Give Him the Damn Ball

Unfortunately Stereotypical Dad Coach is the coach of Frank's football team this year. Frank has been lumped in with two kids who goof around and drop the ball and don't know what is going on. The coaches do not have a playbook and they yell at the kids a lot. The coach's kid plays quarterback for about 80% of the game. Frank plays quarterback for about 20% of the game. Last night he completed a pass and handed the ball off without dropping it. That's it. The rest of the game belonged to the coach's kid. Why was my kid taken out of that position? I couldn't figure it out.

Frank plays defense a lot, which he also likes, but every flag football coach he has had up until this year has made sure that the kids got equal play on offense and defense. I know I am his mom, but Frank is the tallest kid and has a great arm - distance and accuracy. He shared the position of quarterback with the coach's kid last year and got equal play. (Why does the coach's kid always play quarterback? Don't answer that.)

And on top of it all, Frank is just a really great kid.

After the game I heard several of the other dads talking to the coach about the unequal play time. I thought about saying something, but I wanted to talk to Frank first.

"Do you feel like you're getting enough playing time?" I asked him in the car.

"No. I only got a few plays on offense," he said. "The coach kept telling us we would get a chance to play offense, but he keeps playing the other guys."

"Do you want me to say something?" I asked.

"No, it's ok," he said.

"Frank never gets mad about stuff like that," Mary said.

And it's true. He's just a super patient kid. He sits on the sidelines and follows the game and does what his coach wants him to do and doesn't complain. So that's what makes me think that I need to complain on his behalf. I worry, and I think Frank worries, that I will get all Terrell Owens on the coach.

I will lay back, I think. Frank is playing some, and it's just one year of flag football. I will be sure that he is not with this coach next year. Frank's talent and teammate qualities will pay off in the long run. This 5th grade recreational flag football league is just nothing in the scheme of things, which really just fuels my Mom Fire and makes me want to call a press conference.

Give my kid the damn ball.

Earthen Vessels

I have been playing the guitar again in the evenings. Mostly I play old Bob Dylan and John Lennon solo stuff. It's very acoustic guitar friendly. It's also stuff that I feel comfortable singing along with. As much as I love music and guitar, I am not much of a singer.

My latest acquisition is a guitar/songbook of "Earthen Vessels." If you're my age or older and Catholic, you'll remember the songs. They are as much a part of my childhood and deep memory as any other song from the 70s and 80s. They are gentle and easy sounding - easy to play on the guitar and sing along.

I was in the Lincoln Diocese thrift store when the conversation ahead of me sparked my interest in owning some classic-to-me church music.

"I don't go to my parish church, I go to St. Mary's because they have an organ and a choir," the woman said (she and I go to the same church - but it is my parish church).

"Oh, I prefer the old music, too," the man said. "I don't like Guitar Masses," he continued. He turned and smiled at me, "Does that mean that I am going to Hell?"

There was a huge pause as I struggled with what I wanted to say. I finally broke my silence and smiled.

"I think that people should feel welcome and happy at church and that there are lots of different kinds of music that can make you feel that way. I miss the St. Louis Jesuit music," I said.

The man pursed his lips and furrowed his brow as if I had somehow insulted him.

I went home and did some google searching and learned how hard it is to get what I wanted. I remember sheets of mimeographed chords and lyrics being exchanged between guitar players in the basement of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Denver. What happened to all those mimeographed sheets?

I found a used copy of "Earthen Vessels" and I could not be happier. It is the music I love and the guitar is as simple or complex as you are able. I did not expect the gentle and helpful instructions about tuning and strumming - what an added bonus.

So at night I sit in my room and play old St Louis Jesuits tunes because at my church we have an organ and songs that I have difficulty singing along with. Does that mean I am going to Hell?

Good grief. What an idiot.

Porcupine Meatballs

Whenever I think of recipe cards, I think of this recipe. Porcupine meatballs were a frequent meal at our house growing up. My sister was in charge of dinner one night and made these. But my mom's handwritten index card did not tell her to roll the meat mixture into balls. So she didn't. (My mom is a conceptual cook and her index card listed the ingredients along with the temperature. That's it. No instructions.) Kate mixed the ingredients, patted the meat into the pan, and poured the sauce on top and baked it. We had porcupine loaf for dinner. "But it didn't say to roll it into balls!" Kate said as we all exclaimed over the loaf when it came out of the oven. We teased Kate for years about her literalness and her belief that the loaf could somehow transform into balls in the oven. I mean, she ate porcupine meatballs at least once a month. She knew they were supposed to be balls. :-)

I've never made these in my life. Thanks to the Internets I can find a recipe for anything I want to make. I think I will make these this weekend. Kate? I think you should make them too. Let me know if you go with a loaf or balls.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound lean ground beef
2/3 cup long-grain rice, uncooked
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 large can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Preparation:
Directions for porcupine meatballs
Mix ground beef with rice, 1/2 cup of water, chopped onion, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Shape porcupine ground beef mixture by tablespoon into 1 1/2-inch balls.
Place the porcupine meatballs in an ungreased 2-quart shallow baking dish. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the porcupine meatballs. Cover and bake at 350° F. oven for about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake porcupine meatballs 15 to 20 minutes longer.
Porcupine meatballs serve 4 to 6.

Index Cards

I read recipe books for entertainment. I collect them. I check them out of the library.

Sometimes I even cook out of them.

I do have cookbooks that I use almost weekly. I could not do without the original Moosewood cookbook. I have lots of Moosewood books, but I use the original one the most. If I buy or find a Cookling Light, I make whatever is on the cover. Kebobs, cake, corn, it doesn't matter. If it is the cover picture, I make it. I blame/thank the food photographers at Cooking Light. I love cooking magazines and I have piles of them. I recently sorted them out and I am trying to decide what to do with them. I think I will flip through them and see if there is something I can't bear to pass on, but I will send the others to the Goodwill. I love the Self Magazine recipes that I get in my email. I also get Kraft foods recipes. And there is always the newspaper food section and the cooking blogs that I read and suggestions from my friends. I am frequently inspired by literature and so I will go looking for food like the meals my characters eat. There are not enough meals for me to make everything that I want to make.

I have read the average American family rotates a dinner menu of very few offerings. We have our base meals too - homemade pizza with pesto, spaghetti and red sauce, black beans and rice, and baked salmon with rice are probably our main meals. Around those I plan whatever I read about/bought/heard about/got a hankerin' for.

I trashed the idea of the USDA meal plan after I read the menu. Blech. White rice and white bread and juice instead of actual fruit. Not for me. I found a couple of other low income menu suggestions, and found one that I love. I am glad that I got past the title.

This blogger has a $40 menu. I went with the $70 menu because I found it more "lunch outside the home" friendly. I spent more than $70, but I bought whole wheat flour and brown rice and coffee instead of tea and butter instead of margarine. What I like most about these recipes I realized is the bread recipes. They are REALLY good and easy to make. My family LOVES bread.

I also realized that while I like to try all different kinds of main dishes, I really could use some perfect bread recipes. I already have my pizza dough recipe which I perfected a couple of years ago. I realized that her whole wheat bread, flour tortilla, corn muffins, pancakes, garlic breadsticks and biscuits would make great additions to that. I like the idea of having a pancake recipe on an index card by the stove so I don't need to look it up everytime I want to make the kids pancakes. So I am going to copy them to index cards and keep them in the clip by the stove. I have never had a working recipe box. How could you possibly fit your recipes in a little box? I have always wondered. But basic bread recipes! That makes sense to me.

About the Hillbilly Housewife...I really am following her meals and they really are delicious. My children, who were leary of a week without Toaster Streudel, have been very happy with warm biscuits and muffins and pancakes in the morning.

Housekeeping is a Fulltime Job

Frank has been running a fever and has a nasty cough. The fever broke and he slept through the night last night, so the signs are that he is getting better, and that's when Mary started to feel poorly.

Sick kids used to mean whining babies and hot, clingy toddlers. Now it just means that I have an unusually tired and hot kiddo who wants to lay on the couch and watch "Field of Dreams" on repeat. I joined him for one showing yesterday and he curled into me and I had a flashback of hot, clingy toddler, but overall, he is pretty independent. I am mostly here to administer Tylenol and encourage him to drink juice and water.

I have enjoyed the opportunity to clean. Yesterday I moved all the kitchen appliances off the counter and did a deep clean. I mopped and wiped down baseboards. I moved all the furniture on the main floor and cleaned the wood floors like they haven't been cleaned in years. I've been running the washer and dryer and baking bread and serving my family home cooked meals on stoneware which I cheerfully wash so that the kitchen is once again shining and clean.

I do a pretty good job as a mom with a full time job outside the home. We don't order take out or eat much prepared food. I cook from scratch, although I don't usually bake bread. But we often use paper plates and the floor usually needs to be cleaned and the towels pile up in the basement.

As a mom it is easy to be resentful that no one notices your hard work and no one wants to help you. The kids do not care that the trash is overflowing and that the toilet is stopped up and that the dishes from LAST night are still piled next to the sink. They will balance their trash precariously on top and use the toilet anyway and pile their recently dirty dishes on the kitchen table since there is no room in the sink. And then they WALK AWAY.

I do have them help, but it requires instruction and cajoling. I accept that they do things differently from me. I accept that I do more than them. And I have chosen to be that way. The clean house and home cooked meals are my gift to my family. I love them and want them to have a clean house and a good meal. It has helped me a lot to change my way of thinking and feel that way. Sometimes I am not successful and I scream and go on a rant about how I do everything around here, but most of the time I smile and ask them to take out the trash while I mop the floor.

But these days of caring for sick children has put my domestic instinct into overdrive. I happened to have a few days with nothing scheduled at work and so I have been able to devote myself to my sick children and my house. Four loaves of zucchini bread and four loaves of whole wheat bread, for example. It's been nice.

The two kids are tucked into blankets on the couch watching "Field of Dreams" (there is no way Mary will put up with that all day, so I am predicting that the movie changes after this showing) and I am going to sort fall clothes and pull out the electric blankets and put clean sheets on the bed. And then I will make them a hot lunch of beans and homemade bread. Maybe I'll join them for a movie this afternoon.

I think that the newness would wear off quickly if I really was a full time mom, but I am enjoying it right now.