Learning and understanding

So this was the last week of my “buy nothing new” programme.  Overall, I’ve learnt that I really do NOT need to go buy new stuff on a regular basis, and I can manage just fine, spank you, with a list and by planning out menus and doing all the things that my grandmother and aunt and mother had said all those years ago.  More than that, doing my shopping this way and taking the time to prepare my meals has led to me eating better and having more tasty and generally more balanced meals than I would if I ate in restaurants all the time.  OK, so I’ll stop preaching now.  It’s easy to get busy and lose time to cook.  Or to have other things to do… it happens all the time.  But did I really NEED 4 different types of skin moisturizer?  Or 3 different 12” skillets?  (well, yes to both, and there are some excellent explanations, but I digress.)  Next phase is to go through my cupboards and do some very thorough organizing, and work on making some spac...

Happy Easter!  It’s almost the end of my pre-determined period of restraint, and I’m determining my priorities from here on out.  THE TRIP is 2 weeks away, so there’s some spare spending money ; all of my credit cards are paid off, and I’ve learnt some new recipes.  There were some real benefits to this!  I think the next phase will be to clear out the stuff in the freezer in preparation for the summer’s influx of fresh stuff.  Oh, the fresh stuff that’s not trucked in from half a world away!  Yippee!!  I must admit, though, that this week was not a gourmet delight… I had lunch out twice (allowed!) and the rest of the week was “student fine dining” or the amazing “must-goes” LOL This week’s menu: KD with corn salsa Roast chicken, mashed potatoes and corn Spinach rice, grilled mushrooms, orange-glazed carrots and grilled salmon ( Good Friday fish dinner )

So this week, I was trying out some new recipes from a cookbook that I’ve had for a couple of years.  It’s Infusion , by Paul Yellin, and it features some beautiful, elegant recipes with a little zing from rum (in the book, Mount Gay Barbados rum, but it’s improved by the addition of some Angostura 1919 or even some Royal Oak, but that’s enough free advertising for the distilleries!)  Dinners (and therefore lunches) were taken from this book, except for my original inspiration!  There’s a free day – I allowed myself a day off, which I spent hunting for assorted papers.  Yes, it happens.  I also got calls from a couple of my favourite stores, telling me that they weren’t hitting their sales targets… On the menu this week: Roasted duck breast in a coconut curry sauce with basmati rice and spinach Mushroom-spinach flan in a rice crust ( an original recipe! ) Un-fried chicken with a spicy banana ketchup and champ

Ok, so I had to pause for a while.  There’s just too many of them.  I ran across some lists of “100 classic books to read” and “The 100 best fantasy books” and so on, and realised that there’s just so many that I can’t keep up (and FYI, on the alleged BBC 100 best books of all time, I’m a nerd.)  Continuing: Watership Down – Richard Adams. Really classic.  I found it hard to get past the first couple of chapters, but it was worth it… it then got hard to put down!  A tale of a group of rabbits and how they escaped to make a home, and all their battles. Animal Farm – George Orwell. If you haven’t heard of this one, then I think you probably slept through a large chunk of literature classes. 1984 – George Orwell. Ancient history by now, but it’s still an interesting read.  Along with Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) it’s one of the views of the future that seemed so plausible, yet didn’t quite work out that way.  Thankfully. The Wind in the Will...

Week 6 Back on track again; I made and carried lunches, and recouped from last week's slide.  I'm getting ready to head off next month to Israel, Egypt and Jordan, so I'm starting to plan my purchases.  Camera seems to have gasped back some life, so I'm debating whether I need a new one (there's a great sale on now, Olympus for $119) or whether this one will last? Also scanning through my sun block, moisturizer, assorted travel kit to ensure that I've got everything (and filling up on sample sizes of stuff) to last the duration of the trip.  Hard to believe that I've done this for so long... and I'm still able to backslide... Thanks to Ramona for the link to the article that pointed out the benefits of retail therapy ! Still have a while to go yet to keep my deal with myself, but there are 3 countries to visit, and there must be stores there... my favourite pair of shoes are, after all, Israeli!!  (And some of my preferred jewelery is of Egyptian desig...