Guess what we did today

Anyone who has ever shopped at Ikea knows instantly what we did. We made a giant Ikea run this afternoon, just J. and I. (We knew if we took people, that both the people and the boxes would not fit in the van.) This is what happens when you move out of a home with a lot of built-in storage and some of the other storage you have is just broken enough not to make the move. We were in desperate need of dressers and bookcases, which is what the bulk of these flat pack boxes are. You should have seen J. and I by the end, each trying to wheel our trolleys loaded with 100's of pounds of boxes around the store. It was a sight. We are both more than a little tired afterwards.

Now, I hope we can finally get the piles of books off the floors and our high schoolers can finally unpack their many boxes and settle in. Those three on the top floor were in the worst shape. For various reasons, The arrived with beds and little else in the way of furniture and have been living out of boxes for over a month. They have all been extremely uncomplaining about their plight, but we really needed to do something for them all.

The frightening thing (for the budget) is this is not everything that was on our list that we were hoping to find. I find it fascinating how different houses work in such different ways. We were overwhelmed with furniture in our old house, but for various reasons, much of the furniture wouldn't work in this house. We went from having too much furniture to not having nearly enough. I'm more than a little ready for this moving-in process to be done with.

Guess what J. is going to be doing tomorrow? He is so excited. [Insert heavy sarcasm emoticon here.]
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I forgot to update my vegetable tally yesterday. This new tally then represents several days' worth of vegetable goodness.

Avocado – 1

Beans (black) - 1

Beans (navy) – 2

Bell pepper - 1

Brussels sprouts – 1

Carrots - 1

Cauliflower – 1

Chickpeas - 1

Chipotle pepper - 1

Corn – 2

Cucumber – 2

Edamame – 1

Escarole – 1

Green beans – 1

Green onions – 1

Jalapeno - 1

Lettuce (romaine) – 2

Mushrooms (white button) - 1

Okra - 1

Onion – 5

Spinach – 1

Tomato (cherry) – 1

Tomato – 2

Zucchini - 1

Tonight's vegetables were fried okra (which I love) and sauteed mushrooms (which I don't). I ate a couple of mushrooms, though, as a good example for the others. Mushrooms aren't that uncommon, but let's talk about okra. Okra is not a vegetable that is eaten very much here in the north. In fact, when I bought it yesterday, I had to tell the checker what it was, and then he had to go off in search of the code in order to ring it up. Once a long time ago, I had an African-American checker ask me what a white girl like me (it was a loooong time ago) was going to do with the huge bag of okra I was buying. 

Those of my readers in the south would probably read okra and not think twice about it. Others of my readers in the north are probably thinking, "Huh?" I may be extremely northern in many ways, but I did have a very southern grandmother (my dad's mom). She was born and raised in Louisiana, and my father grew up eating a very southern diet, even though they were living in Arizona. My father adored okra in all forms... raw, stewed (bleh, too slimy), fried... and my mother learned to cook it for him, even though it was a new vegetable to her. Thus, I grew up eating fried okra, and it is truly one of my comfort foods. Many of my children tolerate it, some love it, and at least one actively hates it. J. has learned to like it from me serving it to him so often. I think you should try it. Here's how I do it.

Fried Okra

Wash and trim a bunch of okra, cutting off the ends, and cutting it into circles. Toss it with cornmeal until well covered. (J. likes to add some salt, I don't even bother.) Heat some oil in a frying pan. Pour in the okra and stir. Cook the okra until the cornmeal starts to turn a little bit brown, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately. Hope that no one else likes it so that you can eat the whole pan.