The City Mouse in the Country

    For as long as I've kept a blog or a journal of some sort, I've always taken a few minutes to look back over the last year to see what I was thinking and feeling at any one time.   What worked and didn't work for me as a blogger...and as a human being.     This was our first full Calendar year in Western Pennsylvania.  I can honestly say that 2021 was a year of firsts, of disappointments, and at times felt like we were on a roller coaster without the safety bar in place.   It was also one of joy and laughter.     In some ways it was full of setbacks - for example we never did get our garden planted in the spring, which was something that I was hoping to do.   We realized however that we had planned was simply to much for what we needed and by the time we made adjustments, the growing season was over.      However we did do "little things" like replace our drainage ditch with stones and such to make...

      I watch way to much Food Network .  When I was given the opportunity to buy some quail eggs recently, I could not pass them up. Where I have had quail in my life - it reminds me more of duck than chicken since the meat tends to be darker - I've never had quail eggs.  The hedonist in me demanded that I buy them.  Plus they came from a local breeder with a good reputation.       I am slowly but surely moving towards a plant based diet, but I'm not willing to give up all animal products yet.        Quail eggs are tiny, it takes about 2 to 5 quail eggs to equal the same amount of chicken eggs (depending on several factors) but, generally speaking, the quail egg tends to be a healthier (and more expensive) choice.      Let's talk about the cost first before I get into nutritional value and what I decided to do with these little beauties.   I paid five dollars for 24 eggs.  That work...

      It's a classic family scene, perhaps going back to the first family - Greg and his wife Oola as they tried to get their kids to eat veggies.  I can hear it now: " Your mother Oola spent all day slaving in the hot sun gathering those berries and green twig things for you!   She almost got trampled by a giant ground sloth!  So no one leaves the rock till they finish their green twig things!"       So it was that in mind that I decided to try Yummy Dino Buddies.   Originally made by a Canadian company but now owned by Purdue , these are being marketed as Vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian friendly, however not all of their products under the Yummy Dino Buddies name are meatless, so let the buyer beware.       It's up to the indivdual consumer to buy items that they feel comfortable with, however I believe that the only way to move these companies towards an environmentally friendlier product i...

  So we stood there, my wife and I, looking at a train display in the window of a small bank, my eyes as wide as saucers as I watched the toy train chug around the track.   One of the cars had a moveable searchlight on it, and that brought back warm memories.                 My wife said something to me but I had already traveled back in time to when I was 8 years old and my brother and I were playing with a train set that took up the entirety of my grandmother’s dining room.    One of the rail cars on her train set had a search light on it too, another car had a missile that you could shoot up and into the tree; which was exactly what my brother and I were doing; trying to knock ornaments down.    Sort of looks like me.  Even has a beer.                 Even today I swear that every Christmas package...

           Although no one asked for it, I thought it might be fun to do another food review (my blog, my rules).  I figure that eventually we American's are going to have to adapt to a more plant based diet and if I do nothing more than convince two people to try something new...then they can convince two people to try something new...I've done my job as concerned and decent human being.    In some ways we are already moving that way as the sale of plant based food items recently reached a peak.   I think it has dipped currently due to a lot of different reasons, but the market will only rebound in the future.       So yesterday I decided that it was a good day to try and go meatless for the entire day.  I've been trying to incorporate a few more meals per week into my "Meatless regime" and thought I would make some Tasty Bite Bombay Potatoes as a quick late lunch/early dinner.    ...

       **I actually wrote this piece a few days ago, but recently found that I'm part of a growing trend towards a more "Plant based" diet.  You can learn more about this trend here.**        Thanksgiving came and went and we have one major food holiday coming up soon...and my scale was showing me going the opposite way of where I wanted to be.   Due to inactivity and snacks I had gained back about half of what I worked so hard to lose over the last several months.        Part of my plan for losing weight was changing my diet and trying to eat a bit healthier and greener.  I've already written about some of the vegetarian and vegan dishes I had tried.  "Meatless Monday's" were just part of the calendar now, and I often found myself having a salad, or trying a vegetarian or vegan item when out to dinner.  Recently I tried Seitan "chicken wings" for example at a bar and restaurant in Pittsbur...

    With Thanksgiving on the horizon, many people have asked me what I am thankful for in the last year.  My glib replay is the title of this article.  I know it seems like I'm being a whiny little bitch right now but bear with me, it does get better.     It's not that I have nothing to be thankful for, I'm still healthy and neither my family or anyone I know has lost a family member to COVID.   I have a roof over my head in a house that, all though dated, has good bones and is slowly but surely becoming "our" home.  All my bills are paid on time and both Sue and I have good paying jobs which we actually do enjoy and like...most days.          I am just feeling stressed and pushed to the limit by circumstances that I can not control, for example this week alone I will have worked ten days straight often putting in a minimum of twelve hours a day for the majority of those days.  When I was a younger...