Hodgepodge

Linking up Joyce for the Hodgepodge

1. I write the Hodgepodge questions so they'll post on Sunday, which sometimes throws me off in terms of what day it is. St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated on Monday, March 17th. Did you mark the day in some way? Wear green? Make a special meal? Watch or participate in a parade? 

No, no, no, and no ☘

2. Do you think luck plays a part in your life? Explain. 

For sure I think that luck plays a part in life. The biggest area where luck comes into play is the family a person is born into. You hear about children suffering horrifically at the hands of parents and when you juxtapose the childhood of one who grows up knowing he or she is loved vs. someone being neglected and/or abused by parents, it's absolutely heartbreaking. And it's completely out of  children's control how their parents treat them or feel about them. Kids who had the bad luck of being born into/raised by terrible people 

However, setting the subject of abuse aside, I think that many traits that are viewed as "lucky" or "unlucky" are definitely not necessarily so and depend on perspective.

People living in cities may consider that they're lucky to live in close proximity to cultural events/museums/great restaurants. People living in the country may consider themselves lucky to live with wide open spaces around them and land to plant a garden and/or homestead. People living in the suburbs *KNOW* (haha) they are luckiest for living close to the city and all of the cultural events there but still have a little land (#suburbanite#biased!)

My point, again, is that it's all about perspective...

3. Of the 15 green foods listed, which one is your favorite and how do you like it prepared? Any on the list that are a hard no for you? In general do you like fruits and veggies? As a kid did you eat them willingly or did you hide peas in your napkin hoping your momma wouldn't see? 

Asparagus (hard no), avocado (hard no), broccoli (hard no), celery (no), cucumber (I like!), grape (I like), green bean (these are ok), kale (hard no), kiwi (those are ok), lettuce (ok) , lime (ok), 

pear (I like), peas (ok), pistachios (I like a lot!), spinach (hard no)

My favorite would be pistachios

I would say that I like fruit a lot more than veggies. I don't think hiding veggies as a child ever occurred to me! Or if it did, I dismissed the idea. 

4. What's something that makes you 'turn green'? (with envy or with illness... whichever way you want to run with it)

I envy people with fast metabolisms who can eat anything and not gain weight!

5. Did you spend a lot of time outdoors as a child? Doing what? Do you spend a lot of time outdoors now? Doing what? 

I spent a lot of time outdoors when the weather was nice when I was a child. We lived out in the country on many acres, on land that had recently been a farm. So we had silos (empty!), a chicken coop, a milk house, several outbuildings, old farm equipment, a large barn, a creek, and woods at our disposal. Add in no air conditioning inside the house and why not be outside rather than in on hot summer days?? In the summer, my siblings and I played in the creek and under a bridge where the creek flowed. We played "volleyball" using the clothesline as a net. We tried to avoid working in the garden most of the all- the bugs, the bending down to weed, and the further ignominy of knowing that the pools of sweat that formed (and attracted the bugs) from our labors were going to lead to vegetables on the table that we were going to have to eat!

I don't know if I spend a lot of time outdoors but I think I spend a decent bit. I like to run, walk and hike outside. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm not a big green vegetable eater, sadly (since I don't like how most green veggies taste). I only buy broccoli for two dishes. One is for cashew chicken and one is for a pasta salad that I make. I recently bought broccoli to make the pasta salad. I was going to make it as one of the sides for the meal we were going to host for Donnie's family. When the meal was canceled, I already had the broccoli so I made the salad just for Donnie and me. We both like it quite a bit and had plenty of it!! 

The pasta salad is my version of a local gourmet grocery store's very popular salad known as Pine Club Pasta Salad. It's called Pine Club because the dressing in it is the house dressing for a venerable local steakhouse called the Pine Club.

The pasta salad can be purchased premade at  Dorothy Lane Market (the gourmet grocery store) for $10.99 a pound. Um, it consists mostly of bow tie pasta. Only under the most unusual of circumstances will I pay that (Donnie's firm's picnic always gets its meat and sides from DLM- I load up on the pasta salad then!!) when I know that I can make it for much cheaper. One can also purchase Pine Club salad dressing at local Kroger stores. It costs $6.99 a bottle and you'd better believe that I have a copy cat recipe that costs significantly less than that to make (the bottle itself proclaims the modest ingredients as oil, cider vinegar, sugar, garlic powder, salt and a preservative (the latter of which, obviously, I omit when I make mine)).

On to a serious random thought, I have been reading news articles about Islamic  terrorists killing religious minorities in Syria including Christians. The exact number of those killed recently is unknown but according to some sources the number is well over one thousand. Speaking of luck, I feel so lucky and grateful to live in a country where I don't have to worry about being tortured and murdered due to my faith or ethnicity.