spring musings

Are you feeling spring where you live yet? The weather has been perfect the last month. Sunny and clear with cool breezes. My gardening time has been sublime. Hours of listening to a good audio book or podcast and weeding away. My little joke as I head out to the garden is to say I’m headed to the office, or church, or my therapist.

I’m in love with my little baby calamansi lime plant. I planted it last year and it’s only about two feet tall, so I wasn’t expecting it to fruit so quickly, but I picked my first handful of these tiny gems. They are about the size of a large marble and have a tart/sweet flavor that is delicious squeezed over your food before serving, and adds a brightness to everything. From a smoothie, a vinaigrette, and it makes a fantastic gin & tonic.

I’ve got a couple of book recommendations. She Come By It Natural by Sarah Smarsh is book about Dolly Parton. It’s an interesting look at Dolly’s upbringing in rural poverty and how it shaped her life and songs, as well as her contribution to class, gender, and culture. I enjoyed it as an audio book. All the Devils are Here is Louise Penny’s 16th book in the Inspector Gamache series. If you’re a Louise Penny fan, you’ll also marvel at how she is able to keep this series continually interesting. The Grit In the Pearl: The Scandalous Life of Margaret, The Duchess of Argyll by Lyndsey Spence, the title says it all. It’s such a different world than mine and I love a good royal biography. If you like this genre you may also like a podcast called Duchess. Emma The Duchess of Rutland interviews other women who lead historic homes of Great Britain.

Since the pandemic started, like everyone else, most of our meals have been home cooked. Even as things open up we are still eating that way and enjoying it very much. Most of our lunches are assembled bowls. I’ll make a number of simple different proteins and vegetables, mostly by roasting them on a sheet pan and then combine them throughout the week in whatever combination I’m in the mood for. The key is having several dressings to keep the variety interesting. The basic formula for the bowl is some grains, topped with veges (cooked and raw), protein, nuts or seeds, dressing. Love & Lemons has lots of delicious dressing recipes. A few of my favorites are the Tahini Lemon Dressing, Green Goddess, & Easy Peanut Sauce. We eat a lot of tofu and one of the ways to add flavor to the tofu is to press it, which takes out some of the water. Then when I saute or bake it, it absorbs the flavor of the seasonings much more. I used to wrap it in a hand towel and then perilously stack pans or my tea kettle on top of it, hoping the wobbly stack wouldn’t fall down. So I purchased this tofu press which is so much simpler. I’m not a big fan of buying kitchen gadgets that I rarely use, so this is great if tofu is a regular food item for you, but otherwise the first method works fine.

Lastly, how are you feeling? My off time has been more frequent lately. It’s typically twice a day in the late morning and mid afternoon. I’ve been experimenting with altering my food schedule, activities, etc. to see if anything helps before I add or increase my medications, so we’ll see how that goes. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. 💖