Thursday, October 06, 2005

I yam what I yam.

Yesterday Kathy came in and handed me a piece of paper and said, "There's going to be a party, I think it's tomorrow!" Every now and then there's a "pantry party" at her day program. All of the parents are invited and you're supposed to bring non-perishable goods to help stock the pantry (they let the clients aka Kathy use the goods to practice cooking).

I started going through my parents' pantry to try to find stuff I could send away. I based the choices on two things:

1. It shouldn't have been opened.
2. It should be stuff that I don't plan on ever eating.

You know what I found? "Artichoke hearts in brine" What? Isn't brine a shrimp? Eww. I was too embarrassed by that one to send it, but I do plan to question my parents on what their intentions were when they bought that.

Anyway, I found a bag of rice, an unopened thing of Morton's salt, banana flavored pudding (gag!), banana nut muffin mix (gag, gag!), chili seasoning (gag, gag, gag!), and to throw them off and make them think I didn't pick only reject foods, I stuck a bag of brown sugar in too.

This lady just came by when I was putting some clothes in the washer. I had never seen her before, so I wasn't all that friendly. She said, "Is your mom or your grandma home?" (sweet, I can pass as a grandchild!). I said no. She said, "Oh, is she going to be back later?" I said probably late tonight. She said she just lives down the street and she dug up sweet potatoes and brought some by. I took them from her. Each one is the size of a newborn human. She really must have a green thumb! Finally I asked her what her name was and she told me. I told her I would tell them she brought them by and told her thank you...but she looked like she wanted an invitation into the house. I don't let strangers in for sweet potatoes. I don't like sweet potatoes. If she would have brought chocolate, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Speaking of sweet potatoes...kinda...the other day I bought some baby carrots b/c Kathy requested them. Only after I bought them did I realize that I don't have a clue how to cook carrots. It didn't occur to me that carrots come in cans and that those would be easy to cook.

Anyway, I found a recipe book and looked up carrots and didn't really find anything, but I got a little confused and thought that carrots were yams and I knew I had seen people bake them with brown sugar and marshmellows melted on top. I considered trying that and then I realized that yams are sweet potatoes and not carrots. Just because something is orange doesn't mean it's a yam.

3 comments:

jasonandjennyt said...

Actually...brine isn't shrimp. Brine is like salty water that people use to preserve vegetables or make some other pickled stuff.

Anonymous said...

This is a great blog by a great gal. I wish I knew what you were talking about half the time, I've been reading for a few weeks now, but today I feel lost. Who exactly is Kathy and how do you know her? I think the "Town that Dreaded Sundown" post confused me about that whole situation. You sound just as I remember...great, awesome person to know.

brettnolan
PS - don't ask me how I found this, I can't remember for the life of me.

Mercy's Maid said...

Hi Jenny and Brett (thanks for stopping by!).

Brett--Kathy is my cousin who I'm taking care of for a week while my parents are on vacation.

Back a bunch of years ago when my parents were little there was a serial killer that ran loose in Texarkana. He particularly targeted kids who were "parking" and he killed a couple of people at the park I visited. They never found out who he was (supposedly, but there are lots of theories surrounding that), and someone made a movie about his killings called "The Town that Dreaded Sundown". You should google it. It's pretty interesting.