The Triumphant Return of Cap'n Vegetable

The weekend was low-key and low-budget (just what I was requiring).

I hung out with the folks, did laundry & played Bejeweled (that game puts me in a damn trance!!) on Saturday and made a boiled dinner on Sunday. I had a ham to use up that the co. gave me last month for Christmas. I added beets to the boiled dinner, which is new for me.

I believe I was probably influenced by this article I read "The 10 Best Foods You're Not Eating" a list on which beets was the numero uno. Also on there was cabbage, which I LOVE and I do always put into my boiled dinner, but this time I doubled the amount (2 heads be better than 1, I say). Don't worry that I was overly swayed by this list--I managed to refrain from using guava or goji berries. But, aside from the aforementioned beets & cabbage, I put in beaucoup veggies : parsnips, carrots, onions, rutabaga, turnip, potatoes. It didn't seem like a ton of food when I was cooking, but--oy!!- after dinner, when I went to store the leftovers in Tupperware, I realized there was enough boiled dinner to feed a small country. (Liechtenstein, for instance) I sent some leftovers to my aunt & uncle but my parents will still be eating boiled dinner for at least a week.

Also on Sunday I was hell-bent on catching Masterpiece Theater ( Northanger Abbey this week) from the very beginning--regardless of where I happened to be at 9pm. Previously, I missed out on the 1st half hour of Persuasion and that pissed me off immensely (as you may well know). So, around 8pm ( when it became clear to me that I was not going to return to my abode until Monday) I slipped into the livingroom where my Dad was watching the Giants-Packers game. Now at that precise moment, he'd left the game to stoke the fire in the woodstove in the garage, so I was able to get my mitts on the remote. Dish allows you to set a timer for a program that will automatically switch the TV on to that channel at the start of the program. I rather surreptitiously set this timer for PBS at 9pm. So an hour later, I'm doing dishes and my Dad hollers to me, in a sort of befuddled voice, "Uhh, Masterpiece Theatre is on." And I'm all "Ohh!! I WANTED to watch that! However did you know??" And he's like "Did you do something with the remote?" It sure can be handy (sometimes) to be the most
technologically advanced in your clan.

I'd done a bit of research and saw that there was a later showing (at 1am) , so I offered to watch that if Dad was deeply invested in the Giants-Packers game. But, amazingly, he said Masterpiece Theater was OK and to leave it on. Maybe not so amazing...I did, after all, just prepare a ginormous ham. So, yeah, moral of the story: you can gain a good deal of clout in my family if you employ a bribe of HAM.
My Dad actually sat there in the armchair & watched Northanger Abbey with me. It was mildly annoying really...occasionally he would pipe in with the unnecessary query of "You like this stuff, huh?" To which, I just replied, "Yup". (I was so glad to be catching MT in its entirety that I didn't even bother with sarcasm. ) Also he kept nodding off and when he would wake up he'd ask questions about what was going on "Where is she now?Did they kick her out? What happened?" That was more irksome, but I was certainly inclined to cut some slack. I had offered to watch the 1am airing, but really didn't want to (as I had to wake up at 6:30am).
At times I had a tinges of guilt for monopolizing the TV and subjecting him to Jane Austen. I mean, I love the stuff, but it's a mite too frou-frou for most males I know. Ok, well ALL the menfolk I know. I really have no idea why Dad didn't retreat to the kitchen to read the paper (I'd expected him to).

Here's a wee taste of what I subjected the poor guy to...(oh by the way- if ever you intend to view this movie, and you're not keen on spoilers, DO NOT click the play arrow. This is the very end of it...the happily-ever-after bit...)