Mid Century Housewife Day 1: And on the First Day There Was SPAM

Well, here it is... a recap of Day 1 of my Mid -Century Housewife Project.

6/25/2013
10:11 pm

I have never been this sleepy this early in a long time. Especially when I haven't left my house other than to go to the supermarket all day. Even though I'm SUPER exhausted the day went surprisingly smooth.  There were no major disasters and I got everything done. Here is how the day panned out.

 I woke up at around 8 a.m. I usually wake up at around 9 a.m. anyway so that was no big feat. What was a little harder than I thought it would be was actually getting dressed! Since I made the schedule so that today (Tuesday) was my marketing day and there was no food for breakfast in the house, I kind of had to do my checklist out of order and go to the supermarket before waking Honey up for breakfast. So at 8 a.m. I pulled on a day dress, took the rollers out of my hair, brushed my hair and set out to the supermarket.

I got to the supermarket and started on the grocery list. Garlic, check! Tomato paste, check! Canned bean sprouts...??? ummm check! Then...gulp...SPAM...ugh...check... I put the SPAM in my cart and covered it with the remaining items I had to get. It's not that I was embarrassed to buy the SPAM...well yes I was. I kind of pride myself on buying healthy, mostly organic food for the house. It's not ALWAYS that way but you will almost never see processed meat in my shopping cart. I'm too afraid to get sick to eat it. But I guess I have to get used to the idea for the next two weeks. There is a lot of American cheese and frankfurters on the menu.  I guess two weeks of it won't kill us right?

$50 later (and a weird side glance from the lady ringing up my SPAM) I was on the way back to the apartment. Upon returning home, I put the groceries away and opened the blinds (not the windows...we had to run the air conditioner all day. By the time I got home from the market it was near 90 degrees!) and got breakfast on the table. I set the table and everything!!! Something I never do. Mainly because we don't have a real kitchen/ dining room table. Our apartment is way to small for such fancy schmacy furnishings. Breakfast was simple because I really didn't want to turn on the stove or oven if I didn't have too. So we just had cold cereal, grapefruit halves and coffee.  It was nice to sit down to a quiet breakfast in our apartment with the sun shining in and just talk and have coffee. It was a peaceful morning. Loved it.

Once breakfast was over I changed dresses and started the daily cleaning. Honey was off today so it made it just a little weird. She kept asking if she could help. So cute. She felt like I was doing all the work. Which I was, but that's the point.  But since she was looking for a job to do I told her to de-clutter one of the closets just to keep her busy. It was her equivalent of a "husband" job like mowing the lawn or repairing something.

 Its amazing how many little things can get out of their place from day to day. I spent most of the morning reorganizing and making sure every thing was in it's place. What's the saying? A place for everything and everything in it's place? That's what I was saying to myself all day. Dishes. Check! Vacuuming. Check! Bathroom...Check! It went on and on. Luckily I cleaned yesterday so it wasn't that bad. Just re-dusting things and making sure everything was nice and shiny.

Before I knew it it was 1 p.m. and  lunch time! So I set to work on that. Lunch was just tuna salad sandwiches and fruit cocktail for dessert.

After lunch I tackled the rest of the list which was just making sure every nook and cranny looked it's best. It was actually quite tedious but I enjoyed it. Honey at one point came in the kitchen as I was scrubbing and asked "You're enjoying yourself, aren't you?" I was like...TOTALLY!!! Who knew.

When all the cleaning was done I sat down with my recipe book and made sure I had everything for tonight's dinner and for dinner for the next two days. Then I sat down with Honey for some relaxation. I even had time for that nap that I was hoping for.

I started dinner around 6 p.m. and gave Honey her before dinner cocktail, a gin and tonic.

 I decided to make the Quick Chow Mein from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  This is the recipe that required the luncheon meat. I had never in my life tasted SPAM before so...hmmm...

Here is the recipe.

 In case you were wondering what diced SPAM looks like while it's frying up in butter, here ya go...

While frying the meat I really wasn't sure about it...I mean...it like fake ham or something. But if my mid century sisters could do it so could I. I powered on through the recipe...

I had Honey pull a card table in the center of the living room (I got that idea from I Love Lucy, did you ever realize that they didn't have a dining room table either? That was a great little New Yorker detail in the show) and set it. Then served the dish.

Here is the finished product

Not too bad, eh? Ok, it doesn't look like Chef Gordon Ramsey made it or anything but it looks edible, right?? I hope...

Well, Lo and behold!! It was kind of tasty!!! Not something that I would make on a regular basis but definitely not bad! YAY! Mid Century success!!! Honey liked it too. Which is a sigh of relief. If I failed the first meal I don't think she would trust my vintage recipes ever again

Here is Givenchy begging for spam chow mein. I'm sure it smelled yummy to him too.

Dessert was simply vanilla ice cream with a caramel sauce. Perfect for the steamy weather we were having.

After that it was time to clear away the dishes and tidy up the kitchen.  Which actually took no time at all since it was spotless from the earlier cleaning session.  After was quality time with Honey.

And that's that. The day is over and I'm pooped. I've been going from 8 this morning til 9 tonight doing mainly housework the whole time. Now it's time to set my hair and do it all over again tomorrow. And I'm kind of looking forward to it. It was a good productive day. The very best part was having Honey genuinely thank me for all the hard work I put into taking care of our home today. It was super sweet!!!


That's all for now
See you tomorrow

xoxo