Meteor shower tonight!

 If you happen to be awake between midnight and dawn tonight, and live in an area with reasonably dark skies, go outside and spend some time looking up, towards the Southeast. It's the peak night of the Orionid Meteor Shower 2026. You may get lucky and see up to 20 meteors per hour! Although with the almost-full moon and the light pollution in most places, half that is probably much more likely.

Are you a meteor shower aficionado? I buy an old-fashioned almanac each year and look up the peak dates of all the major meteor showers well in advance. Even if the "peaks" don't fall when it's feasible to be up and outside, for a few days on either side it's good to be on the lookout at night. In my experience the most memorable showers are the Perseids in August or the Geminids in December. This year the Geminids are predicted to be especially good, and the peak is the night of December 13th into the 14th.

As for tonight's shower, I get up for work well before dawn, so I may go outside and look up for a while and see if I catch any shooting stars. And you should, too! We can all use some free wishes, can't we? (Especially here in the US with the midterms two weeks away). 

Time in the kitchen

I've been itching to try new recipes lately, possibly because I've been limited in what I can serve to Gregg while he waits out all this dental work. He's at the point now that he can eat soft pasta and rice dishes along with soups and stews as long as the meats and vegetables are very tender. That's a step up from the mashed potatoes, yogurt, and applesauce he was subsisting on for a while there!

A fun recipe I decided to try was a traditional Polish dish called Golabki, or stuffed cabbage rolls. This was a nod to my Polish heritage. (The recipe I linked to is just a sample, not exactly the one I used). The meat stuffing mixture was 50/50 pork and beef combined with cooked rice, a beaten egg, sauteed onion, and herbs like marjoram and dill. All rolled into braised cabbage leaves and slow cooked in a covered pan in tomato sauce at 325 degrees. I also used leftover cabbage leaves to line the bottom of the pan and on top of the rolls while they baked. Here's a picture of my finished Golabki, right after I took them out of the oven and removed the top cabbage leaves. They're not very pretty, I'll admit.

And here are some of the leftovers that are now stashed in the freezer, ready for another meal. They're supposed to freeze well. We'll see.

Gregg wouldn't eat the cabbage leaves (he doesn't care for cabbage) but he liked the steamed meat mixture inside with the tomato sauce. It was soft enough that he had no trouble eating it, and served with mashed potatoes, he had a good meal. I enjoyed it, too, but after careful consideration, I only rate the Golabki a 6/10. They tasted good, but lost points for being time-consuming to make (which wasn't a very big deal) as well as the smell (which very much was). I've discovered that slow cooking cabbage and boiling cabbage leaves will make your whole house smell like ass body odor. * It took me two days to rid our home of the noxious smell! So that's definitely a downside to this otherwise lovely dish.

Another new recipe came to me from my friend Marla. We've been getting together most Sundays lately (for breakfast or thrift store browsing or crafting) and sometimes we make or bring snacks to share. She's recently discovered homemade hummus and has been making it a lot, and a couple of weeks ago she brought a bowl to my house to share. Wow, was it good! She was happy to give me the recipe. So on Sunday (when Marla was coming over again) I tried making it myself. And it was awesome, just like hers! It couldn't be simpler: just canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed), fresh lemon juice, tahini from a jar, olive oil, cumin, salt to taste, and a few spoonfuls of cold water all blended together. I used a blender for simplicity's sake. I dished some out into a pretty bowl, added more olive oil to the top and then a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds...and it was *chefs kiss*: fast, easy, cheap, and delicious. 10/10 would recommend! 

Another thing I cooked recently was a large pot of chili on Saturday afternoon. The weather has finally cooled way down and so chili can go back into the monthly meal rotation. I pack it full of veggies and beans and (occasionally) lean beef and cook it on low for anywhere between 12-24 hours in the crockpot. It's a good way to use up vegetable odds and ends, so it's both economical and healthy. I've been known to add things like shredded carrots, mashed sweet potato, or slightly wilted spinach to my chili, just to use them up. It's always delicious and gets better the more stuff I add. Or we think so, at least. A large pot of chili can stretch out for several days, turning into burritos or taco salad topping or chili cheese fries...there are loads of possibilities. 

A couple more cooking-adjacent photos for you:

I bought these beautiful fresh veggies and apples from a local farm stand. I roasted the brussels sprouts and carrots with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and topped them with parmesan cheese when they came out of the oven. So good! And as for the apples, I made homemade applesauce for Gregg. 

*Anybody have any tips for cooking cabbage so that the smell is contained, or better yet, neutralized?

Just a nice October day

It's a beautiful fall morning at my house, and a rare kind of day for me lately: I'm off work and have the house all to myself! Gregg was able to resume his Wednesday aquarium maintenance jobs last week, so he'll be working all day, and I'm off this week for fall intercession. I enjoy the occasional day at home alone, especially when the weather is this nice. I expect I'll spend a large part it on the back porch (and maybe the hammock) with a book. I'd also like to take the dogs on some short neighborhood walks. We can all use the exercise, and it's so nice out.

The dental issues Gregg and I have had are getting better. He's adjusting fairly well to the temporary dentures (even with their considerable shortcomings) and now the worst thing seems to be having patience with the healing process. They're now saying he might not get his final implants until March. It seems that the more time you give the bones in the jaw to heal, the better the fit and function of the permanent work. Even if that's disappointing, it's for the best to wait and do everything exactly right. At least he's not in pain, is able to eat a bigger variety of food now, and his smile looks perfectly presentable. My tooth pain has quieted down, thanks to the half-done root canal and an antibiotic. I go to the endodontist to have the root canal finished next week and that afternoon my dentist will place the permanent crown. It's been a lot of trouble over one tooth! Thank goodness it feels better now, though.

I finally pulled out some fall decorations last weekend. Or, rather, I had Gregg climb up into the attic and bring down the fall decorations! Haha. I'm keeping everything pretty simple this year, but I do plan to carve a couple of pumpkins. Here's the simple wreath I made for the front door, along with pumpkin #1:

Later this weekend I want to show you some fall crafts I've been working on, and also some new recipes I've tried. For now, though, I'm off to enjoy my solitary afternoon. 

Have a great day, everyone!

Woe is me!

I had a follow up appointment with the dentist yesterday and found out I needed a root canal. The filling in my molar was very deep and close to the nerve, and an infection had developed. 

They called in an antibiotic for me to begin taking last night, and this morning I was scheduled for the root canal at 8:00. 

The procedure went well as far as pain is concerned; I was comfortable throughout. That was the only thing that went right, though. It turned out to be such a complicated root canal that after two hours of trying the dentist decided he had to stop and refer me to an endodontist (with more specialized equipment) to finish. What luck, huh?That appointment isn't until the 20th of this month, but I have a temporary filling and crown on the tooth to protect it. I also have the antibiotic to finish. 

I'm in a lot of pain tonight which I hope is temporary. If it continues to hurt like this I'll be going BACK to the dentist and I'll be honest with you, I've had my fill for awhile!