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Saturday, January 26, 2019

Water soup


      
By Friday night, enough was enough.  Poor Laura and her bad decisions in this detachment portion of teen age life. I’ve already encountered several detachments, and kicked them to the curb. The super blunt, for instance. 

I wonder if I even mentioned all the phone apps that permit teenagers to talk to anybody about anything, and there is no record. All while being under the age of consent and using a phone they aren’t paying for! And now Zuckerberg is buying the apps. I don’t know how parents keep up with it. I took the phone.

Anyway, come Friday night and three straight nights of water soup, I’d had it. For anyone who has heard of our family Grandpa Soup, no, it’s not. Nor is it Stone Soup, which winds up as loaded and good as Grandpa Soup.

No, Water Soup, with leftovers, is made from half a chicken breast, one carrot, one stalk of celery, a few thin noodles, and water. “Did we run out of food this week?” I asked the cook. 

I added my own list of ingredients to today’s shopping list. Mine included artichoke hearts, in a can, half and half, cheese ravioli (from the refrigerator section, not a box), and a couple of cheeses. Oh, yes, red pepper flakes and basil. And other stuff. Peas. I remember peas.

It was for a new recipe I’d printed to use when I cook again. Laura has a portfolio of recipes I’ve given her over the years, most made once and filed. She is a college cook, mac and cheese in a bowl. Now it must include meat and a veg, to pass grandma’s inspection. But this week we have degenerated to Water Soup. So I presented the list of ingredients for Cheese Ravioli with Artichoke Sauce.

After lunch I made a new loaf of Boston Brown Bread, cleaned the kitchen and retired to the loom. At the usual time, and with only three bouts of new warp left to tie on, I heard “Supper’s ready” at the usual time.

Supper still was presented in a bowl, and it was good. I glanced at Laura’s face, and we both agreed the red pepper flakes will be halved, come future. “Did it take long?” I asked.  She may have begun quite early, for all I knew, to put supper on the table at the same time. “The usual,” she replied.





37 comments:

  1. Well, it looks good. This must be a very difficult time. I'm sorry.

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    1. Thank you, Mary. It's called "marking time", for both of us. I know she will be OK.

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    2. Which is a relief, however hard it is now

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  2. The atmosphere in a house where there is an angry teenager is one of the most oppressive I know. The adult can do nothing right . . . I wish you a peace of sorts while you both must live under one roof, and a real peace and understanding as Laura gets older.

    And water soup sucks.

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  3. I've heard a lot about apps that leave no record...our previous governor (who was in office for a little over a year before he resigned) was accused of using them for official business.

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  4. Rather disappointing to be served water soup by a child who now knows how to cook.
    I don't know much about apps, I have several on my phone that load themselves and I haven't a clue what they are for, I simply don't use them. I've thought about downloading the "real time" bus app that tells you where your bus is and how many minutes before it arrives, but I really don't need even that.
    I certainly wouldn't bother with any of the communication apps apart from the talking and texting I currently do. So many of those are designed simply to keep people attached to their phones when they should be attached to real life.

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  5. I hope that the marking time moves into a more comfortable and pleasant rhythm.
    Water soup? Bleah. Glad that you got an improvement - at the usual time too.

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  6. Had I had a child, then I might have had one going through the teenage years now. I cannot fathom dealing with teens and their use of technology. How to shield them from/talk with about some of the more unsavory bits? Oi vey.

    Dinner looks tasty.

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  7. Oh how I wish Laura would become more mature suddenly. I know it's a process but I know you had such hopes.

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  8. Five of my six grandchildren are teenagers. I am glad that their parents don’t share details with me.

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  9. Tough to have twice as much red pepper flakes as needed/wanted....But it looks like she did a pretty good job. I am so sorry you are having to go through all this opposition. I am sure someday Laura will realize all you did for her, because you love her. It takes time. Find joy every day!

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  10. I just wrote a comment and it disappeared when I published. I hope it goes through this time.

    I think you're wonderful that you are their for your grandchildren. The teenage years are indeed difficult. I remember.

    I'm making stone soup tomorrow, minus the stone.

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  11. Many of those apps are dangerous. There are apps that look a game or calculator and are actually some hidden texting app underneath. The makers know what people are using them for.
    I would considering replacing the smartphone with a flip phone.

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    1. I searched "what can be hidden in apps". Well, now I know. Thanks, Bill.

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  12. Laura will be OK, and so will you Joanne.

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  13. Growing up through one's teenage years is so hard these days - but one day Laura will look back and thank you for the care and the love you have given her.
    That pasta looks delicious - wish somebody would put that in front of me without my lifting a finger to make it.
    I make what I call fridge bottom soup on Mondays. It consists of whatever veg are left in the veg drawer of the fridge - usually a couple of carrots, a bit of celery, an onion, a potato, a couple of leeks - that sort of thing.

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  14. Hari OM
    mmmmmmmmmmmm you got me at cheese ravioli! Well done to Laura for taking up the suggestion. YAM xx

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  15. Several days of it sounds a little much, but the end dish looked good although a little too hot for my taste.

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  16. New here, seems like I have a lot of catching up to do?

    LX

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  17. I am not looking forward to the teenage years for our three grandchildren. Hang in there!

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  18. A friend of mine's wife organised a dinner party for a group of other friends, and the meal consisted of a boiled chicken with no seasoning that could be detected. It was so bland that the guests could not help commenting on it. When they were leaving, one of the wives said to her, "You must give me the recipe for your 'Chicken in Water'!"

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  19. It looks great. Teenage years are so hard...both on the teenager and everyone else around them. She will get past that stage...it may take forty years or so....longer if she was a guy lol.

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  20. I wondered how things were going. water soup. who did she think she was punishing since she had the same for dinner? and getting her a flip phone instead of the smart phone is a good idea.

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    1. She was buying food all day at school. She probably didn't realize I was hungry. At the bottom, she's a good child, but completely led by her mother. As Diana said, there are three of us in this relationship. We had a foot of snow overnight and she just went out to shovel. I haven't said a word about it.

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    2. Hmm. Your reply puts things in a different light, Joanne. Perhaps disregard my rant above?

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    3. It's all part of the scene, oh Jenny-o.

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  21. Your new home is indeed cuter than a bug!

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  22. No, Water Soup might not make it to tonight's menu! But I do like the idea of someone else doing the cooking occasionally ...

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  23. Well, at least she is speaking to you. LOL Did those ravioli have a butter garlic sauce?
    Parenting is such a struggle now. No phones when I had my girls, but despite great grades there were flotillas of sailors and drugs. Lots of drugs. It's amazing they lived.

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    1. I know. Through it all, she's a 4. student, in engineering subjects, who will squander her talents on being a makeup artist. It's a new world, Mage.

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  24. Got to feel for Laura. I'm sure she's pulled in so many different directions and trying to process it all. Deep down she's a good kid and I'm sure eventually she will come to evaluate decisions she's making and realize that some of them aren't the best ones to make. I can't imagine all the apps out there that are available and what they can or can't do. Kids are so savvy these days technology wise they are good at figuring out what they can get away with if their parents (of which I would fit into this category) were unaware of what was out there. Dinner looked delicious!

    betty

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  25. Water soup? Your post reminded me that my friend just gave me a recipe that she thought I would like. It has artichoke hearts, pasta, bacon, and cannellini beans (as well as pepper flakes, garlic, parmesan and a few other seasonings. You might like it...

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  26. I love ravioli with a butter garlic sauce.
    have a great day

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  27. Well I'm glad we don't parent anymore in this day and age. As to the grandchildren they're a thousand miles away and in Arizona. We rarely get to see them anyway so I can't speak to any issues with aps...:(

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  28. It's always good to have some frozen ravioli on hand.

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  29. Laura always sounds like a great girl, must be difficult finding her way through the pressures and conflicts of life at present. I think she will get through well.

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