18 November 2009

That reminds me of a story...

N8tr0n and I ate this for dinner a couple of nights ago and it was fantastic. And that is coming from someone who only marginally likes tofu.* I love Brussels sprouts though, and I always have fun filling my grocery bag with the perfect sprouts for a dish (it's weird I know). Sometimes I forget why I actually need the Brussels sprouts because I'm so caught up in picking out the nice ones, and I end up with way more than I actually needed in my bag. That very thing happened to me the other day and it reminded me of a story:

The first year we lived in Colorado we decided to host Thanksgiving at our house with my in-laws. All of them. As in, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother/sister-in law, and brother-in-law. I knew we would need a lot of food and I was prepared. I waited to buy most of the produce until the day before everybody came so that it would be fresh. I walked over to the beautiful pile of green beans and filled my bag. Then I moved on to the sweet potatoes. However, a quick glance over my shoulder revealed a man filling his grocery sack with twice as many green beans as I had! Maybe even three times? I wondered how many people he could possibly be having over for Thanksgiving dinner at his house. Did I need more green beans? Surely I had underestimated. I lost all confidence in my people to food proportioning abilities. Once the man was gone, I zoomed back over to the green beans and filled my bag until it was heaping.

We had way too many green beans.

I think it was so funny that it never once occurred to me that the dude may have had absolutely no idea what he was doing. I assumed he had carefully planned (as I thought I had), and had figured out that he actually needed five pounds of beans. But for all I knew, he could have just been a husband who had been sent to the grocery store at the last minute to get "some" green beans. He may have been playing it safe and was buying enough produce to feed a crowd of twenty a main course meal of green bean casserole. He could have been like my dad that time he went to the grocery store to buy lettuce.

Which reminds me of a story...

My dad is the kind of guy who likes to have cash in his wallet. Something those of us in the debit card era rarely have the satisfaction of experiencing. One day he was sent to the grocery store to get some lettuce but he was running low on funds. He checked his wallet and hoped that the $5.00 he had would be enough. When he got to the grocery store he was shocked...."What! You mean to tell me that some poor [sap]** out in North Carolina is slaving away growing lettuce and he's not even going to get a doller per head?" I love that about my dad. Always thinking about the source. What else would you expect from a cattle grower/farmer? It is just a good thing he wasn't in charge of the grocery shopping...who knows what the man would have paid for a gallon of milk!

Which reminds me of a story....

No, actually it doesn't. That's all the stories I have for today. I'm saving the rest for later. Now I'm off to work on some very important projects that I have to finish before we leave for Idaho. If you need me, I'll be at my sewing machine. Which is next to the table covered with scrapbook materials, and behind the basket of laundry, and next to the bucket of sensory beans, and under the giant stack of fabric. I'll be there. And if you never hear from me again...avenge my death.


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* N8tr0n really likes tofu and I'm not opposed to eating it...but I'm running out ideas and recipes. Any of you have good tofu recipes/methods for use? I would really REALLY appreciate it if you sent them my way.

**edited

6 comments:

michelle said...

Sorry to say, I just don't like tofu. I know it's supposed to taste like... anything, but to me it just always tastes like tofu.

I did really enjoy your green beans story, though. And I too love brussels sprouts.

Travelin'Oma said...

These are great stories. I can't do tofu at all!

I just had to comment about your Christmas plans. The Christmas stories that touch our hearts are always about the meager Christmases: the time someone got just an orange, or the husband who sells his watch to buy his wife combs for the hair she sold to buy his watch chain. You never read touching stories about the years everybody got everything they'd seen on the commercials.

I'll be excited to read your blog and see how your home-made Christmas turns out. Good luck! It will be great.

Staci said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Staci said...

I've never made brussel sprouts, but there's something about them that makes me happy.

My Thanksgiving story involves broccoli. One year the weather froze all broccoli sources just in time to sky rocket the cost. I aws in charge of making a broccoli salad (couldn't use frozen), and I ende up buying nearly $60 of the stuff just to make sure there was enough for my in-law family.

My hubby has a fond Thanksgiving story that involves a young you spilling milk on the pre-dinner snack table in Grandma's kitchen. You were enamored with my Vince Gill look alike spouse, and you burst into embarassed tears. Jon said it was the first time he'd had a woman cry over him.

Staci said...

Can you delete that double post? Please?

Gail said...

That tofu looks so good - I think I'd like to try it (substituting onion and broccoli for you-know-what and you-know-what... haha) Also, Gramma Jo's lettuce story would be a good fit for one of your food blogs sometime.

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