bento

i've become fascinated in the last few days with something called bento. it's not a new concept, by any stretch, but the details are new...i love stumbling across new - to me, at any rate - ways to do the same ol' things.

blogs abound on the subject, much to the chagrin of my already over-burdened rss reader. take a quick peek at all of that adorableness:

- just bento (and its sister site, just hungry)
- bento corner
- lunch in a box

i'm terrible at making lunches for myself, but for some reason i'm able to pack a lunch and snack for j every morning. i'd love to have the creativity to make them as cute and nutritious as the bentos you'll find on these pages, but at 645am i'm not all that in. well, plus i'm not making a bento for a preschooler, so probably a lot of the really kawaii stuff is out...

lunch for the man typically consists of leftovers, since those are easiest and usually after dinner there's enough left to package into one or two plastic containers. then i just pop them into a bag for him in the morning with a snack - classic pb&j with seedless blackberry jam :) - and he's ready to scoop it up with his coffee on his way out the door.

most of the time that seems to work out quite well for him, unless i inadvertently pack something that he wasn't all that wild about when we had it the first time. the pb&j started about a year and a half ago, and he's as amazed as the rest of the world that he's not tired of it yet. the blackberry jam is his favorite, and the protein is just right for a mid-morning blood sugar boost.

i'll definitely be exploring this more, if i can manage to get that "wake up a little earlier" thing under my belt...and i'm sure adapting some of these ideas to our life won't be as complicated as it seems on the surface...

chicken divan

i made this last night, although i pretty much rewrote the hell out of the recipe, so i'm not sure if i can even say that's what i made...

instead of broccoli, i used a bag of frozen cauliflower and broccoli...i only used one 4 ounce can of mushrooms...left out the water chestnuts, but only because i didn't have any, love water chestnuts...used 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of cream of celery soup...and i bumped up the cheese to a full cup, because mama needs not only a cocktail, but also her cheese.

i layered everything according to the directions - amazingly, that part i did follow - in the 4 quart nesco i recently inherited from mom since she - she says - doesn't cook any more. (side note: i also got her 18 quart nesco, and it was perfect for the turkey breast i cooked for christmas dinner. i'm scaring me now.) the 4 quart has pretty much taken the place completely of my slow cooker, since i can do everything with it that the slow cooker did, plus bake, roast, and god only knows what else...still learning... :)

let everything cook and do its thing, and 45 minutes later, spooned some of the best smelling stuff ever over some rice and fed it up to hubby. i don't believe i've ever had chicken divan, but let me say, this was awesome. the curry and the lemon juice were just perfect together, and the whole thing just melts in your mouth. i should also add, when i saw the recipe i initially thought, shred the chicken? screw that... but honest to all that is holy, the shredding totally makes the recipe...the texture of chicken chunks just would not have been the same.

tonight's dinner is still up in the air, unfortunately...but last night's leftovers on a baked potato were a very yummy lunch...

clio's story, part two

we left our fearless heroine snuggled up next to me on her first night inside my apartment. she adapted very easily to our morning routine, and i felt horrible for whoever might have lost her. had she been *my* dog, i would be terrified at not being able to find her.

since she did have a collar, i knew that there must be someone somewhere missing her...i put up fliers and left signs at pet shops, put ads in the paper, halfway hoping all along that no one called. a few people called, but it always turned out that the dog i had was not the one they had lost. i found myself holding my breath every time i heard someone say, "i'm calling about your found dog ad in the paper..."

one morning, clio wouldn't come back in after i'd let her out. she knew that our morning routine went as follows:

-lady gets up and takes precious and clio out
-lady feeds us, takes a shower, gets dressed
-lady takes us out again
-lady LEAVES.

she didn't like that last one. truthfully i wasn't wild about it myself, but someone had to bring home the kibble.

so...there i was, begging a stray dog to get back into my apartment. she wouldn't budge. i was going to be late. as a teacher, this was totally unacceptable. i got in the car and started to drive away. she chased me. i got out of the car, hoping she'd come to her senses, no dice.

driving away that morning is one of the hardest things i have ever ever done in my life. i cannot explain fully how awful that felt.

all day long, all i did was worry about her.

i got home to find that she'd made friends with the local crazy guy, and he'd opted to call animal control. i won't even begin to describe what that did to me.

the animal control officer came over to talk to me - blubbering fool that i'm sure i was - and assured me that if no one claimed her within a week, i could pick her up and either keep her or continue to try finding her home.

i cried all night that first night. kicking myself repeatedly for leaving her. blaming myself for the whole lousy situation. she wasn't even my dog, a few friends said...

but she was. i hadn't named her and i hadn't let myself say it, but she *was* mine. she was happy and thriving with me, and she'd brought joy into my days and evenings.

i called the city animal control office daily. several times daily. it may come as no surprise at all when i tell you that at the end of the third day of these calls, they told me, "um, yeah...come get her please..."

when i pulled into the parking lot, i caught sight of her...she was tied to the side of a barnlike building, with straw for a bed. she recognized my car immediately, the full-body wag and leaping convinced me she'd missed me too.

little side-effect of this whole thing? no matter what, last 9 years that dog comes when i call her now... :D

i brought her home and set about the task of naming her...so many tried and discarded...my mom suggested cleopatra as a joke, mostly...but the fact that the dog had such regal bearing about her sort of begged a regal name. i liked the thought and the sound of it, but...wow, what a moniker to hang on someone.

and then i started thinking about how she felt like such a gift to my life...and the clio award occurred to me...an award, a gift....clio...

she responded to it readily, and it seemed like something we could both live with.

precious passed away five years ago, and clio mourned her in her own way - although she knew as well as i did that i had made precious hang on way too long - and she helped me to mourn.

if i'd been looking for her, i'd likely have never found her. what wonderful fortune that she was able to find me...

clio's story, part one

i'm not 100% on this, since all my old archives are pretty much either gone or not easily accessible, but i don't think i've ever written about how clio came to adopt me...

yes, she most assuredly adopted me...

at the time, i was living in an apartment complex that was set up kind of oddly. there were about 8 or 9 little parking lots off of the main route into and out of the complex. each parking lot had 8 apartments that faced into the lot. they were single story buildings - wow, do i miss that attic. the complex itself was on a very busy road, but once you got into the heart of the area, we were surrounded by fields and woods. from my patio, you couldn't tell you were right on top of a highway, really, but it was close to everything i needed to get to, and it was home.

my cocker spaniel mix, precious (shut up, i was still a kid when i got her... :)), was still alive, although she was in ill health and i was dreading the time when she either passed away on her own or i had to make a decision. in my heart, i felt like i just couldn't get attached to a dog again and precious would be my last pet. now, i've had dogs ALL of my life, so i know i would not really have been able to stick to that, but by then she'd been with me for 13 or 14 years, and i really didn't want to wrap my brain around the thought of losing her.

i was still teaching high school - i KNOW, me...but i escaped - and i had to be up and gone at the ass-crack of dawn one saturday morning to meet the academic team for which i was the advisor. we had a tournament, and i needed to be there early so we could get our "rah rah go team" action on.

as i took precious out for her morning constitutional, i glanced across the parking lot and saw a shape wiggling and whining at the door of one of my elderly neighbors. he was heading back into his apartment, and there was a young dog hesitantly trying to be friendly to him. i knew it wasn't his dog, we'd talked several times and gotten to be friendly.

she caught sight of me and gave a full body wiggle and raced across the parking lot, stopping just out of arm's reach. she wanted to play and be petted, but she was so scared. i tried to gently coax her closer, but she was too skittish.

i brought her some water and a bowl of food, but she was too nervous for that, too.

finally, i had to leave or risk being late, and i wasn't going to be able to do that. all the way across the county i thought about that sweet sweet puppy, and i worried about how she had come to be in our little apartment complex and why she was so afraid. she was beautiful, brown and black and fluffy coated. i could tell that she was too big to be allowed to live in our complex, so she had to have come from somewhere else, but it was a crapshoot as to where that might be.

she had a collar, but no tag. the obvious conclusions were that she'd either gotten out of somewhere, or she'd been dumped. unfortunately, that happens way too often around these parts, so it wasn't something inconceivable.

i figured by the time i got home she would be long gone, but as i pulled up, there she was. all full body wags and happiness.

i went in, changed clothes, took care of precious...then took a tennis ball out to the puppy.

we played fetch with that tennis ball for hours and hours...every single time i threw the ball, she brought it straight back to me. eventually, she even trusted me enough to pet her.

all too soon, the sun sank.

i thought to myself, *what* am i gonna do with this dog?? by now - softie that i am - i couldn't just leave her out there. but i also thought, i *can't* bring her in...or can i???

i tried - once - to go inside without her. but i couldn't resist peeking out the window at her, and she was looking up at the door, such a lost expression on her face.

i caved.

i think that night is the first time that she ever set paw on carpeting, because the look on her face as she felt it against her feet was priceless. as soon as she came in, she sought out something to curl up under, settling in a little ball of puppy underneath the table the tv was on.

the tv amazed her...she watched it, gobsmacked, then ran around behind it to see from whence all the people and animals were coming. she carefully, quietly, skittishly explored every corner of the apartment and tried - unsuccessfully - to make friends with precious.

when bedtime arrived, this adorable little bundle leapt up onto the bed beside me, snuggled close, and fell asleep.

little did i know, but that was the end for me...

next: how clio became mine forever and ever, amen...