Over Memorial Day weekend this past May, we held an Open House at an incredible property here in western Montana that we have for sale that we just finished an awesome remodel/rehab on. (To see the house, click on the Virtual Tour button at www.HusonHome.com) We decided to grill hot dogs for everyone who came to the Open House.
Not knowing for sure how many people would show up, we went to our local food warehouse. We bought the hot dogs and buns and got a jumbo pack of matching condiments (mustard, relish, and ketchup) to go on the dogs. In spite of the weather, which was miserable and rainy and dark, the Open House was a suprising success with lots of people showing up for hot dogs and to tour the house that Friday before Memorial Day.
A couple of months later, I decided to make a meatloaf for dinner. The great thing about meatloaf is that the ingredients don’t necessarily have to stay exactly the same. Oh sure, the basics are fairly consistent, like some sort of meat, we like the lean ground turkey, then bread crumbs, and I like to add oatmeal too. I usually add an egg and some onion soup mix. (Hmmm, Maybe someday I’ll put together some of my favorite recipes to post here on the blog….) I then add some ketchup until it has just the right consistency.
I went to the refrigerator to get out the ketchup. As I was squeezing it into the mixing bowl, I noticed it just wasn’t coming out like it should. So I squeezed harder. Well, I felt like I must have gotten some into the bowl, as the bottle felt lighter than when I had started. I started mixing up the ingredients, shaped it into a loaf and plopped it into the loaf pan. I like to put some ketchup on top of the loaf, too.
So I squeezed the bottle again, but this time I saw it! It was not ketchup at all; I had been using pickle relish! I had forgotten that we put the leftover condiments from the Open House in our fridge; I had just grabbed what I thought was ketchup. We don’t usually have relish, and it didn’t cross my mind that I had used anything other then ketchup.
Frustrated, I scraped the relish off the top of the meatloaf, and put the meat mix back into the mixing bowl. I wasn’t sure how much of the relish I had actually mixed into the loaf, but since relish comes out of the bottle thicker than the runnier ketchup, I hoped perhaps I hadn’t put that much in.
I went back to the refrigerator and got out the ketchup. Guess again! It was mustard! And I of course, squeezed a hefty amount of it into the bowl before I knew what it was. But at least I could see the yellow color against the darker ingredients of the loaf. So I scooped out as much of the mustard as I could. This was beginning to look like it was not going to turn out well.
Going back to the fridge for the 3rd time, I finally managed to get the ketchup bottle, actually double checking the label this time!
I put the meatloaf in the oven to cook, and right away I could tell it wasn’t going to be my best effort, to say the least. I could smell the pickle relish and mustard, and they smelled strong!
When I served dinner, I preceeded it with a warning that the meatloaf might taste a little different, and told the whole story of all the confusing condiments from the refrigerator that ended up in the meatloaf. We were a bit concerned about the mustard, as a little of that can be really overpowering.
T took a hesitant bite of the meatloaf. Being sensitive to my feelings, she gently agreed it was not my best culinary effort.
She had been worried about the mustard, but what about the relish? I took a bite of the meatloaf. No doubt about it. It sucked big time! While pickles are okay, we are really not big pickle eaters, and I’m not sure even a pickle lover would have liked this meatloaf!
She asked me why I didn’t ask her for help with finding the ketchup. I knew the shape of the bottle and just knew it was ketchup. I never thought about the relish and mustard being in there, in similarly shaped bottles.
So the disregarded meatloaf sat in the refrigerator for a few days, before I finally relented and threw it out. We also threw out what was left of the relish and mustard. We rarely used it at home, and there was no way we would ever use that much of it. I think T secretly feared that we would end up with some kind of mustard pickle relish ice cream smoothie concoction some day.
To be honest, I can’t say that I blame her….
How ‘bout it?
-Vision Runner
P.S. Be on the lookout for my favorite recipes . . .
This time of the year poses some definite challenges for me as a blind runner. One of them is the change in the lighting outside. As the sun is at a different angle, there are more shadows and well, just odd lighting that is hard for me to visually interpret sometimes.
To someone with normal eyesight, the seasonal lighting change is not a big deal; it’s just a matter of fact. It’s what triggers the changing colors of the leaves and sometimes our moods for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
But for me it’s when I do a lot of kung fu running. What is kung fu running?
As I’m running along, out of nowhere, a shadow wanders across my visual horizon. It might be a tree limb blowing in the wind, or a passing car casting a shadow or reflection of light off a mirror or some other shiny surface.
What ever it is, it will cause me to suddenly throw up my hands in an attempt to protect myself from dangerous shadows! It may look to the casual observer like I’m being attacked by invisible bees, or that I have some kind of nervous twitch, or perhaps like I’m ready to fight. I’m a little curious as to what people passing by must think of this bizarre behavior.
Hard as I may try, it’s hard to quell the urge to protect myself from all manner of lurking shadows out to waylay me on my journey. I thought that running with thewhite cane would cure me of this need to shadow box, but yet it prevails. Even when I have mywhite cane out and in front of me, and I am confident nothing is there, I still find myself occasionally flailing about because an errant spark of light or shadow has crossed my visual path.
And it’s not just the speed of movement when I’m running that causes it. I even find myself throwing the occasional karate chop while walking. I nearly always hold onto T’s arm as we walk, so I won’t wander off the trail. She is always really good about telling me when there is something I need to be aware of, like a mud puddle or dog or whatever. So on our walk one day when I suddenly jumped and self-defensively threw a quick defensive chop into the air, T said, “He was only about 3 years old, I think you could have taken him.”
Hey! His shadow was HUGE!
Until my vision improves, I guess I’ll have to live with the occasional flailing of arms and awkward martial arts impression. Luckily I can’t see how goofy it looks.
I'd like to donate a cuppa coffee to Vision Runner, as I understand that all that running and writing requires a great deal of strength and energy and focus......
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I'd like to send Vision Runner $10.00 so that she can get a gift card for her favorite coffee establishment.
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I'm feeling very creative and I don't want to be inhibited by someone else's choices. I'm going to pick my own dollar amount...cause what if I want it to end with 46 cents or something?
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What about me? I need some for me..... (Go ahead. Order some for yourself, why don't ya?)
running. What is 
or some other shiny surface. 
, but yet it prevails. Even when I have my 
chop while walking. I nearly always hold onto T’s arm as we walk, so I won’t wander off the trail. She is always really good about telling me when there is something I need to be aware of, like a mud puddle or dog or whatever. So on our walk one day when I suddenly jumped and self-defensively threw a quick defensive chop into the air, T said, “He was only about 3 years old, I think you could have taken him.” 
