Cooking with Dee

Seems more like early Fall, but you never know the weather around here. A blue-sky morning could turn to thunder and lightning in a matter of hours. Right now we’ve warm days and mainly cool nights but I was awakened early this morning because we had our slider open and the wind picked up and the shades started rattling.

We spent a few hours on the local home tour on Saturday and plan to see most of the remaining homes today. The economy has brought the number of homes down (15 last year, nine this year) but it gives us ideas and is an interesting way to spend a weekend, except that one has to put on used booties to walk into the homes. Ick. When we started yesterday morning they were new, now they’re old and furry and gross to put on.

Today we start at the second furthest place and work our way back home. I love seeing the kitchens and how they work an outside grill and dining area into the plan. The first place we visited included all the lighting and sound (in every room) outdoors as well as the vaulted wood-beamed ceilings. If Jim and I lived in the main floor we wouldn’t have trouble finding each other.

A part of me likes the space but wonders in certain homes if kids are present are they better in the basement? Others make sure there’s a kid’s suite with play room and sitting room and bath close to the master bedroom but there are so many other places in the house that it might never be a home. I like a home, with an inviting kitchen, bar area for guests to sit and chat while I cook, and homey spaces.

I did see some design materials I like, including rough stone tiles about an inch high and three inches wide, OK for backspash in bathroom but not shower, to me. A lot of probably recycled glass in horizontal tiles in kitchens, it’s all about horizontal tiles (think subway tile NYC but refined). There was stained concrete in the basement of one house that was browns, tans and beiges with etched and intersecting circles. Good for a kids’ tv room but not if they hit their head on the concrete. Perhaps they have to wear helmets.

It’s always interesting to see how the other half lives up here, people who can pony up 400K for a 2 BR ski condo to use a week or two a year or $5 million for the house on the hill. Kitchens and dining areas are always my focus so I’ll let you know what we come up with today. Cheers, Dee

My husband will always have a place to come home to, even though in the next few years Dallas will flood the land where he grew up and it will become a reservoir for the ever-growing metroplex. His folks have already bought land a few miles away but it means leaving a home they’ve built from scratch over thirty years ago. Memories of their boys growing up, Christmas trees and asparagus growing in the front yard.

Dairy cows then cattle. I’ve been in the family less than 10 years and will cry when they say goodbye to the house and acreage there. There’s a solid history there and family nearby. But one son has moved a few hours away, and the other, my dear husband, we move more often.

My parents split late in life, but we always moved every few years due to Dad’s work. I know the properties I was once attached to, but that’s what they are. They’re not homes anymore. Mom died nearly two years ago and Dad travels the world. There is no home for me to go to.

But my husband’s grandmother agreed years ago to be mine, and Jim’s parents and family are wonderful and provide a stable base for us. I contribute food, recipes, caring for anyone who visits or is in residence and being there is a retreat of sorts. Jim helps out with some farm chores while he’s there and his mother and I cook.

Where do we go from here? A realtor knocked on the door this morning with a tempting offer to buy within a few miles of where we live now. All I’ve done is promise to see it in the next few weekends. But could this be home? Could we actually buy a place here and retire someday? That remains to be seen.

Right now we like our turnkey place with a 45-day “out” clause because of the economy being what it is and has been the last couple of years. We do miss all our “stuff” in storage half a country away. I haven’t been able to look up a cookbook from my extensive collection for 18 months now! When I want ideas and proportions for a new marinade I have to check online. Oh, I made a delicious rub last year and got it online, it included smoked paprika. Can I find it again? No way.

Someday we’ll settle down, live in a nice home with all our stuff. Right now we’re more concerned with trying to get away for a long weekend as Jim has only taken one day off this year. It’s OK parents, we’ll grow up someday. Cheers, Dee

One of our guests just bought an entry-level banjo en route to see us and took it out and played a bit, very gutsy as he’s never played one before. Given my fits and starts then stop on guitar for now I’m fascinated that he just took this up today and has several electric guitars as well.

He’s read music for many year but also can use tabs, and I want to get back to reading music. I learned it at a very young age and haven’t done it for years but had to learn new hymns at Jim’s parents church recently. I didn’t know most of the music but read it and was not swayed by the tone deaf woman singing behind me.

My father-in-law led our section with a basso, Jim and his brother chimed in with a bass-baritone, I’m more of an alto and like to figure out harmonies and Jim’s mother sings soprano. No, I didn’t harmonize there. It would have been frowned upon, making one person’s voice different than another’s or having a “solo” is not accepted.

We both love music and Jim likes to dance (also not allowed). Many years ago he taught me the Texas Two-Step in his closet as I was trying to pack all his things so he could move away from me. Note: He Came Back, three weeks later, got a job near me and a place I found 1,000 feet from mine and we were married within the year.

I gave up on the church I grew up in, except for a few extraordinary priests. Our Church allowed dancing, and drinking. The second-best dancing I’ve done is with my husband when he tossed me around the floor at a local honkey-tonk.

The third would be the last time I’ve ever gone home to the Armadillo, that involves a certain cadre that would not accept me into the frat years ago, where one kicks one leg after another to London Homesick Blues by Jerry Jeff Walker. I did visit the village where Jerry Jeff has played a number of times in Gruene, TX.

A dance competition, in college Freshman year. Boz and I joined late but made it nearly 12 hours, I entertained with several aerial cartwheels. We also did well on the twist. I got a knot in my calf that wouldn’t go away after several hours and had to give it up, kudos to Boz for putting up with me after I’d been dumped that night and he deserved a better companion.

Jim and I haven’t danced for a long time, perhaps it’s because we’ve been married for a long time or my arthritis doesn’t allow me to have dancing shoes or cowboy boots to enjoy the music we both love now. Not all country, but western and a lot of other styles. Don’t put me in a box. I’ve a lot of classical, big band, early 20th century, Sinatra, and many more. At my step-sister’s wedding years ago the band played music from the 1920′s until current sounds. I knew the words to all the early songs because of my dad’s piano and violin playing when I was a kid.

I have Someone To Watch Over Me, and someone whose Whipporwill echoes the sounds of my deceased mother honking the horn to get us up from the creek 150′ below for dinner. Night and Day, you are the one…. to my love J

All the best to my readers, I need to fix some things on the new site but please bear with me. If he’s up to it tomorrow we’re going to check out the local zoo and other destinations, in upcoming weeks, so we have first-hand information to give our family and friends who will visit.

Dancing and singing, not bad things as I see them. If one sees the worst in them, the singers and dancers will leave that, and perhaps any religion. Something to think about, Dee

p.s. Can we come up with a song that says “My widgets are gone, …”

I remember never locking the doors, car or anything. Neighbors were friendly, quiet and there were casseroles, cheesecakes and pies exchanged. then we moved to larger city suburbs and I went on to live in mainly middle to large cities. There we locked our cars and front doors.

Everyone looked out for each other, except in NYC when I had to convince the deli to sell me salumi to use on yuppie pizza. I also had to get buffalo mozzarella, and had to answer a few questions on how I’d use it as well before they’d agree to sell it to me. Where I lived it was more looking after Nanny when the grandson had a mansion somewhere else. Nonna was well taken care of, so it was probably the safest place in town for me as a single gal.

At Jim’s family’s place, it’s got a feeling I love only partly for the land and views, but especially the people. Everyone who drives by waves and they’re not big on door locks but have a rifle at the ready for any intruder.

Wherever we’ve been it’s been more “cosmopolitan” yet less civil and less safe. We do lock our doors, home and car. We live in a wonderful community that is somewhat civil and quite safe. It is comforting to me, as I consider the future of humankind, to know that there are still individuals out there with a great deal of trust in what we’re capable of achieving and being. In the meantime I’ll still lock the car. Cheers, Dee