Beans

A big Sunday afternoon hello to YOU! Laurel's Kitchen got me thinking about beans. They are an easy food, you know. I bought beans yesterday, soaked them all night and now I am cooking them and they smell beanie. The white Great Northern beans are going to be a ham soup. Onion, salt, turkey ham, water = soup.
The pinto beans below are going to be a big pot of hamburger beans. Bacon, onion, salt, beans, tomatoes, ground beef = dinner.

Reading cookbooks made me long for a pancake. One pancake is easy to make and delicious to eat.

Cheesy potato soup with chicken? It was tasty.

I miss my kitchen when I'm at school. It's like a stranger to me on Friday evening, but by Saturday morning, we're friends again.

I'm embarrassed to say that I had only used ONE of my SIX massages that Bill gave me for Mother's Day, long ago in May. Yesterday I made an appointment to use number two. I have to use FOUR before the end of the month. Well, yesterday the massage therapist seemed really, really, tired and really, really hungry. He said, "Where does it hurt?" I replied, "Nowhere. I'm good." He said, "That never happens. I don't know what I can do for you." What a grouch. I said, "Oh! Well, I don't know . . . we'll talk and it will be great." (I wasn't picking up on his lack of enthusiasm) Finally, he decided to be a little nicer and a little less burnt out and started his "deep tissue" massage. It took me twelve hours to recover. Ouch! When I left (after giving him a very generous tip for a meanie) he said, "You need to stretch more." I guess massage therapists have long, hard, boring, "I'm tired of massaging" days, too. I didn't ask for him and I certainly won't ask for him next time. He's safe from THAT! We paid for this "treat" and I intend to arrange for a nice, squishy, gentle, WEAK massage therapist next time. Yikes.

Can we HOPE that the cool weather is on its way? I think so! I am wearing my slippers in the morning and I am going to make sure I take care of my feet this winter. I'll keep them warmer (I prefer to go without socks) and I will try to adjust to covering them up and protecting them from the dry Colorado air. And because I'm in the mood to whine, I must tell you that my classroom is SO hot again. Sigh. I bought summery knit shirts to wear up on the second floor. I can't bear it all winter long. It's been too hot for three years so I guess it's going to have to be summer inside, winter outside for quite a few months. Drat.

Anyway, fall is lovely and pumpkins and squash are the stars of the show. Bran muffins and ginger bread make wonderful love gifts. And guess what? In three weeks, I'll be in Hawaii floating in the salty sea and gazing at palm trees.

Back to the computer grade book now. Three more weeks of school until fall break. I can do this because October is a very hospitable month. What's your October hold? Beans?