There is not much that makes me as shopping crazy as shoes.  Particular shoes, that is.  These caught my attention and are now in my closet.  Soon, when the weather dries out a bit, I'll be wearing them, smiling all the while.

 

Come cook with me! 

 

(no, we're not making cookies but I made you look, right?)

 

The next class will be on Wednesday, March 20 starting at 6:30.  The class is the next month's version of Cooking Local and will feature March foods from the market.  I am also going to present some things from my new book: Spring things with Spring honey and such.  A fresh mushroom and dill salad.  A rhubarb soup.  Some other things - all inspired by what I find when I go shopping.

 

The class is a demonstration class.  I cook.  Then you eat.  Nice.  $25.00 per person gives you plentiful tastes and recipes.  Class starts at 6:30.

 

Monday, March 4

Chicken Cordon Bleu 8.95

 

Tuesday, March 5

Chickpea Cakes, Cucumber Sauce, and Mediterranean Pilaf 7.95

 

Wednesday, March 6

Swedish Meatballs with Buttered Egg Noodles 9.95

 

Thursday, March 7

Thai Curry Shrimp with Jasmine Rice 10.95 (GF)

 

Friday, March 8

Tilapia Piccata with Mushroom Risotto 9.95

 

Casserole to go:

 

Wednesday, March 6

Full 35  Half: 17.50

 

 

Lasagna to go:

Friday, March 8

Full: 39.95  Half: 20

 

I have it made!  I get to get up, get dressed, come to work, and have breakfast all made.  Recently I visited a friend and was caught up in the realization that she ate breakfast at HOME!  SUCH a foreign concept. 

 

Just so you know, the folks who make breakfast for me also can make some for you.  These little quiche appear every day along with fruit and breakfast burritos.  And French Toast is a mere 3 minute wait as are omelets, and local eggs made just for you, they way you like. 

 

Emily's father, George, is a fine carpenter.  Here's a snap of a row of benches he made for us.  Nice, huh?

 

i read once that an important part of a successful public space is the ability for folks to move the seating around, enabling them to make themselves at home.  Our chairs move, our tables move, and so do these benches.  Have  at it!  Put them where you wish. It's fine with us.

 

I made it!  I have my own new name tag, just like the big boys and girls at Livestrong!  A year ago I went to the LIVEstrong Assembly and began a life altering journey that now includes me being a LIVEstrong Leader.  This means that I represent the LIVEstrong Foundation, helping local people who are dealing with all the twists and turns of being a cancer survivor. 

 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Hello. Good morning. How ya doing?

 

I’m good today. I was good yesterday too and suspect I’ll still be good tomorrow. That’s a fine thing, yes? Can’t beat good. I’m happy for it.

I’m just back from a short trip to Chicago where I became a Livestrong Leader. I joined about 500 people from all over the world who had gathered to learn more about The Livestrong Foundation and to pledge to help cancer survivors. I’m dancing on both ends of this teeter totter, sometimes crashing into the ground as the weight on the other end gets out of balance. These couple of days helped me move back toward equipoise. It’s can be a tenuous place, but today, as I said, I feel good.

 

I’ve been starting to spread the word more about our Joyride for LIVEstrong at the YMCA here, as you know. I think that by the next newsletter, or the one after, I will be able to tell you how to register or how to get involved. I’m thrilled that this little brainstorm is taking off and will, I trust, raise important funds for local people, enabling lots more to join this important program.

 

And thinking so much about the ride and joy makes me be a bit more observant about this word in my own mind and my own heart. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some of this with you. Shoes! Why not! My sister thinks it’s nuts that I am such a shoe fiend, considering my fairly modest style of dress. I do like me some shoes! And actually, I realized in Chicago that just taking pictures of bright shoes makes me as happy as actually buying them. I have a picture on my camera of a fabulously bright display of high heels and pumps and flats, NONE of which I wear. But the variety and, especially, the color, charges me up, filling me with pleasure. Good to know.

 

Then there is food. This is not such a surprise after all. I have, as you know, devoted a good chunk of my life to food. And I grew up with it, surrounded by my mother’s foods. This business started as a way for me to have her with me. It worked. Almost as well as I imagine things would have been if she had lived to cook with me (or I with her.) This past month my stove/oven broke and I found a big gap in my life, not being able to fill my home with the warmth and smells of cooking. I do now have the replacement and it will be hooked up on Monday. I can hardly wait to cook! I miss my cooking. I miss the imagining, the creating, the sharing of it all. Soon. Soon. Joy in my kitchen! Yes!

 

Color is joy. No big surprise, no big revelation to you. But true and truer. In a couple of weeks I get to go to Charlotte with Adam and Emily and Monsieur Henri to participate in The Color Run. This is a benefit for Be the Match, the group that helped save Henry’s life when he needed a bone marrow transplant. We all wear white and through little packets of pigment at each other, turning ourselves into hopping, skipping, shrieking rainbows. FUN! Joyous!

 

Tye the love dog emanates love.  There is no need for her to hide what she feels,  she blasts it out into her world, happily blanketing her people with adoration, never-ending, never waning.