Maxwell 40: Wearing Their Vests in an Apartment for Fun

[Bethy]

2 hours ago, Italiangirl said:

New post up, this is about Sunday dinner and it infuriates me for many reasons, Sarah implies that the emergency for the coronavirus is over, Anna Marie is with them and $rom what she writes it seems that now they don't care to be careful about Anna Marie health anymore since she is home. I'm just speechless. She is not sane just because she has ever the chemo, for now, she is at great risk because of her compromised immune system even more! I better stop or I will start using bad words and I'm trying really bad to don't do it 

Yes, there's been a trend in the past couple of postings of "back to normal" (Costco shopping, Sunday dinners) which would be troubling enough given Steve and Teri's age and Steve's recent cardiac issues, as well as the fact that just about any of the SILs (besides Anna Marie, right now) could be pregnant - but with Anna Marie having just come home from chemo the risks are immensely greater. I hope Anna Marie's sister is really here and is able to keep things running singlehandedly, or that Christopher decides to step up his game and actually do stuff around the house, because I wouldn't want any of the rest of the "covid is over!" Maxes darkening the door of that house.

[MamaJunebug]

Comin’ in cold to see what the Shondas Of Northeastern Kansas are doing and I’m horrified. 

Thank you, who follow and comment. I won’t be able to visit their site anymore - got my blood pressure to take care of. Thank you, really. 

[Italiangirl]

@Bethy you are right about the risk for Steve and Teri, but I haven't even think about the possible pregnancy! I was just so angry about the risk they are exposing Anna Marie...

I hope that none of them catch it because if even just one is sick even with mild or none symptoms as enmeshed as they are it could really be dangerous for the other 

[LilMissMetaphor]

Sarah's gotta be punking us with the word "crew" occurring three times in the space of seventy-eight words.

[Botkinetti]

If Sarah was that sly I would applaud her but sadly I think she truly is that unimaginative that she would use crew 3 times and not even think about it.

[Lady Grass Lake]

So, who were all the extra young ladies in the photo?  

[SassyPants]

39 minutes ago, Botkinetti said:

If Sarah was that sly I would applaud her but sadly I think she truly is that unimaginative that she would use crew 3 times and not even think about it.

No one ever taught Sarah, the author, how to write. For all his/her stated brilliances, neither Steve, nor Teri was a particularly effective Language Arts teacher.

[Bethy]

22 minutes ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

So, who were all the extra young ladies in the photo?  

Does it matter? No marriageable boys left, so nothing to speculate about.

[SPHASH]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

So, who were all the extra young ladies in the photo?  

3nna's friends maybe?

[fundiefan]

God, that Sunday meal looked awful. 

I have never gone anywhere for a meal, nor served a meal, with one option and water. Bean burritos & tortilla chips are not a freaking meal. Not for guests, not for a "special family Sunday". Totally doable for a quick grab, something easy when busy, a light meal for any numer of reasons. Not for a family meal that is touted as something special, with guests.

Just this weekend four of us were camping (glamping; my cousin has a season site with a travel trailer). We had chicken fajitas Friday night. Marinated chicken with onions & peppers. Tortilla shells. Taco dip & chips. Fruit. Beans & rice. This was a camping meal for four women and it contained more food - not just options - than their freaking bean burritos. 

I will never, ever understand how such meager, bland food is godly - because in Maxhell, you know that is part of it. Steve, of course, but he disguises it as godlly. 

I am having a salad for lunch today. Just leftovers from the weekend - cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, some of that fajita chicken, and some black beans tossed in. Whatever else looks good in the fridge full of weekend leftovers. My meal of leftovers is more flavorful, filling & balanced than the Maxwell Sunday Lunch.

Sorry - I know not to compare and all that, but their food is one of the things that boggles my mind the most. It is totally about control in Steve's world; they can afford to eat proper meals, they just don't. 

On an unrelated note - Abbie is really starting to level out after the early puberty body changes and she is a really beautiful girl. 

Edited July 27, 2020 by fundiefan

[SassyPants]

12 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

God, that Sunday meal looked awful. 

I have never gone anywhere for a meal, nor served a meal, with one option and water. Bean burritos & tortilla chips are not a freaking meal. Not for guests, not for a "special family Sunday". Totally doable for a quick grab, something easy when busy, a light meal for any numer of reasons. Not for a family meal that is touted as something special, with guests.

Just this weekend four of us were camping (glamping; my cousin has a season site with a travel trailer). We had chicken fajitas Friday night. Marinated chicken with onions & peppers. Tortilla shells. Taco dip & chips. Fruit. Beans & rice. This was a camping meal for four women and it contained more food - not just options - than their freaking bean burritos. 

I will never, ever understand how such meager, bland food is godly - because in Maxhell, you know that is part of it. Steve, of course, but he disguises it as godlly. 

I am having a salad for lunch today. Just leftovers from the weekend - cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, some of that fajita chicken, and some black beans tossed in. Whatever else looks good in the fridge full of weekend leftovers. My meal of leftovers is more flavorful, filling & balanced than the Maxwell Sunday Lunch.

Sorry - I know not to compare and all that, but their food is one of the things that boggles my mind the most. It is totally about control in Steve's world; they can afford to eat proper meals, they just don't. 

On an unrelated note - Abbie is really starting to level out after the early puberty body changes and she is a really beautiful girl. 

And the irony of Control Freak, 2 animal cracker, make no idol of food or drink Steve having to adjust his diet d/t having cardiac issues involving a heart attack is not lost on me. I know it’s mean of me, but oh the just desserts are so sweet. 

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Maybe Anna Marie agrees with them, sadly that the risk isn't that great. With the kids playing and all it may seem hopeless to her.

Now to go obsess over Nuri and Nate's wedding!

[freejugar]

So we have  Jesse and Anna bringing in the germs from the city, the guests from god knows where too, how nice.

Why did they wait till Anna Marie came home to declare that COVID was over and throw caution to the wind?

[browngrl]

Posts about Teri never cease to infuriate me. Now we have this grocery trip to Costco and I've gone full BEC:

1. That grocery cart looks empty considering she is shopping for many. With all those growing grandchildren you'd think it would be overflowing. They recently asked what they could do for a grandchild's birthday. Well how about this: include the fixings for a birthday cake in their cart.

2. Knowing there is a pandemic. Knowing that Steve and Teri have risk factors.Knowing that the number of Covid cases in their state is going through the roof. Knowing they have someone with a compromised immune system in their circle. Steve and Teri decide to go shopping and then later have everyone over for a meal. WTF Maxwells

3. Yes Costco is a dull post topic but it could have been improved. They could have discussed what they were buying. They could have included a recipe. They could have discussed how they meal plan. They could have discussed the logistics of how they manage to grocery shop for multiple families. They could have talked about how the pandemic is affecting their family. It is almost as if not reading anything but  work literature and the bible is not enough to make a good writer.  

4. I can see this as a future post: a picture of the Maxwells in their back yard with all the people too far away to see clearly and the text: "Family news, discuss amongst yourselves".

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 hour ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Now to go obsess over Nuri and Nate's wedding!

Speaking of which, you know if Sarah ever gets married we're all going to have to take time off work to keep up with the thread...this place would blow up.

[Maggie Mae]

Weird request, but I just looked at the lunch photo, and realized that other than Terri, Jesse, Anna, and Anna 3, I have no idea who is who. Can anyone help? 

[Bethy]

2 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Weird request, but I just looked at the lunch photo, and realized that other than Terri, Jesse, Anna, and Anna 3, I have no idea who is who. Can anyone help? 

OK, going from left to right:

Teri, Bethany, Sarah, Abby, Mary, some friend, Benjamin, Deborah, Melanie, Nate, Drew, Tina, friend, 3nna, and Jesse.

The smocks and monstrous food-shovel bibs are back and Anna Marie isn't. So I guess it's safe to say they aren't just her doing.

Also, Melanie's belly...I didn't notice it until I was going face by face to check names. Maybe it's the way she's slouching over toward Nathan, but...IDK...

[mango_fandango]

The burritos wouldn’t be so bad if they actually had some kind of substance to them. The filling is basically all purée - puréed onion, jalapeño and beans. They sound pretty crap to me. I can’t believe they have those every single week. 
They posted the recipe years ago. As is typical of the Maxwells, the whole process takes way longer than it should. https://blog.titus2.com/2009/06/14/the-burrito-making-process/

[HerNameIsBuffy]

6 minutes ago, mango_fandango said:

The burritos wouldn’t be so bad if they actually had some kind of substance to them. The filling is basically all purée - puréed onion, jalapeño and beans. They sound pretty crap to me. I can’t believe they have those every single week. 
They posted the recipe years ago. As is typical of the Maxwells, the whole process takes way longer than it should. https://blog.titus2.com/2009/06/14/the-burrito-making-process/

So according to this recipe they cook it all night, then put in fridge...then cook it again all morning and into the afternoon.

I admit I don't make anything with pureed beans but why on earth do they have to be cooked so long?  

[Black Aliss]

I don't see Chris's <cough> crew there at  all so I think it's just bad writing. Quelle surprise! Possibly what Sarah was trying to say was that this was the first family lunch in quite a while, but that not everyone could be there because Christopher’s family was being very careful for Anna Marie’s sake.

2 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

So according to this recipe they cook it all night, then put in fridge...then cook it again all morning and into the afternoon.

I admit I don't make anything with pureed beans but why on earth do they have to be cooked so long?  

They don't.  The beans themselves could be done in 20 minutes in an instant pot, then mashed with a potato masher right in the pot. In other words, they could have freshly made bean burritos every week.

The blandness of their diet makes me think that Steve subscribes to the dietary principles of Sylvester Graham, the food guru of the 19th century who believed that all spices, even salt and pepper, aroused the passions and lead to immorality.

[browngrl]

As someone who makes bean burritos/tacos about once a week I am deeply offended by the Maxwell's recipe. First WTF is up with all the pureeing? Is texture ungodly? Second why not add some flavouring eg chipotle in adobo, cumin, pico de Gallo or fresh salsa or guacamole?  

Why am I asking these questions? I know the answer: anything but bland pap would divert attention away from death.

[Bethy]

6 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

They don't.  The beans themselves could be done in 20 minutes in an instant pot, then mashed with a potato masher right in the pot. In other words, they could have freshly made bean burritos every week.

The blandness of their diet makes me think that Steve subscribes to the dietary principles of Sylvester Graham, the food guru of the 19th century who believed that all spices, even salt and pepper, aroused the passions and lead to immorality.

The instant-pot-and-mash-immediately idea would work BUT I think part of their mentality on the burritos for Sunday lunch is that they're minimizing food prep (work) on Sunday (their observed Sabbath) so doing the cooking/mashing on Sunday would defeat the purpose. I don't know why they've never mentioned doing anything else for Sunday lunches - there's any number of crock pot meals that could be prepped the night before and put into the crock pot before they leave for nursing home church, where they'd come home to a hot meal with minimal work. But no...mashed beans it is. And only beans, because Dad can't taste the difference between burritos with meat and burritos without. 

I'll admit I've made Maxburritos once or twice, many years ago. I didn't think they were bad, but I'm no connoisseur of Mexican food and this was at a time in my life when I thought Taco Bell was a yummy treat. I did freeze them a bit differently - I used an ice cream scoop to portion them out onto cookie sheets to freeze and then dump into a container (this made an easy dinner for me, a childless career woman, if my husband was not going to make it home for dinner.) They looked like horse crap prepared that way but they thawed and microwaved easily for a quick supper.

I do remember the blog pictures showing them measuring an entire tablespoon of salt into one of the pots of bean/onion/jalapeno mixture. I'll bet, with Steve's heart issues, that they don't do that anymore.

[Black Aliss]

5 minutes ago, Bethy said:

The instant-pot-and-mash-immediately idea would work BUT I think part of their mentality on the burritos for Sunday lunch is that they're minimizing food prep (work) on Sunday (their observed Sabbath) so doing the cooking/mashing on Sunday would defeat the purpose. I don't know why they've never mentioned doing anything else for Sunday lunches - there's any number of crock pot meals that could be prepped the night before and put into the crock pot before they leave for nursing home church, where they'd come home to a hot meal with minimal work. But no...mashed beans it is. And only beans, because Dad can't taste the difference between burritos with meat and burritos without. 

I'll admit I've made Maxburritos once or twice, many years ago. I didn't think they were bad, but I'm no connoisseur of Mexican food and this was at a time in my life when I thought Taco Bell was a yummy treat. I did freeze them a bit differently - I used an ice cream scoop to portion them out onto cookie sheets to freeze and then dump into a container (this made an easy dinner for me, a childless career woman, if my husband was not going to make it home for dinner.) They looked like horse crap prepared that way but they thawed and microwaved easily for a quick supper.

I get the Sabbath rest day thing, but yeah, there are myriad ways to not cook on Sunday, including cooking the beans on Saturday. Just about any long-cooked food--soups, stews, whatever tastes better after a night in the fridge anyway. And that burrito lunch would be vastly improved by a giant bowl of tossed salad (which except for the dressing could also be made on Saturday). By the time the stay-at-home order was lifted in our state, I had gone through all the 1- and 2- pint containers of cooked beans in my freezer. There were Cuban style black beans, red beans cooked with a ham hock and some Cajun sausage, pinto beans, white bean stews, and more. I'll wait until the weather turns before I restock, though. It's grilled protein and fresh vegetable season right now.

[JermajestyDuggar]

It bothers me that the Maxwells never seem to name the visiting friends although they post their pictures. Even just saying, friends Anna and Rebecca were visiting would be enough. But they just don’t say their names at all. Why put their picture up if you aren’t even going to acknowledge them by their first name at the very least? 

[nvmbr02]

So now I feel the need to admit that I love bean burritos. I make the beans in the crockpot and it takes a good 10ish hours usually. I could do them in the instapot but I don't. Probably because I started making them years before the instapot was a thing on my radar. However the Maxwell beans sound a look gross. 

This is the basic recipe I use but I find it bland as is. When I make them I double the recipe but triple all the seasons and the onions and jalapenos. I also add a pound of cooked chorizo. I then puree about half using an immersion blender and mash the other half lightly with a potato masher and mix the two together. I then freeze them in 2 portion containers and the go in the freezer since I am the only one in my house that eats beans. I use them for burritos (cheese, sour cream and hot sauce) or just melt a little cheese on top and eat them with chips.