Power

To my amazing and awesome readers:  Thank you!!  After my request last night, I got no fewer than 15 recommendations for books.   Way to show off blog power! 🔋  That’s wonderful, and I’ll be occupied for a while as I follow up on the recommendations.  I also expect to fall into a few rabbit holes as I go, so… send search parties if I vanish for any length of time 😂 

Jerry enjoyed his walks today, having a wonderful time barking at people, meeting new dogs and sniffing new scents.  We actually did a little longer this afternoon in an effort to tire him out a bit more.  I’d like to take him back to the dog park, but there are some new owners there who are like overprotective helicopter parents who shriek with horror when their dogs start to play instead of just sniffing each other.  It’s a little frustrating that they don’t understand play stances and running — why take your dog to an off-leash park if you don’t want them to run?  I’ll stop here, before I’m inundated with angry emails!  Don is up and about today, in part because today is the day that the car got repaired after last week’s drama, and his appetite returned.  Yay Don!  (A full third of one of the cakes was consumed shortly after it cooled)  I’m also very happy to report that my support worker’s hours have been trebled, and I now have a helper for 3 hours a week, which is a BIG relief!  It seems that the more active I am, the more my back wants to let me know that it’s there, but I really don’t want to spend my days in a chair or in bed.  (And definitely not in hospital!!) so my back is going to have to learn some manners.

So I’d pulled out some of my cookbooks this week while I was searching for recipes to use up eggs.  Although I have a large collection, I tend to use the same one or three repeatedly.  This time I decided to pull out some of the less-used ones to seek out inspiration.  They included some that were written as fund raisers for various organizations, which had shared family recipes.  They’re, without exception, small booklets, and most look like they were put together by a school or church committee group using the old mimeograph and a spiral binder.  I have them because I decided to support the groups and I’m a sucker for recipes.  And books.  The recipes are invariably very “homey” meals, designed to feed a group and probably popular with families. The thing is that with those booklets I am very unlikely to make dishes from them as I usually have a personal approach to making those dishes.  I’d bought one to learn how to make some “traditional” Canadian dishes but then I realized that I don’t like them, so I don’t need to know how to make them…

The books that I use most often are The Multicultural Cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago (aka “The Naparima cookbook”); Modern Caribbean Cooking, The Five Roses Cookbook and Sylvia Hunt’s Menus for Festivals and Holidays.  I’ve been asked what do I do with all the books, and whether I actually use them… I can honestly say that I’ve tried at least one dish from each of the books I own, except for the 3 newest ones.  It’s really fun for me to find variations of recipes and ideas of how to use ingredients in new ways.  I’ve found several books that purport to create menus from TV series — Star Trek, Downton Abbey — and books, including Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.  The recipes in them are all available in other books (many of which I own) but have different names and interesting presentations (especially the science fiction ones, where “alien” dishes need to be created)  Given that, I think I’m going to come up with some fun and funky names for my favourite dishes, which might create more interest.  I’m actually quite proud of myself for not hunting down and buying the books that created menus from children’s literature (like the Famous Five, Anne of Green Gables, Chalet School and Redwall) although I confess that I’ve hunted for recipes that match the description of foods in my beloved books.  For instance, there’s repeated reference to “Anna’s delicious lemon biscuits” which were described as meltingly delicious, addictive, and highly desirable… I’ve tried about 8 different lemon biscuit (cookies) recipes, to find one that I think meets the criteria, which was buried deep in one of my older books.  I have a small regret that I lost the recipe for the best lemon meringue pie that I’ve ever tasted.  It was in a book that I’d borrowed from the library, but which is no longer in circulation (at least, I don’t think it is, because I’ve been unable to find it again).  

All of this to say that I’m working on finding things to keep me occupied.  My energy levels don’t always match my ambitions, but I’ve found that having an interest or three helps distract me from the ways that my body betrays me.  I like having more things in my mind than I can reasonably complete in a day, so I will seek out other activities.  But for now I’m off to bed.  I was successful in tiring out the tiny dictator, and he’s made a nest in the sofa throw where he’s giving off the cutest snores… I’m going to try sneaking in before he wakes up and commandeers my pillows and blanket!  Good night!