A lunchtime treat, what I cooked this week, and an egg surprise (7 Quick Takes)

This was an incredibly full week. Does anyone else feel that January is a very long month? But the days are getting a little brighter every day! Here are 7 Quick Takes from our week.

~1~

While our boys were home from school one day, my sixth-grader made me lunch, sent me to the other room, set a place setting for me, and put a drink in a Waterford crystal goblet.

I do love sending them to school, but I also love having them home. Especially when they make me lunch.

~2~

I don’t cook as often as you might think. But when I do cook, I often photograph what I make. The other day when I pulled out the kitchen twine to make some osso buco, I knew I would have to post the cooking process to Instagram. You can’t cook with kitchen twine and not document it somehow.

I made some osso buco for us and then, while the beef simmered, a chicken pot pie to share with another family, using ingredients we already had in the house because the grocery stores seemed to be running out of food. It seems that the combination of the winter storms and COVID has been hard on the whole shipping/delivery situation.

When I see empty shelves, I want to buy extra toilet paper, just in case.

~3~

The osso buco was delicious. An Instagram follower in Italy sweetly reached out to let me know I had spelled “buco” wrong. Then another Instagram friend in Austria wrote to ask me to explain chicken pot pie, which is apparently not something they eat in Austria.

I thoroughly enjoyed that I was having conversations with people in Europe who were watching the meals I was preparing.

I wrote, “Get Well,” on the pie, which I was delivering to a household battling some sickness. The recipients might not have noticed the words, but they said they enjoyed the pie. And I always enjoy leaving a message in food. I felt a little like Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web.

~4~

We still have our Christmas tree up, and I love it. I turn it on every morning and enjoy it all day. I know we are on borrowed time, and the decorations will be down soon, but there’s something so wonderful about this time.

One of the boys hung a little video game ornament by one of our zebra finch ornaments, bringing together two of our family interests. We think the finches enjoy watching the boys when they’re playing video games. I’m not sure how much and how far our little birds can see, but they have sharp ears, and they definitely interact with the noises of the games

~5~

While I was making muffins for breakfast, I cracked an egg, and inside was another soft little egg. It didn’t have a hard shell yet, but it was fascinating to me. I’ve been googling egg inside an egg, and there are all kinds of explanations for how that happens with the hen.

My online research is leading me to information about counter-peristalsis contraction. I was hoping to find some fun superstitions to share related to this, but I had no luck with that.

Let’s assume that a person who finds a second almost-egg inside an egg is going to receive an unexpected but wonderful surprise.

~6~

One of my mottos for 2022 is to say no. Saying no to good opportunities is one of the most difficult things for me to do, but it’s also one of the most important. This week I said no—or at least didn’t say yes—to watching two extra cages of zebra finches while my friend’s mom is out of town for two weeks.

Having four cages of 10 finches would be memorable, but I have no idea where I would put two more cages, how much time it would take to care for so many finches, and whether the finches would lose their minds with joy.

Another time. Maybe. Or maybe not.

~7~

I realized that discounted reindeer items will work well if we have an eighth-grade graduation party for our son—who is a Stag. This week I found a few 70-percent-off “Stag” napkins.

Will we have a party? I don’t know. Will he have an actual graduation ceremony? I don’t know. But we have to believe these things are possible and maybe even likely. The truth is, pandemic aside, he might not want a party. Either way, we will celebrate as a family of four, and we will have napkins.

Remind me to put them in a place I will remember in June.

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