Those Magic Manic Moments

Kitchen Window- Shaker Museum and Library, Old Chatham, NY

I was a madwoman over the weekend, a domestic whirling dervish dancing and flitting about the apt. with my dust rag, washing walls and scrubbing floors and cleaning like nobody's business. I had to; I just couldn't take it anymore. There's a certain level of clutter that I find acceptable to live with (and believe me my threshold is high) cleaning is not one of those domestic tasks I find pleasurable (my mother comes to mind) but things had gotten way out of hand and for far too long so I sent the husband and the little girl packing, told them to go visiting, run errands, play at the park, do whatever, but just not come home until I had taken back some of our living space.

After they had gone I suddenly felt tired and overwhelmed and wondered how in the world my mother and grandmother took care of their homes so well and without any complaints. They worked full time jobs, raised a bunch of kids, tended to husbands, planned and cooked meals, and budgeted their time, love and money between all of us never once putting their own needs first. I couldn't help but think how they must have been constantly frustrated and screaming on the inside. I've actually had quite a few thoughts like this since becoming a mother myself and now I see why valium was referred to as “mothers little helpers” There are some days when I’m so overwhelmed I just feel crazy. I fought the urge sit at the computer and waste time, or to lie on the couch and take a nap, I wanted to bag the cleaning and just spend my time in the kitchen puttering around with recipes or doing just about anything other than the drudgery that was ahead of me, but it had to be done, and so rather than fight it I decided to face it head on. I put on and blasted some music and made the chores into a game; how long would it take me to sort the recyclables, how many strokes of the dust rag will it take to clean the bookcase, how many shots of Windex on the mirrors--after a while the stress that I had been bearing from the burden of the stress of my dirty apartment started to lift away just like all that dirt and dust were being washed and wiped away. I started to feel like I was actually enjoying myself (oh the horror) or at least enjoying the idea of a somewhat cleaner place for myself and my little family. That thought kept me going, it made me not want to stop until everything was spotless and in its rightful place and it was while I was having those feelings and thoughts that I made the connection of how my mother and grandmother must have gotten by for all those years, at least some of the time anyway.

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Still Life with Serrated Knife and Tea Kettle

I didn't just clean this weekend, I did manage to fit some cooking in too. I experimented with a bread recipe hoping to achieve what I would eventually like to refer to as my own version of "pain di casa" or house bread. What I'm trying to achieve is a lot less like the crusty loaves I get at the bakery but more like the sliced sandwich bread I get at the supermarket. I want to get out of the habit of buying supermarket sliced bread, it's so overly processed and I suspect what little fiber there is in them is actually just sawdust. So, secretly and for the past few weeks without recording it here; because let's face it, how many posts can I do about the same experiment with bread before I bore myself and everyone to tears, I have been tweaking recipes from some of my bread cookbooks. This last loaf was just okay flavor wise, and it didn't quite meet my requirement for a softer crust although the crust was far less crusty than I'm used to getting from a sourdough loaf. I think I need to move on to breads that are made with commercial yeasts, and in loaf pans because the wild yeast that I'm using isn’t lending itself to the soft pliable type of bread I want. To tell you the truth I'm not sure what I want except to have a recipe that will allow me to whip out a loaf or two of bread with minimal effort every other week or so. It will be fun to see if I can achieve that with the loaf pan recipes.

I’ve was also able to make 2 meals that will in turn gives us at least 3 more meals each, so some of it was frozen and some of it we’ll eat later in the week. The first recipe was something I’ve actually made and blogged about before, a Bulgarian Beef Stew that was a recipe I adapted from good ole Epicurious.com. This time, rather than go off on my own tangent I followed the recipe as it was written and the results were tasty. The final ended up being more like a noodle dish with sauce and beef in it than a stew but it was just as good and the little girl are quite a bit of it. I roasted a chicken, rinsed it in cold water then patted it dry, rubbed it down with the juice of a lemon and lime then stuck the rinds in the cavity of the bird with an onion, some garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary. I took some softened butter and rubbed it just under the skin on the breast side, a delicious trick I learned from Julia Child (watching her show), then salt and pepper and a lot of paprika and into the oven. The end result is always very flavorful and juicy, very enjoyable. I'll be able to make some chicken salad and stir-fry from those leftovers. The last meal to be cooked (on Mon) will be a veal roast, my supermarket had trimmed, and tied veal shoulder for a good price so I picked one up with the intent of braising it, it will be our last heavy winter type dish as I am more than ready to make that transition into spring and summer and lighter meals. No desserts were made, although I did buy the lemons and limes with the intent of making a lemon/lime soufflé tart but I am tired from my manic cleaning/cooking frenzy and have little energy left. I'm done with being a domestic diva this week; I don't want to set foot in the kitchen again until Friday, when I'll be baking a little treat for my reading group. I'll be attending my first meeting since having the baby over a year ago! I'm looking forward to it, now, if I can just find the time to read the book.

Written by Deb on March 7, 2005 02:07 AM