For what it is worth, giving up an hour of sleep is well worth having an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day. It will make my life and the life of Frida the dog better because now we can take a nice leisurely evening walk. Tonight we listened to birds calling and enjoyed looking at the pussywillows budding.
Being the first Sunday in lent, I made it special for myself by attending a Latin Mass at St. Anthony of Padua's Church in Buffalo. The 25-minute drive was was a small price to pay for a beautiful service in a lovely old church. After mass, I proceeded to a food-coop not too far away. I also was able to stop by the Penzey's Spices shop to re-stock my pantry. I treated myself to some high-quality saffron. I've never made rissotto, so this purchase was made with that recipe in mind. I completed my day of gadding about by attending the Common Threads Spinning Guild monthly meeting. A nice program was featured - a woman described what having a small scale farm with fiber animals involves. The answer is that it is generally satisfying but it is a great deal of work punctuated by some small-scale tragedies such as losing some of the lambs when the ewes give birth.
Not terribly long ago, I assembled this bookcase for my kitchen. It is so good to have my cookbooks handy again. I love cookbooks, especially vintage ones. A couple weeks ago I attended an antiques show just around the corner from me. It was a small-ish show with the charming name "The Cabin Fever Antiques Show". I treated myself to some ephemera. My favorite thing was a copy of the Metropolitan Cook Book. It is not dated, but there is no reference made to thriftiness, so I am assuming it is pre-1929. There are some great techniques contained in this slim volume. It starts out with sound advice - "Food should be kept clean and covered" and "It pays to buy clean food from clean stores". There is a chart which gives cooking times for vegetables. Asparagus is to be cooked for 30 minutes. Imagine if you will how delicious that would be on your dinner plate. Beets are to be simmered for four hours. The cucumbers that have been cooked for fifteen minutes also sound delightful. My favorite section of the book gives recipes for the invalid. If you are feeling under the weather, I will treat you to oatmeal or rice gruel, take your pick. Essentially it involves cooking the food, straining it and serving the liquid that results. If that doesn't appeal, I will serve you a delicious raw beef sandwich. The sandwiches will be cut into fancy shapes and I will use the government-inspected meat as the book suggests. After the raw beef sandwich you will, without a doubt, feel much better.
And so the weekend ends.
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