Organizing

[susandennis]

Once I started trimming down my friends feed here (and on Instagram and on Twitter), I decided to really do it. Ages ago I started moving people who seemed to be gone from Live Journal to a friends list that was not a default. The result is that in reality, I have about 300 people 'friended' and of those maybe 100 add to their journal anymore and of those maybe 25 are ones I really enjoy reading. BUT, I want to double check every one before I 'remove' it so it's going to take some time.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying remembering folks who used to be here.

I made some spaghetti sauce a while back that is ok. Not fabulous, but ok. I put some in the freezer in individual servings and then I made lasagna with the rest. The lasagna was not good. I thought it was ok. I had it for one meal. Then put four meals with in the freezer in individual servings. I had one last night. It was worse than I remember it. So this morning, I unfroze the others and tossed them. This is the second lasagna fail in a year. I'm done. Stouffers makes one that doesn't suck. I'll stick with it.

I got some chicken teriyaki at Trader Joes that I did not love. This morning I am going to make chicken salad out the rest of that chicken (that I did not put the teriyaki sauce on).

I'm going to stop eating stuff I do not love.

One of the joys of growing old is guilt free unburdening of shit that isn't wonderful. I'm Marie Kondoing me. The danger is that I'll become a boring, self centered, one dimensional old crone. BADGE ACHIEVED!!

The baseball game is on radio only today which means a schedule. When it's on TV, I record it so i can start watching whenever I want, usually about 30 mins or so after first pitch. Then I can fast forward through the commercials if I want. Radio is be there or be square. And no instant replay when I don't understand what they say. Or just want to hear it again. But, hey, still better than no baseball at all.

Twitter just reported it was snowing in West Seattle. That is 10 miles from here (it's where I go to swim). No snow here. Also West Seattle is about 500ish feet above here. But, we don't even have rain. Weird.

I have two more triangles to make before all the bits of my crochet project are done. I need to block it a little - not much but some and then piece it together and do the border. Those last two items are the worst. At least it's still cold so I'll have it to keep me warm while I work on it.

That's today's work. Block. Glue. Baseball. Chicken salad. I'm on it.

Comments

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem of cooking for one. If I don't like it, I'm stuck with about 4-6 leftover portions. I'm sad to say a lot of it gets tossed.

I've made lasagna using the recipe on the Barilla no-boil noodle box. Sometimes with meat sauce, sometimes with chopped veggies. Both have come out well, but a 9x13 pan means I'm sick of it before it's all eaten.

Speaking of food, all I've had today is a piece of pumpkin bundt cake I made last night. This is not sufficient.

[susandennis]

somebody needs to solve this cooking for one thing. it's been a major issue for way too long.

however, pumpkin bundt cake sounds really good!

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

I've seen websites and cookbooks for cooking solo. One of my former coworkers had a whole bunch of the white ceramic (Pyrex, I think) storage containers with vented lids, some with handles. She would portion out foods and freeze them, and then just bring one to work for lunch. She liked being surprised each time.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd come up with a cooking club idea back when I needed it. Team up with three other friends and everyone makes a dinner for four. Meet up once a week to hand out a dinner and three sets of clean containers to everyone.

[amw.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised by this thread and the replies implying it's tough to cook for one. I think cooking for one is great - I always get to make exactly what I like! I never have leftovers, though, because I just cook enough for one meal each time. This way if I really screw up with seasoning, I can try use the same ingredients differently the next day.

The problem I have is different - when I order takeout I always have leftovers. And then if you get something you don't like, you are stuck having to eat two or three serves, which sucks.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is you can't buy small packages of chicken or ground beef. If I can find a good way to freeze portions that doesn't use ziplock bags (I hate making more trash than necessary) then I'd do that.

Takeout is better, because I always get what I like, so I don't mind the leftovers.

[amw.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember this struggle, searching through the grocery store for the elusive "half chicken breast" pack.

Nowadays everything I cook at home is vegan and it's much easier to portion veg, nuts etc. Even with big packages of tofu I just use half and leave the rest in the fridge. It lasts a few days so no biggie. Meat is really inconvenient.

[colestainedpage.livejournal.com]

I'm sad about your lasagna fails. I always use my mom's recipe for lasagna and it's delish every time. It is not, however, a one person meal ;)

Side note, this post looks like it posted twice, but it could just be LJ being weird?

[susandennis]

it did post twice - how weird. i deleted one.

thank you so much for letting me know! i'm very bad about QA on my own journal.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I hope I get old enough to only eat things I really love. It sounds such a sensible thing to do but I'd be the size of a house in about a week

[susandennis]

Yeah, you first need to get to the Truly I Do Not Give A Crap stage first :)

Mine came when I hit 50. I gave up smoking and dieting. And ballooned up the size of a house. A size that I maintain today. 5'4" 230 pounds.

So, yeah, there's a downside.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I suppose I've sort of done it the other way around being big first and then having spent the last 20 years losing it gaining it and losing it again

[ladythmpr.livejournal.com]

There are foods that I don't like because of their texture. I would still try them occasionally, just to see if I had gotten over it. A couple of decades back, my work section was gifted a large jar of gourmet jelly beans, one of the foods with which I have a textural issue. I decided that I would try them again, just because this particular brand was supposed to be so good. So I did, and indeed, their flavor was quite nice. However, they were still jelly beans, and jelly beans still had a texture issue for me. And at that point, I decided that I was old enough to never again have to eat food I didn't like.

[susandennis]

freedom!!

[carriea31.livejournal.com]

The trimming down of the friend list here is something I will do at some point also. I would like to get rid of the ones who never post.  There are also a couple who do post, but that i never interact with that I'm trying to decide what to do about.  It isn't an issue of not getting along, it just seems like different interests or lack of interest or something. 

[susandennis]

Everybody has different criteria and, those with locked journals have more decisions. But, I look at my friends list like a super bookmark... who's journal do I want to read without missing any entries.

So, as of this morning, anyone who doesn't fit in that bucket, goes.

The interacting is nice but not at all critical to me.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

The Jays games thus far have also been radio only which is a problem because we don't actually have a radio. So no Jays games for me yet.

[susandennis]

well, that sucks! we have radio (At Bat app) for all Spring Training games and TV for most. Sorry you're left out in the cold!

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

My favorite lasagna and meatloaf are the non-frozen ones from TJ's. I haven't tried freezing and reheating either, but I imagine they hold up.

[susandennis]

i'm not wild about their meatloaf but it's been a while. and i have tried their lasagna. I need to give both a go. Thank you!!

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I could go real wild at TJ's if it were in the neighborhood instead of across town.

Garrett works across the street but he's not very good at shopping there. He came home with 11 kinds of crackers.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Awwww, I still post occasionally :(

[susandennis]

i think you got clicked because i see you every day on twitter. my bad. i fixed. forgive? plz?

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Of course! Just wrote a major update about AJ's recent health problems. It's a huge bummer, but I figured you'd want to know what's going on right now.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

And honestly, you're one of the only reasons I even come to LJ at all any more!

[susandennis]

awww but regardless, that wouldn't change. you'd still see my entries unless you removed me as a friend.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

I hemmed and hawwed for ages about unfriending people on Facebook and then finally one day maybe a month or so ago I managed to get rid of 17 people (out of nearly 200) in the time it took for my 2-year-old to take a bath. And you know something? I couldn't even list half the people I unfriended, so our connections were obviously not strong or valued, and if they need me in the future they can always contact me through Messenger. None of them actually *has* though, so I suppose our connection was based on politeness instead of intimacy, and they were either relieved to be unfriended or never noticed.

We tried to save time with the "Freezer meal" cooking before, and I might have bad skills or a less-than-ideal freezer, but it often seems like the results are mushy and disappointing. (Similar experience with a crock pot, which is why I have held out on buying that "must-have" contraption called the Instant Pot.)

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

About 6 months ago, I started doing what is a relatively new trend here called dödsstadning or deah cleaning, which sounds grim when you put it like that, but then we Swedes are a blunt people at times. Basically the idea is trimming down all of your stuff, especially stuff that you know for a fact will be tossed with nary a second glance when the time comes for your kids/personal representative/whoever to clean out after you are gone. Neither Ray nor I have children. I have been spending the winter looking at photographs that no one except me will care about, scanning those that I really love and either sending some of them on to my brother or just getting rid of many. Same with letters and things like programs from funerals, dance recitals of 60 years ago, etc.

And as for things we do not absolutely love, yes, I have boxes and bags for charity shops as well.

[howeird]

Re: baseball on radio. I expect you have already done this, but maybe not. On your Tivo channel list way up in the 900 numbers are radio stations. If one of them is KIRO, you may be able to record the games.

Re: eating. Since you have made it clear that you are not planning on living forever, I will share this morbid tidbit. A friend had complications from dead kidneys, and when it was clear he only had a short time to live he declared that all his diet restrictions were no longer to be followed, and he threw a massive birthday party for himself and a hundred or so friends, with all the delicious, sugary, fattening foods. A couple of weeks later he died with a smile on his face.

[susandennis]

None of my music channels on cable are KIRO or any radio stations, actually. But, good idea to look!

I've been eating like your friend for 20 years and it hasn't killed me yet. It's made me fat, but so far alive and fat.

[ozswede.livejournal.com]

With the cooking, have you looked at websites such as One Dish Kitchen (https://onedishkitchen.com/)? She has some nice recipes for quick, tasty food for one. There are two of us in my house, so I can double those recipes, though I generally batch cook and keep the extra in the freezer (which was so handy these last two weeks when I've been ill). I only cook stuff that I know will work and agree that life is far too short to bother eating stuff you don't like.

Another thing that might work are recipes like this ravioli (https://juliasalbum.com/ravioli-with-spinach-artichokes-capers-sun-dried-tomatoes/). I made that for dinner last night (using tortellini as that's what I had on hand). The sauce is just highly flavoured ingredients that you buy in jars. I always have things like capers, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts on hand anyway. It was quick to put together and very tasty.

I also wonder if I'm becoming more insular as I age. I look at life and see that there is far less time ahead of me than behind me and I'm determined not to waste my time on things that I do simply out of guilt or a misguided sense of duty to others. Am I a boring git? Probably some would think so, with my nature walks, bird feeding, baking, sewing, reading etc. But I'm old enough and ugly enough not to care anymore. I think you should simply enjoy your life and hang what anyone else thinks.

[susandennis]

I love that One Dish Kitchen link! I've never seen that before. Thank you! And the ravioli looks excellent.

[amw.livejournal.com]

I do think it's true that some people get more insular as they get older, but who cares? For me, I hit a point a few years ago where I just said... no, I don't want to do that, I don't like that, and I am not going to feel guilty for not being a part of it (mostly relating to social/family type events). And life went on for everyone, just with less stress.

I do think if you stop trying new things you may end up stereotypically "old" and conservative, but I don't think it means you're close-minded if you tried something and didn't like it and then decided not to waste time with it any more.

Cheers for that link too. I cook for one all the time and never have any problems, but it's neat to see the sections there of what to do with leftover ingredients.

[amw.livejournal.com]

I'm going to stop eating stuff I do not love.

This is a great mindset. I feel largely the same way.

[verucas-chaos.livejournal.com]

Ohio has been cold and we've gotten snow, but not like it's been in places like Minnesota. Crocheting fascinates me...maybe I'll try!