mathmom's blog

For many and various reasons I do all our laundry in one day. The biggest problem with this is that you get almost finished with the laundry... And then take off your dirty clothes and put them in the hamper. This adds to the sense of futility that makes laundry a chore. Michael and I occasionally joke about "laundry nirvana," the state when all the laundry is done and put away in the same day it was started. One day we had made good progress and were on our way to achieving laundry nirvana. Eleanor offered to draw a commemorative cartoon showing me in the lotus position, levitating amidst piles of folded laundry. We had a good laugh, and then Luke asked, "would you actually float?" I looked at Michael and he said eerily, "no one knows." I added, "it's never actually happened. Laundry nirvana might actually lead to the end of the world. Anything could happen." This led to a discussion of "The 9 billion names of God," and other apo...

It is strawberry season here, which means we are required to make at least one pie a week. (I'm sure I read that in the NC residents manual somewhere.) Eleanor has been learning how to make the pies, which is a relief. Yesterday we had guests over, which means that we made two pies. Which, if you watch Vi Hart, means we made tau.  ( See here .)   Here is my recipe for pie crust, based on the better homes and gardens cookbook and the cooks illustrated recipe. 1 1/3 cup flour 1/2 cup butter (or earth balance buttery stick) 1/2 tsp. salt Water and ice Mix the flour and salt thoroughly. Cut in the butter. Add 4 tsp. ice water and toss with two forks.  Get the mixture into a ball-you might need to add a little more water. (You can refrigerate the dough wrapped in plastic for hours or a few days. You could even freeze it.) Roll the dough out. When you put it into the pan, flute the edges so they overhang the edge of the pan, or the crust will shrink in t...

The other day Michael and I were explaining something to Amanda about how things used to be when we grew up.  We may have been talking about the reason I still call books that someone reads aloud "books on tape" or "books on CD," even though the books are now collections of electrons on my phone. Eleanor looked at Amanda and piped up in a crotchety, wavery voice, "When I was your age..."  I expected her to continue with something like, "I walked 5 miles uphill to school. In the snow. Both ways!"  Or, "We liked it!  Because we didn't know any better!"  Or, "When I was a boy, TV was called books!" These are some responses Michael and I use while talking about "the good old days." But Eleanor continued, "When I was your age, I was ten!" It is possible that you had to be there.  I still find it funny.

Last week (actually a few months ago now, but who's counting), after our first big snowstorm, Luke was instrumental in getting the driveway clean.  This was a good thing, since it was covered in about 2 inches of sleet and ice.  I went out and worked for half an hour to clear one track from where he left off to the street, so that after refreezing we might have enough traction to get out of the driveway.  Then I cleared the 1.5 foot pole in front of Michael's garage door so he could go to work the next day in his non-SUV car. It was a lot of work. Then we had another snowstorm. At some point during the day Luke was going a little stir crazy, and I was so busy I knew I wouldn't have time to clear the driveway, so I sent him out to do it. Thinking of the hard work we had put in a few weeks before, I offered him $5, but only if he did a really good job and got the driveway all the way clean. I know it's below the minimum wage, but I figured Luke would be learning somethin...

The other day, during one of the seemingly endless snowstorms of the past few weeks, I needed to make something for dinner.  I really only have a few things I make for dinner over and over, and we had either made all of them recently or I didn't have the ingredients (and I wasn't about to go into the storm to get them).  I had a frozen pork tenderloin, but even though my dad would shovel a path to the grill in the winter I really didn't want to grill it.  My usual rub of thyme, sage and salt didn't sound good to me.  Plus the meat was still frozen and I wanted to cut it smaller to speed up cooking. I was trying to remember things that my kids liked to eat when they were younger when I remembered gyros and how much Amanda used to like the meat.  I couldn't make gyros, but I found a recipe for souvlaki which consisted of marinating the meat in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and thyme. We made it and when I put a bit in my mouth the juices and the crispness bro...

When we moved down to the South, one of our favorite topics during the winter was how wimpy Southerners were.  "They only predicted snow, and they closed school!"  "It's only an inch of snow, and they can't drive!"  "Don't they know that you are supposed to plow while it's still snowing, not wait until you have 6 inches?"  Oh, those crazy Southerners.  We were also implying that they gave up easily, were unintelligent and didn't plan well.  They could learn a lot from us Northerners. We've been down here for over 20 years, and while I am not a Southerner, I have tried to overcome my attitude problem.  Sure, there are some things that Southerners could learn about dealing with snow from Northerners.  They have actually learned many of these things.  A prediction of snow doesn't close school here nearly so often, for example.  The other week it actually snowed and melted without school being closed.  But the South faces many cha...

I have learned a few things over the years about dealing with allergies---not that I'm an expert, especially about really severe allergies, or about non "top 7" allergies.  Also, I haven't dealt with soy or wheat allergies lately, although I remember a few things.  I may add to this as I remember more. General Principles The general principle with allergies is to cook things from traditions which don't involve your allergy.  So to avoid dairy, cook Mexican food (cheese as a topping) or Asian food, or Greek food, not Italian or French food. Don't try to make food do what it is not good at.  Making a chewy bread without gluten is foolish.  However, making a flaky pie crust or biscuit makes sense.    Substitutes My favorite substitute is Earth Balance buttery sticks.  They do make soy free versions which I assume are also good.  Almond milk is delicious, although some people (Amanda) can't have it because of the nuts.  There ...