On the menu: cooking ahead

I did some serious cooking today, friends.

But before that, I mapped out a menu plan for the next couple weeks. Here's what's up this week...

Mon: Barbecue at my cousin's house
Tue: Cheese and basil polenta with tomato-basil sauce (which I didn't get around to making before). Green salad on the side.
Wed: Salad greens with cucumbers and mushrooms, topped with cranberry-walnut-marinated chicken and Parmesan cheese. Maybe a little olive oil for dressing.
Thr: Empanadas (Did I mention we got them practically perfect last time? Wondering if they'll be just as good this time.) Rice on the side.
Fri: winging it



This afternoon I made cabbage slaw (that's what my cousin requested I bring to the family get-together tomorrow); the polenta (which is ready to go in the oven) and the empanada filling (which just needs to be put into a pie crust, folded over and popped in the oven at the same time) are chilling in the fridge; I cooked the chicken for Wednesday's salad; and I made a couple big batches of rodeo stew. (One for next week; another one for whenever.) I don't think I've ever prepped that much food in advance. I'm kinda proud of myself. So even if my week is really tiring, dinner each night is already almost ready. It's a good feeling.

How about you? Do you have a menu plan you'd like to share?

Failure to connect - part 2

The Pre-cellphonial Era

So back to the question: What did we do before cell phones were so commonplace?

Before I had a cell phone, I had a purple pager clipped into the pocket of my overalls. (Which I may have sometimes worn with one strap undone, hanging down the back.) (C'mon! It was the 90's, people!)

Back then - and even before my pager days - you always kept a quarter with you for the pay phone. When you called a friend, you called a land line (although you never thought of it that way - it was just a phone) that went to their family's house. If your friend wasn't home, you might have to leave a message on the family's answering machine or with her little brother, or you might get a busy signal and have to try again later.


Phonelessness

I left my cell phone at home went to Spain for my study abroad program in 2003, since I knew it wouldn't work in Europe. Some of my friends made the same choice, and not having a phone at the ready was definitely an adjustment.

Plans were not so fluid. None of this "just call me when you're on the way" stuff. You set a time and place in advance and had to stick to it. We made a bigger effort to be early or on time, since there was no updating a waiting friend on your status, if the bus was running late or something. And if you were the one waiting...you just waited. There was no contacting the person directly to find out where they were. You just stuck around, wondering where they were, wondering if they'd come, second guessing whether you and the meeting place right or if they could be waiting for you at that other cafe.


Phondependence

T-Mobile's outage at a superinconvenient time on Tuesday made me think some more about the way we use - and rely on - cell phones. I'm not saying we should stop. But maybe it's a good idea to not assume we'll be able to get in contact with someone at any moment. Think about the chaos that follows when a company's email is out of commission. Or how users of Twitter/Facebook/etc. are at a loss when their service of choice goes down.

The other night, I wanted to keep things flexible, because there were a number of unknowns - how long the train ride would take, when others would arrive, how ticketing would work, if I was going to do a contest for my unused tickets, if and when I was going to get something to eat beforehand. But I could've made a decision. I could've said I'll be in this place at this time. And here's the backup plan, if something doesn't work.

It's always good to have a backup plan.


Phontingency plans

Maybe I should be more firm in my commitments as a general rule. Maybe I should make sure that I have other contact information for the people I usually connect with via Twitter. Maybe I should double check that the important emails I sent are received.

Maybe I should do less assuming and more backup planning. Or maybe the cell phone should be the backup and not the plan. Any thoughts?

*****

Photos:
1) by sean dreilinger
2) by John Fraissinet
3) by Scott Ableman
4) by artolog

Are you ready?

I haven't really discussed the swine flu here much (if at all). The thing is I kinda felt like it was getting enough attention already. I did toy with the idea of a post on decorating face masks, but, by the time I was getting around to that, the (real or perceived) threat to North America was dying down.


This morning an article about the media and people's reactions to the swine flu caught my attention. On Exurban, Inc., Ted Villa wrote:

"One of the most interesting things to me has been the reaction to the 'pandemic' as defined by the WHO on places like Twitter: skepticism, lack of concern, some outright mockery. Meanwhile, compare this to some of the reaction in the print and broadcast media where it seems it’s time to stock the water, rice and beans and line up for the Tamiflu vaccination."

Good article. (And worth reading the rest of.)


But I'm wondering: what's wrong with stocking up on water and rice and beans? I mean, pandemic pandemonium aside, isn't it just generally a good idea to keep some of that stuff on hand just in case of...whatever?


I'll admit, we're not always so great about that emergency preparedness stuff around here. (My parents - good scouts who are very into Being Prepared - are cringing as they read this.) Maybe it has something to do with living in Phoenix. We don't have a lot of natural disasters here. No blizzards or hurricanes or earthquakes (if there's a biggie over in L.A. we might get a little swimming-pool-sloshing tremor, but those don't really count). So we tend to get a little lazy and put off filling the water bottles or stocking up on staples.

But hearing about how one of the world's biggest cities basically shut down because of a little teeny virus made me think. And, flu or no flu, I think we shouldn't be quite so reliant on being able to zip out to the store at any moment. You just never know.

So, we're gonna work on that. And I bet my dad could help us come up with a check list.

****

Photos by me. Apple pie filling bottled by Mom, who is most likely ready for anything.