Slow-Cooker Sunday: A New Family Tradition

Until recently, the slow cooker had always struck me as a rather pointless gadget:  after all, unless you worked outside the home, why would you invest in a device that took eight hours to accomplish what a Dutch oven could do in three or four?  Moreover, it couldn't reduce a liquid down to the silky, rich sauce that I expected in a pot roast or stew; and its throw-everything-in-and-walk-away method seemed to leave no room for creativity... So for years I skipped all of those slow-cooker recipes, confident that there was really nothing in them to miss.

Until recently.  To my shock, that once-despised slow cooker has actually proved itself...!

You see, on Sundays our family assists at Tridentine Mass (Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) in the city 35 miles from our home, and-- depending on traffic-- it can take us anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes to reach the church. Once Mass ends, we're hungry; the babies are both tired and (despite take-along snacks) hungry; and we still must face the long commute home.  It's a problem.

In pre-parenthood days, my husband and I loved to follow Mass with a leisurely brunch at one of the downtown restaurants; and even when our eldest first came along, we still could usually sneak in 40 minutes or so at a family-friendly establishment.  When our second child arrived in January, however, that option was shot.  There was no enjoying a sit-down meal with two frazzled little ones to manage!  ...And so, we began pulling into Sonic for a quick meal of burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers, and tater tots.  I'd squeeze between carseats in the back of our sedan, where I could give the infant her bottle (if necessary) while handing the toddler bits of chicken and greasy fried potato.

Needless to say, this arrangement was less than ideal.

On a whim, I picked up a seven-quart Crock Pot (with visiting family in mind?) at Walmart on a Saturday, along with 3lbs of pork shoulder and some barbeque sauce.  At eight the next morning I loaded meat, vegetables, and sauce into the thing, turned it on "high," and ran upstairs to go back to bed prepare for Mass...  "I hope it doesn't burn the house down," my husband said as we drove away-- late, as usual.  (Mea culpa.)

But when we returned home, the smell was amazing-- and the pork was tender and savory.  We could sit down to our meal almost immediately, no fuss, with naps to follow... Leisure restored!  I was sold.

Since then, we've experimented with beef sirloin on two successive Sundays (not as tasty, since it really needs more cooking time); and this past Sunday, we tried this worthwhile Food Network recipe for pork carnitas.  In the interest of time, I initially skipped the final "crisping" step, but tried it on the next day's leftovers-- and we both found that it elevated the ok to the sublime!  (Please don't forget the "crisping" step!  It creates those flavorful brown bits...)

Humbled, I now ask-- do you have a favorite slow-cooker recipe? 

Attitude Adjustment--

-- in that I really need one, ASAP.

All weekend my thoughts have centered on me, on a sort of struggle for my time and my space against all other members of this household, dogs included. When will the baby let me drink my coffee in peace? Why is the toddler always in the kitchen? When will I finally be allowed to watch that TV show? While I did my job (with lots of help from my husband), I wasn't "doing small things with great love"; rather, I was busy "getting small things out of the way to make room for me."  And when that room didn't magically appear, I chose to become resentful and sullen.

As a result, I've begun the week on the wrong foot and the wrong side of the bed.  As this morning wore on I heard That Tone creeping into my voice; and upon smelling That Smell just before naptime-- right when I thought I was home free-- I actually exclaimed to my toddler, "What?!  You pooped again?! How is that even possible??"  (She laughed, thankfully... But in the future she may take to heart this sort of accusation.)

Hopefully I can still manage to turn the day/week around...  Although nearly two years ago I'd allowed the arrival of our first daughter to completely derail my daily prayer, last week this post at The Happy, Resourceful Home motivated me to begin again, just in a small way: a decade or two of the Rosary said here and there, most often as I rock the baby to sleep.  Maybe it will help to pull me through today; and maybe a nap will, too... However it's achieved, though, my focus does need to shift away from "getting what I want" and toward the process, the day's rhythm as a source of grace.  (Yes, yes, I've been reading Holly Pierlot!)   Otherwise, I'll only keep clawing at members of my family, as I did all weekend-- and how pleasant was that?

Love Literature? Win Free Books from Civium Press!

Civium Press, purveyer of little-known classics, is giving away four books by "father of modern fantasy" William Morris (1834-1896), whose work influenced C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.  All four books go to one lucky winner!  Please click here for details. The drawing will take place on Monday, July 23.

Disclosure: I'd love to be that lucky winner!  This blog post constitutes an additional entry in the drawing... Yes, I'd go to some effort for a book.  Or four.  Wouldn't you?

YA Nostalgia

Lately I've found myself revisiting many books that I'd loved as a child, most of which I still love.  Little Women...  the Anne of Green Gables series... the Little House books... Charlotte Sometimes, A Girl of the Limberlost, An Old-Fashioned Girl, The Lamplighter, Summer of My German Soldier, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Jacob Have I Loved, Bridge to Terebithia, Harriet the Spy.  I could go on and on, as I suspect that you could, too...  Reading them now, I appreciate anew their charm and warmth and wit; and I imagine the day that my little daughters will encounter them for the first time.  How wonderful, to discover these stories-- to read them without prior knowledge of how they develop and end!  Will my girls be enthralled?  I hope so.  (If not, they're sure to laugh at how excited I'll be!)

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to pick up a number of classic YA novels from the local thrift shop, among them a newer one I'd never read:  Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson (one of my favorite authors in this genre).  And so of course, I couldn't rest until I'd finished it, right?  ...Well worth the late hours!  Set in the 1840s, Lyddie is the story of a farm girl, her family broken by poverty and mental illness, who labors in the textile factories of Lowell, MA in hope of earning enough to reunite her brothers and sisters.  I think that Patterson does an excellent job of conveying a central tension of that time and place:  While arduous working conditions provoke Lowell women to organize against company management, at the same time the factory offered girls like Lyddie economic and cultural advantages that they could never have experienced at home on the farm.  From one perspective, it was "wage slavery"; but from another, it was unprecedented independence and (yes, yes) empowerment.   As the story progresses, Lyddie must negotiate these tensions to decide what she really wants to do with her life-- and claiming that ability to choose is, for her (as it would be for most women of her day), an astonishing step.  I couldn't put it down!

One caveat:  I wouldn't give this novel to my daughters until they were at least 12, and even then I would plan to discuss with them some of the situations encountered therein. I think particularly of a manager's attempts to take sexual advantage of his female employees (two instances, both assertively thwarted by the women, no indelicate or gratuitous detail); and the extramarital pregnancy of one of Lyddie's co-workers, which the book seems to interpret as a matter of personal freedom v. stifling paternalistic morality. ...  Moms, definitely vet this one beforehand!



...If you have a moment, please suggest to me your favorites!  What books did you love as a young girl?

To Henry Rago, poet and De Paul alumnus

"Laughter and books and wine are holy things; and living is good; and death is a breathlessness with the whole adventure of finding everywhere the traces of one great beauty..."

                ~Henry Rago, "Plea for Uncommon Sense," De Paulia (February 4, 1937) 2.


Dear Henry Rago,

I met you in 1936.  (You never met me.)  It was when you began that column for the De Paul University newspaper, and-- well, your words leapt out of that blurry microfilm image and gleamed. Just gleamed! I began to look forward to finding your column, again and again; I even fancied that I could discern your cadence in unsigned editorials. Later, in the files of Chicago Inter-Student Catholic Action, I found a short play that you'd written in 1940-- a clever anti-war skit that made me laugh out loud--as well as a few poems, all of which strengthened an impression I'd already received: that, if I'd been at De Paul in 1936-37, I'd have been, well, intrigued. 

But from a distance.  While you described yourself as "timid," you seemed popular and involved in everything-- from CISCA to newspaper to drama to Homecoming and intramural sports-- so no, I would never have braved the writerly crowd surrounding your booth at Pixley's or the Roma! And if I had, could I have joined your banter on the Mystical Body implications of a cheeseburger. . . ?

Researching a (21st-century) dissertation on collegiate Catholic Action, however, I took the liberty of citing your poems and newspaper columns as illustrations of a developing liturgical/social justice culture among Depression-era Catholic youth.  (I hope that you don't mind.)

Looking further, I'm thrilled to find that--no shock!-- you'd indeed become a renowned poet, theology professor, and editor of the well-known literary journal Poetry. Today you have your own web tribute, one much more fitting than any I could construct... since, after all, I only watched you from afar in your student days, at De Paul in 1936.

PS:  While I'd love to share a poem or two that I found in the files of CISCA, I'm concerned about copyright issues-- so instead I'll link to your wonderful "Sonnet for God," which Poetry published in 1934.

Sorry, sorry-- but yes, I'm going to share this!

You know that it's about to be a challenging day when... the dog regurgitates a dead bunny on the living room floor, right in front of your inquisitive toddler and grabby infant.

(Hey, at least it didn't happen on the couch, right...?)

Tethered to the Coffeepot

To put it briefly:  Rough night.  Again.  (Also, note to self: Never bring the toddler to bed with us after a night waking!  The result will be a baby bouncing on the mattress as we're trying to sleep and, ultimately, tortured screams when she's replaced in the crib.)

So early this morning I crept down to the kitchen and, armed with a cup of coffee and both baby monitors, tried to recover some shadow of interest in the world.  As usual, I went to the NPR website and listened to the Hourly News-- that five-minute audio rundown of headlines, available on demand, which is so convenient for a tired mom who has little time/motivation to click through Drudge Report or the New York Times.  (Conservative stations, Catholic stations, won't you develop something similar?)

This video, too, I find to be a helpful mood-brightener, both because of the upbeat music (who can resist the Pastoral Symphony?), and because of the obvious joy that these musicians take in its performance.  They're living in the moment, reveling in what they do-- and yes, it's just a little bit contagious!

Time for that fourth cup of coffee.  Happy Monday to all!

Hello! Thanks for dropping in

... on my brand-new, wide-open, clean slate of a blog!  Years ago, while working on my dissertation, I ran a blog called Quo Vadis, which-- sadly for me-- I terminated when academic obligations became (or felt) overwhelming.  Life is different now:  I've graduated, and, after years of struggling with infertility, my husband and I have adopted two wonderful baby girls, now the center of our lives!  They're full biological sisters, and we took each one into our care within days of her birth.... So now I'm trying to concentrate on becoming the best mom, wife, and homemaker that I can be, although 95% 99% of the time I find myself just praying for "adequacy."


Still, a professional networks, right?  I've decided that now is the moment to stop lurking and start participating in the online conversation!   In this (as in so much else!) I'm lucky to have the example of a friend from college and a friend from church, both talented writers and outstanding moms.

Again, thank you for visiting!  I'll see you when naptimes overlap.