Best Use of Leftover Fries

When my husband and I were driving back from the Oregon coast, we needed to stop somewhere and get dinner. Usually, we manage to stop at this Thai place in Pendleton that's really good (Thai Crystal), but we ended up hungry before we passed that town this time. 

So we ended up going to a burger joint drive thru type of place instead. We both ordered fish n chips, but after we received the order, it was clear we should have ordered one to share. This was a big pile of food - not something either of us were prepared to fully consume. The fish portion was generous, but it was the fries that really overwhelmed me. 

They were shoestring fries, basically a big ol' ball of them, a huge tangled nest of fries. They weren't easy for Ambrose to eat while driving, because if you pull on one fry, you get 50 more clinging to it. I had to break them up so he could actually eat. 

We got close to finishing the first order of fries, but we didn't touch the second. However, I had an idea about what might be done with them, and I convinced Ambrose we shouldn't just throw them out as soon as we got home. 

Instead, I let them sit overnight and then I made an omelet with them. 

French fries, cheese and a little ketchup in the omelet. 

It was a little trickier to roll than my typical omelets. I had to be careful not to let the egg break as I folded those fries. But it turned out pretty nice on the plate, with a dusting of shredded Dubliner cheese.  

After I took the picture, Ambrose also requested some hot sauce on his omelet, which I was happy to accommodate. I had some on mine as well. 

I did not reheat the fries before putting them on the omelet; instead, I let the omelet warm them up as part of my process. I use an omelet process that I got from YouTube; basically, you treat the eggs like scrambled until they are almost done being liquid, then you turn off the burner, smoosh the eggs flat, and add any other ingredients that need warming. Then I cover it with a pan lid to help warm up the toppings (and melt the cheese!), which get less heat than the eggs since they are not touching the cast iron pan. 

So the fries were warmed by the residual heat from cooking the omelet, but not actually re-cooked themselves. While they didn't taste like fresh fries, they tasted really good in the omelet. I don't think this would have worked so well if the fries were thicker. If I had thicker cut fries, I'd probably go ahead and chop them into smaller, thinner pieces before putting it in the omelet. Otherwise, I'd end up with cold chunks, yuck. 

If I ever have leftover fries again, I know exactly what I'm doing with them. 

Declining Invitations

Maybe your day is going well. Maybe it's going poorly. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you just have a mood. 

Whatever the circumstances, every now and then, someone hands you an invitation to be annoyed. An express ticket to Grumpy Town. 

You can take it. Snap it up. Really lean into the whole I'm annoyed so EVERYONE should be annoyed mentality.

And that is what we often do without thinking. We just see the invitation, and we don't stop and consider. We just say, oh, sure why not be a grump today? I mean, you're being invited. Wouldn't it be rude to decline? 

But declining invitations to be annoyed is something that I've been thinking about lately. I thought about it while I hiked, letting the slow and quiet of the wilderness seep into my thought process. I thought about the future, and that I could simply not take those invitations and therefore avoid becoming grumpy at trivial things. 

It was a nice thought. 

See, the other day I was hungry. Hungry and trying to get stuff done so I could eat. And my husband offered me an invitation. An express ticket to Grumpy Town. 

And in the moment, I couldn't refuse it. 

It was a silly thing to get worked up over, but I got worked up anyway. I did get to eating, and worked on a project, and then finished eating. I was hoping, by that point, to leave Grumpy Town. But sometimes, you've got a double ticket, and you can only leave with your partner. 

Which is a great lesson for me. It's easy to think that I should decline these invitations in the abstract. The practice of actually declining such invitations is going to take both time and effort. But I think I'll be better off if I try. 

I think I will feel better in my life if I graciously decline, it not all, then most of the invitations I receive throughout the day to be annoyed. Just missed the green light? Let it go. Someone cuts me off in traffic? No need to raise my blood pressure because they're an idiot. Something turns out in a way I wasn't expecting or wanting? Adapt. 

Easier written then done. But is it really "easy" to get annoyed? If it is so easy, then why is it so easy?  Because it's a habit? Then why have I built a habit of being easily annoyed? What purpose does it serve for me? 

I think the next step is to try and slow down my reactions a bit. To be thoughtful and consider before reacting. Because I do not like being annoyed or grumpy, and I want to reduce the amount of my life that I spend in Grumpy Town. 

The Self

What is it that makes you "you"? 

Not, what defines you? Not, what experiences made you who you are? 

But what is it that you use to define what it means to be you? 

I don't like mint. I've never liked it. I can stand it. I tolerate it at the dentist. I tolerate using mint toothpaste and dental floss. But I do not like it. That's a part of who I am. 

If I woke up one morning and I enjoyed the taste of mint, would I still be me? 

As a child, I didn't like spicy foods. As an adult, I enjoy them quite a bit. Am I a different person now than I was when I was young? 

I would say that I am different. I believe that I have changed over the years that I've been alive on this earth. I am not the same person that I was 15 years ago. 

But I am still me. 

I am not my opinions. I am not my experiences. I am not even a sum or multiple of these things. 

What is it that I am at my core? Is it my brain? Is it a soul? An extension of the universe using my body as a meat puppet to experience and understand itself? 

In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, there is a section where one of the narrators, Teresa, stares at herself in the mirror, and wonders how long she would still recognize herself as herself if her nose grew a millimeter every day. I don't believe the body is integral to the self, though it has influence. A person is no less themselves should they lose a limb. But they do have to adapt to such a radical change in their body. That adaptation - will it change who they are? 

I think it can, but it won't necessarily. 

Whatever it is that makes you, you, it is not immutable. It is subject to influence and change. Purposeful adaptations and incidental ones. Habits and fancies. 

Because if change is not possible, then there's no point in trying. If change is not possible, then how have I changed? How have I adapted to public speaking when it used to terrify me to the point of illness? How have I figured out how to calm my overthinking brain? 

Whatever makes you, you, it isn't your bad habits. You can let them go, and still be yourself. In fact, by letting them go, you might find that you have more room to be yourself. 

Summer Cleaning

As I prepared to embark on a fly-out backpacking trip, I decided to do a little "spring" cleaning. It's late for spring cleaning, being already summer, and a particularly hot one at that. But I've got air conditioning, and, frankly, I have trouble staying warm when it runs. What better way to combat that than with a little hard scrubbing of the shower? 

Also, I try to rotate the mattress every 6 months. January and July are the months, so it was time, and I decided to launder the liner as well, which I don't do every sheet change. Well. I also don't change the sheets all that often. At any rate, everything's getting laundered. 

My main motivation to clean was that I wanted to come home to a relatively clean house instead of coming home to a mess. Somehow, that's more motivating for me than keeping the house clean on a day to day basis. Cleaning has never been a habit of mine. 

When I was growing up, we had a cleaning lady come in because my mom couldn't do everything. But we were supposed to have the house picked up by the time that lady arrived, so that she could do the big stuff, like mopping and scrubbing the bathrooms. If we didn't have it picked up adequately, she'd take our money and leave. 

Or maybe my mom would give it to her for her trouble in coming out to a house she couldn't clean. I know my mom would feel bad about not keeping the house up, but never bad enough to do it. I remember hearing that she was never a particularly neat person herself, even before her diagnosis with MS. That she was a bit of a slob as a teen. But aren't most teens slobs? 

I know I was. 

It took me a long time to figure out a better habit. To bend myself towards putting things away when I finished with them, throwing things away when I was done with them, and periodically doing a thorough cleaning. I like it when I get things clean, and when my stuff has a place where it belong. 

Maybe, someday, I'll have a more regular cleaning habit. Perhaps when I have a place that I own, I'll feel differently than I do about the places that I've rented. But I have no idea when I'll have the opportunity to purchase land, let alone a house. 

That's a question for future Jeanne. Present Jeanne is getting ready to spend some time bathing in the wilderness, breathing in the mountain air and feasting my eyes upon the wonders big and small that are to be found out there.