tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77392005305916344082024-03-13T12:53:37.415-04:00Roving Lemon's Big AdventureExploring food and other details of daily life on three (and counting) continentsRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.comBlogger668125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-13579954680185703082023-06-21T08:06:00.002-04:002023-06-21T11:19:25.497-04:00Graduation dayDP, Miss B, and I often joke that we’re “not a math family.” Words, rather than numbers, are our preferred medium, by a long way, to transmit information. So when DP suggested that I say a few words at Miss B’s graduation dinner, I was surprised to note that what kept coming into my mind were numbers. Those had more impact for me in capturing Miss B’s singular experience so far than any words I Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-48834357457497594212022-10-09T14:58:00.005-04:002022-10-09T14:58:44.865-04:00Four months Well, that was an unplanned hiatus. Here’s a quick recap of key events since my last post:The month of June was dominated by a two-week trip to England which was a combination of work and holiday. We were mostly in London, with excursions out of town on the weekends. The highlight of these was a trip to Oxford, our former hometown and Miss B’s birthplace, where we caught up with various Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-55228870850161318712022-05-30T15:37:00.002-04:002022-05-30T15:44:19.137-04:00No wordsA while back I learned a technique from a counselor: I was struggling to deal with a crisis situation and she asked me to start processing by listing five emotions that I was feeling in that moment. At the end of the session, we revisited that technique, and she recommended it as a tool to help start the process of navigating difficult emotions. It's a tool I've continued to use. So here’s what Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-7883206786668789192022-05-22T17:04:00.006-04:002022-05-22T17:07:03.094-04:00Work/life balanceI know that I have infinite company in feeling that the roller coaster of the last two years has thrown this balance off completely, that the mental load that work entails has expanded to encroach into every corner of brain space, with attending consequences for mental and physical health. Re-establishing boundaries, especially for myself, is an ongoing challenge and a necessary one. Here are Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-9037507959359234662022-04-17T17:59:00.002-04:002022-04-17T17:59:26.254-04:00Easter 2022Here's this year's edition of my annual Easter post......freshly completed tarrale......a piping-hot pizza chiena......a bouquet of tulips from my visit to the first farmers' market of the year on Saturday morning......all culminating in this morning's Easter breakfast spread.I also discovered from a friend's post that this weekend is a rare confluence of spring festivals in a number of differentRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-20412907719454127632022-04-03T17:05:00.001-04:002022-04-03T17:05:10.853-04:00March roundupMarch got away from me, so here are a few recent highlights:I’m continuing to find new uses for my sourdough starter and this one is right up there: a recipe for nearly-instant crumpets, aka TrashCrumps, constructed mainly from starter and found on Instagram. Definitely a keeper.We had a weekend in New York City mid-month where we visited friends and family, ate lots of good food, and walked a Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-87999483471617607112022-03-06T18:44:00.001-05:002022-03-06T18:44:03.603-05:00MacGyver gnocchiThe pace of work and home life this week continued to dictate yet again the need for dinner solutions that could be produced on a short turnaround. Gnocchi in the pantry and leftover sausage and kale in the fridge came to the rescue to help produce this cheesy gnocchi bake when MacGyver night rolled around on Thursday. It’s still a work in progress, but the basic infrastructure involves Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-20936980087914244132022-02-27T18:06:00.000-05:002022-02-27T18:06:01.665-05:00Points northThis week was another busy one - a visit from our oldest nibling, more mitigation on the recent water issue, plus the usual round of work and family commitments crammed into four days - and we wrapped it up with a weekend overnight in Pennsylvania. This trip encompassed our youngest nibling’s first birthday party; a celebratory dinner with one of DP’s former students who’s just achieved a Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-49398029483393434552022-02-20T17:15:00.000-05:002022-02-20T17:15:00.216-05:003-day weekendThe third Monday in February is a public holiday in the US - Presidents’ Day. I can’t say I commemorate this in any meaningful way, other than this year by being even more grateful than usual to get an extra day off. Last week felt like it went on about twice as long as normal, thanks to a confluence of professional and household events that started way too early on Tuesday morning with Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-78673138292604559682022-02-13T17:33:00.001-05:002022-02-13T17:33:15.923-05:00Weekend schedulesDo you have a schedule for your weekend? Following on from last week’s post, I’ve been thinking more about time blocks and how useful they are - but also how important it is to not fill up all those blocks with chores. It’s just as important to set aside a few for fun things, or to do absolutely nothing. My mother had a tendency to fill her days with chores from morning until night, and to Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-69697133929672358012022-02-06T17:57:00.001-05:002022-02-06T17:58:48.927-05:0015 minutesMy corner of northern Virginia has 15 more minutes of daylight today than we did last Sunday - a useful reminder of the impact that a seemingly small chunk of time can have. Particularly useful at a time of year when it’s hard to muster up the energy or motivation to do much of anything at all, and yet the list of things that needs to get done never seems to get any shorter. To say nothing of theRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-29273046015287890552022-01-30T18:03:00.004-05:002022-01-30T18:03:28.770-05:00January snapshotsI feel a certain loyalty to January because it’s my birth month, but even I have to admit that it’s kind of a drag. It feels even more so than usual this year, probably because today, as my Timehop reminded me, is 2 years since the WHO declared coronavirus a “global health emergency”. This is at the top of a long list of reasons to be gloomy; but I know all too well that there’s little Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-10891671341401723442022-01-23T17:52:00.001-05:002022-01-23T17:52:48.314-05:00Circuit 53This past week was pretty packed with meetings and deadlines, and so I didn’t have the time or the brain space to cook anything new or different. I only made one thing that I wouldn’t usually make in the middle of the week, and it is very old. (And it’s not the only one.) I’ve been making my own birthday cakes for more than 20 years now, since I first moved away from Boston. Before that, my Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-12210744287869791132022-01-16T17:09:00.002-05:002022-01-16T17:12:04.320-05:00Scallion pancakesLunch, complete with iPad (because reading) and spilled sauce (because real life)One of the unexpected benefits of my new fridge-dwelling friend is that it has multiple uses. In addition to the whole wheat sourdough loaf that is the centerpiece of Bittman Bread (and my primary motivation for embarking on starter ownership), it turns out that there are quite a few other things you can do with it. Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-86649132466326310632022-01-09T15:48:00.005-05:002022-01-09T16:43:26.648-05:00Snow daysHappy 2022! We got an unexpected bonus weeklong extension of holiday mode around here when Virginia got the first snow of the season last Sunday night. It turned into the biggest snowstorm in 3 years (the last one was our first winter here) and led to treacherous road conditions and cancellations and closures galore, including this I-95 clustercuss, our weekly milk delivery, and most of the Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-19027628606083747652021-12-05T17:21:00.000-05:002021-12-05T17:21:20.781-05:00Exeunt 2021...pursued by a bear? Actually a straightforward bear might make a welcome change from much of the fun-house tour, conducted at dizzying speed, that has characterized this year. I keep saying to people that it felt as though 2020 went on for about five years, and that 2021 has been more like five weeks. And now here it is December again, and time to crank up the holiday-cookie production line. (Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-86776756113813794262021-02-28T18:06:00.001-05:002021-02-28T18:06:52.938-05:0050 weeksThis weekend marks 50 weeks of quarantine life - just two weeks shy of a full year since we went into lockdown - and the final weekend of this longest shortest month. I had a look back through my photos to see what this month looks like for the archive:Snow We had snowfall or wintry mix with accumulation on 11 out of 27 days this month - beautiful to look at, but messy and slippery enough to messRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-73972890034298708632021-02-08T07:21:00.006-05:002021-02-08T09:54:09.318-05:00Day 330Sorry I went quiet there for a bit; most of January felt like walking through a dark tunnel of anxiety. January 6 was a realization of so many things I’d been worrying and catastrophizing about for the past 4+ years. I watched in rage and horror as an insurrectionist mob stormed the US Capitol building. They climbed walls, broke windows, looted offices, defaced public property, and threatened theRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-27756251408711976672021-01-01T13:16:00.001-05:002021-01-01T13:16:12.422-05:00Welcome 2021 Coming to the end of a much-needed holiday break spent in more or less the same routine we've been in since mid-March (today is Day 293, 42 weeks). Normally we would have been in Boston this week for a holiday visit, but having decided that was unsafe and irresponsible, we have remained here in northern Virginia to eat Christmas goodies, admire our neighbors' holiday lights, and indulge in Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-74626768448522929022020-12-04T21:29:00.004-05:002020-12-04T21:39:10.515-05:00Day 265
One afternoon recently I got a Slack message from one of my co-workers who lives in a different state in my time zone.“I bought a pre-seasoned steak at the supermarket,” it said. “How should I cook it?”I wrote back the following instructions.Place a frying pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Drop in a couple of tablespoons of fat (butter, olive oil, etc).When the fat starts to sizzle, put inRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-89377287912406135752020-11-25T21:19:00.008-05:002020-11-25T21:19:47.749-05:00Day 256Photo credit to a sister who was there - I was only a virtual participant!It’s the day before Thanksgiving here in the US. I’m not going anywhere, I’m not hosting anyone, I’m not doing any of the things that would normally preoccupy me on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. But I’m so ready to take a break from the daily grind.This past Sunday was Pie Day - a family tradition that has endured for Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-70620403750131405882020-11-13T21:23:00.002-05:002020-11-13T21:29:36.871-05:0035 weeksToday marks 8 months of quarantine. School was initially canceled for Miss B on Friday, March 13th, and for me that marked the beginning of this interlude. Here we are at our second Friday the 13th of 2020, and pandemic-wise at least, things are worse today than the conditions that sent us all into lockdown back in the spring. And with no end in sight. Even with a coming change in presidential Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-59117308513841222922020-11-03T07:36:00.004-05:002020-11-03T07:38:43.482-05:00Day 235Today's the day, friends. Time's up. Whatever else you do today, if you haven't already, please, please vote. Email me (roving lemon at yahoo.com) if you need information on where to go and I'll try to help you out. Today's the day. Let's go.Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-50547585191782087942020-10-23T07:19:00.002-04:002020-10-23T07:22:11.925-04:00Day 224This week marks 32 weeks of quarantine life. We’re not quite as strict as we were at the start, but generally speaking our interactions and excursions are still pretty limited. We ate dinner at a local restaurant last week, sitting at an outside table, and that was the first time I’d done that since March. But most weeks are the same set routine of online school and work, and most contact with Roving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7739200530591634408.post-19697562104330943412020-09-06T17:24:00.004-04:002020-09-06T17:28:00.884-04:00Day 177In my house, these are leftoversBack to the regular routine means back to the usual round of chores, errands, and meal planning; unfortunately one of the effects of grief that I discovered four years ago is its dull but demanding presence in daily life. I finally defined it to myself and others like trying to do everything while wearing a 60-pound backpack: I could still do everything I needed toRoving Lemonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14356212647201456769noreply@blogger.com0