautiful time of year to be traveling…trees in the east are in full fall foliage tho the recent storm took off many it was still a gorgeous drive.

Even thru lots of rain, both yesterday and today.

Maggie

[Lily&Me]

Heading toward home in the morning, and it’s been a good visit.

I have cooked, she has cooked, we’ve had a few meals out and been to an apple orchard, and so I am taking home a modest quantity of New York State Honey Crisp apples.

Have also made her a new fleece blankie, at her request. It’s what moms do.

We needed some concentrated time, still recovering from the pit-mix incident two years ago.

The dogs here have been their usual, exuberantly welcoming and affectionate selves, tho I am not another dog so do not need to be appropriately submissive or face a showdown.

Lily has reportedly done well at my sons, and enjoyed all the extra attention from the kids and their friends, but she will be glad to have her mama back home.

Lows are in the 20’s at home this week, but I have plenty of firewood waiting for me.

Maggie

[Lily&Me]

We are home, about 8 hours drive time yesterday and again today.

Without any rain, just clear skies and mostly sunshine, tho quite cold at night and there was a thick layer of frost on my windshield this morning.

Nana’s trunk is safely deposited at my son’s, and Lily is home with me.

I take her to the vet for her surgeries Friday morning, and she is going to be very unhappy with me.

It’s time for that one in her groin to come out, tho, and once she is healed up she would thank me if she could.

I set one of those balls of dough from last week in my frig to thaw, then shape and bake tomorrow, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Maggie

[Lily&Me]

Nice to go, always nice to be home.

I brought back some very excellent coffee from a roaster in NY…

[Lily&Me]

Lily is out of surgery, tolerated it well and can come home in about 4 hours.

That large lipoma in her groin was under some muscle layers, which I suspected just from the feel of it, so it’s eventual impact on mobility and who knows what else was just a matter of time.

Our last dog, Gus-the-Brittney-Spaniel, had a similarly large lipoma removed from the muscle of one of his hind legs, which we discovered when trimming his fur for summer heat. An older dog thing, apparently.

Her teeth have been cleaned, since she was under and they needed it.

She has an old crack on a rear molar, which the vet offered to extract and then “drill out”…ummm, no, I told him…minus pain, inflammation, some sign of infection, etc., no need to put her almost 12 year old self thru that.

Little house has been cleaned, laundry done, mattress flipped , firewood hauled.

We are having absolutely beautiful fall weather, and leaves are finally starting to turn.

Maggie

[DaveP]

Our 8 year old Viszla has a large fatty tumor on her abdomen. We are waiting for a teeth cleaning (or similar need) before we have it removed. It tested benign. Hate to put her through extra stress so waiting (like you did) for doubling up.

[Lily&Me]

Yep, sedating them is hard on them, and may as well address multiple needs while they’re under.

I gave her an egg when she got home, than she ate her dog food a bit later, held everything down, had her meds...

She had a pretty restless night, tho, walking circles around the house trying to escape her discomfort, I suspect.

But, this morning she has been outside and then hopped up onto the ottoman, one of her favorite perches.

Sweet Lily.

Maggie

[Por Sonia]

Glad Lily is doing well . . . have a good weekend.

Peter

[Lily&Me]

And you, too, Peter.

So good to have you back here.

Maggie

[Photobum]

Lily is a pretty stoic dog. I suspect she is exercising the muscle tissue that feels different. To a fast recovery…

[Lily&Me]

Hi, Vince!

“Stoic” is the exact word the vet used, when I asked him if I should give her the pain and anti-inflammatory meds the full 10 days even if she didn’t seem uncomfortable.

“Yes”, he replied…”our dogs tend to be stoic, and not want to show their pain”.

Okay, then, that’s what I’ll do.

She had me up at 2am this morning, wanting to go outside, which is highly unusual for her…I then never went back to sleep.

Maggie

[Lily&Me]

It isn’t often that I watch a movie that I want to watch again, but “The Frozen Ground”, starring Nicholas Cage and Vanessa Hudgens is one of those very few.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frozen_Ground

I’ve now watched it twice, and I may watch it again, tho I am not a big Nicholas Cage fan he is excellent in his role as a sharp and persistent police detective in Alaska.

Based on real events, his character pairs up with a young prostitute to catch a serial rapist/murderer who had more than two dozen known victims.

Vanessa Hudgens plays the young prostitute, and she was also excellent.

It is a really, really good movie.

Back in the day, I had a lot of young mom clients who were caught up in the life of drug addiction and hooking/stripping/pole dancing.

Not very conducive to parenting, that lifestyle, their little ones would end up in protective custody and then it was equally difficult to get the moms away from the drugs, their pimps and the $800-$1000 a night they could make.

From what I learned from these young women, and saw with my own eyes, the Vanessa Hudgens character is a very realistic portrayal of a life many young runaways fall into…or are trafficked into.

Not an “upper”, but the Cage character…with the help of the 18 year old prostitute…catches the bad guy in the end, stopping the string of murders of young women that continues even while the Cage character is investigating.

He has very good “spidey senses”, follows what he knows instinctively and intuitively to be true, and does his job…and not because of, but in spite of, higher-ups who don’t want their cold cases re-examined.

I would give this movie 5 stars.

Maggie

[Por Sonia]

Thanks for the recommendation. Did you ever get into the Amazon Prime series "Bosch?" Amazing for "who done it" fans IMO. The recent [final] season's "Por Sonia" closing episode was a life-changing experience for me.

Peter

[Lily&Me]

I don’t have Amazon Prime, and have not seen that series, Peter, but it sounds good.

What resonates with me, primarily, about “Frozen Ground”, is the young prostitutes caught up in that lifestyle that they are then unable to escape for so many reasons.

I’ve known many young moms just like that.

Maggie

[Por Sonia]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

. . .
What resonates with me, primarily, about “Frozen Ground”, is the young prostitutes caught up in that lifestyle that they are then unable to escape . . .
. . .

Ditto for Bosch series and the drug companies pushing pain killer meds on the world . . . all for corporate profits! Also recommend Goliath on Amazon Prime. Great cast!

Peter

[Lily&Me]

I have been getting this One Dish Kitchen newsletter for months, now, which I really have enjoyed, and she stresses the importance of proper bakeware for her small batch recipes…

https://onedishkitchen.com/about/

I don’t have much in the way of small baking dishes, as that’s not the way I tend to cook…I was a pioneer heading west in another life, I’ve decided, and cooked for an entire wagon train …I will bake an entire lasagna, pot roast, whatever, then portion out the leftovers into vacuum seal bags for the freezer.

However, always a work in progress , I am trying to cook more things more often that will only feed me once or twice.

The MRE’s in my freezer have their place, but I can do better.

So, looking at small baking dishes online, just to see what’s out there, these little Staub items were almost $16.00 APIECE on Amazon, so I thought I would go see what TJMaxx had.

The exact same item, in this lovely cherry red, for $7.99.

I bought two.

I don’t know that I will do mini-lasagnas in these, but filled the other one with the last bits of the oatmeal bread loaf I baked last week, beat a couple of eggs with some milk and cinnamon sugar, poured it over and set it in the frig to soak and bake tomorrow.

It’s difficult for me to throw food out…because I was raised by a mother who was raised during the Depression, and because our own impoverished years made me use every scrap of anything nutritious.

I used to save the heels of homemade whole wheat bread in my freezer, and then when I had enough I would make this kind of a “strata”, or egg bake as some know it.

A good bread, milk, eggs and whatever else you want to add…an inexpensive and nutritious meal created, and you’ve used up the wheat bread.

At my daughters last weekend I roasted a chicken, then boiled down the bones and picked all the remaining meat off to put the stock and chicken into the freezer for her to make soup at some later point this winter.

I just can’t help it.


We’ve had several hard frosts, so the trees and my burning bush are turning rapidly and the sunny, mild weather we’ve been having has just been gorgeous.

Took my new lopper out and trimmed my lilac bushes yesterday, and have just the tall grasses yet to trim and my outside fall choring…but for leaves …is done.

I’m going to take the Interstate out for a drive in the next day or two, before lows in the 20’s and the possibility of snow arrive for the weekend.

[Hittenstiehl]

We too have been getting the newsletter since you recommended it I think she does a very nice job with her recipes. I like your explanation of your large portion cooking. I use the excuse that I grew up in a family of 7. TJ Maxx is absolutely the best.