Cookies and Brooms

Here are the roses from our front yard

Had a headache today, but worked on the church's website, made some gingerbread cookies - and I'm trying to streamline the housecleaning process. I've never been a Merry Maid by any stretch, but it's really dusty around here (and believe me, it's more than a small matter - the floor itself has a fine layer of dust every single day), so it means literally daily sweeping and wiping things down. My husband (and his elderly mother, who lived here before I came) had a housecleaner in here on a weekly basis for years, so he doesn't realize the upkeep or little daily maintenance that than help. It's a good thing I'm not working outside the home - If I get a job, I don't wanna think about the dust.

On to tonight's dinner: made with the yellow sauce on the pasta

I think I need a popsicle now to help me with my head pain.

Fresh food and flowers

I picked a lovely assortment of roses from the yard yesterday, so see, it isn't all bad.

Last week, one of the congregation members gave us many vine-ripened red globe and small yellow pear tomatoes. With the globes, I made two tomato-focused salads:
* chopped tomatoes * chopped onions * garlic * basil * EV olive oil * white balsamic

and a few days later
* chopped tomatoes * chopped onions * parsley * corn kernels * EV olive oil * honey mustard


Similar though they were to each other, there was enough variation to make it interesting. Sadly, I am allergic to tomatoes (migraine food), but I did sneak a bite of each, and they were delish - thankfully my wonderful husband thought so, too, as he is the one who had to eat both creations.

With the yellows, I made a sauce, which I think will be used in tonight's dinner. The sauce was super easy, too - just warmed up some light olive oil, tossed in some basil (which gave it a bit of a smoky flavor), added just a few chipotle flakes, let it all simmer to a nice mashy sauce, et voila!

Appalachia, California??

Yes, the foothills of Madera County are where Appalachia meets California.

I had visited my husband's congregation a few times before we got married a year and a half ago, but nothing could have prepared me for its reality of existence.

While this area is only 30 miles north of Fresno, the mindset of its population is very much "us against them." The "locals," and I use the term loosely, as so many of the people are transplants, look upon those who live in the Fresno metro area (my husband, their pastor, and I included) as flatlanders and therefore as outsiders. With apologies to Chris Nolan's film Insomnia, "There are two kinds of people in [Coarsegold/Oakhurst, etc]: those who were born here and those who come here to escape something." If they don't work in Fresno, it's like pulling teeth to get someone to go there for any reason.
There is a lot of homeschooling, hunting, libertarianism (which also extends to practices they want/don't want in the church), and personal hygiene seems to be a problem among many. It's a challenge indeed. The media is shunned to a degree - TV, internet - but Rush Limbaugh is an icon here. Oh, remember the guy whose skin turned blue from ingesting too much colloidal silver? Yeah, he's nearby. Welcome to my world.