Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Finally Home in the Midwest

I finally made it to my new home yesterday in Meriden, Kansas. Nine states in three days--whew, I'm glad that's over! My housemate, Derrick, and his daughter, made me feel very welcome, and since then have been helping me learn to navigate my new home and surroundings, including the huge, beautiful kitchen. It’s always an interesting experience trying to learn your way around someone else’s kitchen—where to find things like spoons, sugar, and bread (the box on the counter marked "bread" should have been my clue.) My first challenge this morning was finding the “on” switch to the Keurig single-cup coffee maker—hard to do before that first cup of coffee! I used the special basket to fill with my favorite brand—Newman’s Own Organic Special Blend—and the machine makes a great tasting cup of coffee, similar in flavor to ones made in a French press. The kitchen has just about everything I need, but I am looking forward to my stuff arriving so I can use my own knives, pots and pans, and Kitchen Aid mixer.


I’m also looking forward to cooking for more people than just myself. Today I enjoyed going through my recipe binder for ideas while making out a grocery list. On tomorrow’s menu—Snickerdoodle cookies, and cheese tortellini with ham and broccoli in a Parmesan cheese sauce (easer to make than it might sound.) I’m changing the tortellini recipe around a bit from the one I have—I’ll share the results.

An Extra Note: Here is a shout-out and big thank you to a Good Samaritan who helped in my travels. While stopping for gas on Sunday in London, Ohio, I noticed one of my tires was almost flat. Being a Sunday, I was worried no tire shops would be open to help fix the problem. I went into a TA truck stop and my Mom/traveling companion noticed a tire shop in the back. I went into the convenience store area and asked if someone could help. They said the guys only work on the big rigs, but sometimes will fix a car tire if they’re not busy. One of the tire guys, Dan, was in the shop on his break and offered to look at my tire. He found the screw that was causing the problem and plugged the leak, and then checked the air in all my tires. And he didn’t want to take any money for his work! If you ever wonder if there are still good, kind, thoughtful people out there who will help a stranger, I can tell you there are—and one’s named Dan at the TA truck stop in London, Ohio.

4 comments:

  1. Hooray for Dan the good samaritan!!!! Looking forward to reading about your new adventures in Kansas.

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  2. The world would be such a better place, if more people were like Dan!! Can't wait to see the reviews and recipes from Kansas.

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  3. Yes it was a long journey and most incredible part of this journey was that you kept us all along in the journey. By the way its good that you have reached home, now take rest and take some time off.

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