Another Day in the Country
It costs how much?
© Another Day in the Country
Many years ago, when my sister and I were very much younger and we would come back to Kansas to visit our older aunts and uncles, we’d marvel at how much slower and quieter the pace of life was in Ramona — in comparison to how much busier our lives were in California.
Then, one day about 30 years ago, I decided to buy a little rundown house on Ramona’s Main St. and fix it up so that when we came back to visit we’d have someplace to stay.
Then we got the bright idea of coming back and living here for a year in 2000 as a millennium lark. Here we still are, living in the country.
Our original dream was that we thought the country would be a good place to retire. We imagined the pace of country life to be slower, and we knew that real estate — as in buying a house — and groceries would be cheaper than it was on the West Coast. And it is. We congratulate ourselves regularly.
When we dreamed of living in Ramona, we imagined living in a little cottage, growing flowers and maybe vegetables, having a cat — maybe a dog — and being able to ask my sister whether she’d like to come over for dinner. We’d just have to walk next door or across the street.
This week, I was sitting with my sister at her dining room table. We’d just had a lovely lunch — something we call “majedra.”
“Remember when you lived in Sacramento, and I was living in Angwin, and we used to talk about how much fun we thought it would be to go and live in Ramona when we got older?” I said. “Well, here we are.”
We both laughed.
Since I’m telling you about “majedra,” I googled the name and discovered that it’s also spelled “mujaddara.” And, now that you know the more authentic name, or at least one of the names, I’ll quickly tell you how to make it. It’s delicious. And it’s healthy.
You cook rice. (I like basmati rice). You cook some lentils. (I don’t like them mushy; I want them a little chewy). And then you add salad ingredients and seasoning.
In the beginning, it was rice in the bottom of the bowl, lentils layered on top of the rice, then shredded lettuce and chopped scallions, seasoned with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and garlic salt.
Eventually, we also added feta cheese and chopped tomatoes to the mix and pretty much dropped the green onions because my sister doesn’t like them.
Maybe adding the Feta cheese and tomatoes turned this into a Middle Eastern rice bowl.
I just got back from visiting my daughter and her family in California. While I was out there, I was reminded how expensive things are in other parts of the United States.
I filled up my daughter’s SUV with gas at $6.50 a gallon — a hundred dollars.
We went out to eat at what I’d call a hole-in-the-wall restaurant one evening. A friend had given Jana a gift certificate for the place. The food was innovative and unusual. The idea was to taste several dishes. We weren’t going to make a meal out of one thing.
When I looked at the menu, I asked, “How big is that gift certificate?”
This was what I’d call a rather “spendy” joint. When we finished eating, we gulped when I saw the bill was more than $250 before the tip.
Jana always wants to talk about our plans for the future as we’re going to the airport, so she was asking me, “Is there something on your bucket list that you’d like to do?”
Well, for several years I’ve been saying that I’d love to see the show, “The Book of Mormon.”
“I looked it up, and it’s coming to Denver in January, during Dagfinnr’s winter break,” I told her, “so what about you guys flying to Denver, we’ll meet you there, get tickets for the show, and then we’ll drive you back to Kansas, and you can stay with us for a week, and then you fly home, and Dagfinnr flies back to southern California to college?”
“That would be fun,” my daughter said. “Check it out and let me know.”
Sitting at my sister’s table in Ramona, my hometown, I mentioned this.
She grabbed her phone and looked up the price of tickets. The cheapest seats were more than $250 each.
I gasped.
“$250 for one ticket?,” I said. “With a senior discount, I can see a whole season of shows at the theater in Salina.”
My sister continued: “Most of the seats cost over $500.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I replied.
Right about then, I realized just how long I’d been living in the country.
“Whoa, I’m really out of touch,” I said.
Already, we’d been factoring in winter weather, the cost of hotel rooms for a couple of nights, air fare, gas prices, and now tickets at their least expensive more than $250 each — which even in California was a meal at an interesting restaurant for four people.
We had a quick family meeting after this grand enlightenment and decided we really didn’t need to be entertained by strangers.
For the price of the cheapest seat, we could probably get an early morning flight on an airplane at Christmas, and they could just come spend another day in the country. That would be our entertainment.