October 31, 2026

WEEKLY MENU 11.01.26

It’s national “what time is it, actually?” day during the Weekly Menu 11.01.26~

We leaf (how punny am I?) Daylight Saving Time behind during the Weekly Menu 11.01.26. As usual, there is a big hoopla in the media about how many people want to leave it behind permanently. It doesn’t matter as much to me now, but holy cow, the time switch was a real bear when the boysies were little. Crazy how much that one little hour could screw us all up for the week.

Apparently, keeping Daylight Saving Time was previously passed in the United States Senate, but it stalled and was eventually not passed in the House. In years gone by, that’s all we heard about, but apparently, the US Government is busy hardcore arguing about other things these days, so it hasn’t come up again.

Why did it stall?

The House wanted to revert to (and stay on) Standard Time, which we are moving to this week. I don’t much care either way. However, I prefer my darkness in the afternoon rather than in the morning, when it resembles midnight at 7 am. I’m a candle girl, and the afternoon dimness is very conducive to the cheeriness they bring. Bert, on the other hand, bemoans how early it gets dark in the gloaming.

I love that word, and I don’t think it gets used enough.

If gloaming makes you think of tartans and bagpipes, you’ve got a good ear and a good eye; we picked up gloaming from the Scottish dialects of English back in the Middle Ages. The roots of the word trace to the Old English word for “twilight,” glōm, which is akin to glōwan, an Old English verb meaning “to glow.” In the early 1800s, English speakers looked to Scotland again and borrowed the now-archaic verb gloam, meaning “to become dusk” or “to grow dark.”
Merriam Webster

Anywho, the opponents of keeping Daylight Savings Time claimed that we’ve tried it in the past, and there was an increase in depression, and it compromises our Circadian Rhythms. Blah, Blah, blah. There is an increase in heart attacks and car accidents around the time switch. It’s only been around in the United States since 1918, and it’s apparently been a hot topic ever since.

Read all about Daylight Saving Time (really, way more than you’d ever need to know) at Wikipedia.

Weekly Menu 11.01.26

We’re going with comfort food to combat the time change during the Weekly Menu 11.01.26. Sunday Dinner is retro – we’re having Triscuits with melted cheese for a warm appetizer, then Chicken and Dumplings are our main course. , and Blondies liberally sprinkled with chopped-up, leftover Halloween candy round out din-din.

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The Chicken and Dumplings couldn’t be easier. It’s basically chicken stew with some dumplings added and cooked till they are light and fluffy. The dumplings? I’m lightyly rolling out some store bought biscuits and cutting them into strips. I there nothing those things can’t do? I’ll poach chicken breasts in water with onions, celery and carrots. When the chicken is done and cool, we’ll shred it into fairly decent size pieces. (Discard the onions, carrots and celery. They’ve given their all.) Add the chicken to the broth thickened with some roux. Next, some frozen peas and carrots, plus a handful of baby spinach go into the mix. If the broth doesn’t have a ton of flavor, I add a little Chicken Soup Base before the roux.

Time to add the dumplings!

How easy is Sunday dinner? We’re going all out on dessert. It’s a layer cake that starts with a boxed mix. It gets pumpkin spice and some canned pumpkin. I bake the cake mix in three round cake pans for plenty of height. Plus the filling is outstanding. I’ve been making it for years, and it is spectacular. It’s way easier than it looks too.

Soup is on Tuesday instead of Friday this week, with always simple Chicken Fiesta Slow Cooker Soup. I buy low-sodium for as many of the cans as I can find to mitigate the salt content, because there are a LOT of canned foods in this recipe.

Friday is National Nacho Day – so we’re having Pizza Nachos, although Buffalo Chicken Nachos would make a fabulous addition to the menu too. Both are hearty and super easy to eat while we’re sitting around gabbing during Happy Hour.