“Remoted” – Day 216 (Sunday)

The morning had a slow start due to the newly recurring fatigue resulting from the newly recurring nocturnal events. Yes, the Winston 2:00 a.m. potty break seems to really be a thing now at six nights in. 

New mailbox and
vinyl numerals.

There were multiple household victories for the weekend. The deck furniture is stored for the winter. The bike, optimistically moved to the front porch in the expectation of riding, was stored, never having been ridden. The new mailbox was mounted on the house Saturday, in time for the mail delivery where it received the tube holding the vinyl numerals for the fence post, gate, and front mailbox panel. The shed was evaluated for needed repairs. These victories involved help for which I am hugely grateful. By help, I of course mean that StepDad did them while Mom and I visited. 

In addition to the wardrobe changeover mostly finished yesterday, the new Art Deco vinyl numerals were attached to the new mailbox today. One vinyl down, three more to go. I started with the smallest one to build my confidence. You know, baby steps. 

The tiniest potatoes!

The potatoes planted in early summer were harvested. The potatoes are hilariously tiny, barely larger than the eyes they were planted from, but the red flowers on sturdy stalks that bloomed during the summer and even now were worth the small effort of planting. It's a good thing I like cooking potatoes with the skins on, because peeling these might cause serious injury. Halved and possibly quartered, these will end up in a soup.

Roasted and stuffed.

An acorn squash and a butternut squash were roasted for Sunday's kitchen entertainment, not that anything could top the potato crop for amusement value. The seeds were roasted for tasty snacking. Instead of cubing the roasted flesh, one half of each squash was stuffed with a mixture of rice, onion, apple, celery, cranberries, Gardein meatless ground crumbles, and cinnamon. This was inspired by recent images of my cousin David’s stuffed acorn squash which became an aspirational kitchen obsession. Prior to this, I was roasting and cubing squash, eating some and freezing the excess. The freezer holds sizeable reserves of squash. There is some of the rice mixture, as well as plain rice left, and half the acorn squash, plus the plain and stuffed halves of butternut. Saturday night supper and Sunday brunch were extra cheese pizza, with several slices now in the freezer. Meal planning and preparation for the week are done. 

The tentative plan to visit the brand new Market Basket near the house didn’t happen. A shopping list was drafted and the flyer reviewed online, but then the squash roasting began, followed by the eating and kitchen clean up. Maybe during the week. Or next weekend. The only truly urgent item on the list is coffee filters, which will be gone in about four days unless the emergency coffee filter re-use step is enacted. Drastic, yes, but useful when needed.