A not-so-quick update

I’ve had a satisfying couple of days, although I didn’t think it would turn out that way.

I had Thursday off, and my original plan was to take my brother-in-law’s cousin up to the mountains, as she’s visiting from Europe and hasn’t been able to get out much. Unfortunately, I got a text message late Wednesday night, saying that she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t think she’d be able to go. So I canceled my plans for Thursday and headed out to my mom’s house to have lunch with her and get some chores done. And I even managed to finish organizing my desk, so I finally felt like I accomplished something!

Friday was another day at work (very weird after having Thursday off) and after work I headed straight to Davis to meet up with some friends who were in town. I had a delicious vegetarian Chinese meal with a group of women (and it always feels weird to say that, even though we’re pretty much all over 30 now) and learned that one of them just became the executive director of Tree Davis, a non-profit tree-planting organization in town. I’ve been considering joining the Peace Corps, and was told by the recruiter to spend some time volunteering in preparation for applying, and to also concentrate on activities that I’m interested in. Because I’m an avid gardener and I enjoy being outdoors, I decided to look into volunteering opportunities with farms or other related groups. I was getting a bit discouraged by some of the groups out there, who won’t be having any volunteer activities for at least 6 months, so when I found out what my friend’s new job was, it seemed like a stroke of luck! I’ve already signed up for my first volunteer day, and I’m hoping to add a bunch more soon. I love volunteering and I love getting outside and I love planting things, so I think this will be a great new activity for me.

Saturday was the beginning of my girls’ weekend, although when I think about it, it really started Friday night. But I got up Saturday morning (over an hour later than I expected to get up) and went for an 8-mile run. I didn’t start to hurt until about 5.5 miles into it, so that was good, but still, I’m running 12.7 miles in a few weeks, so this whole “I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk, pulled a bunch of muscles, and now can’t run very far” thing is really making training hard. I stumbled back to the house around 11:20, and then spent 40 minutes cleaning myself up and lying on the couch giving myself a pep talk before dragging myself to the “Christmas Around the World” that occurs every year at the local Greek Orthodox church. Now, when they say Christmas Around the World, what they really mean is “Christmas in North-East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Russia” which isn’t too bad of a selection, I suppose, but is leaving several entire continents out. I loaded myself up with potato pierogies, cheese pies, spinach pies, herb pies, tiropita, and a hearty plate of Ethiopian food and headed back to my house to get ready for the descending hordes. Or really, the few people who had said they were probably coming at some point, but didn’t know when. Planning these big events is turning out to be a pain. But then everyone started trickling in, and bottles of wine were opened, and food was set out, and everyone pulled out their old clothes for the clothing swap, and it was great! Lots of fun, lots of good food and drink, and lots of new-to-you clothing.

We headed out after that for the Second Saturday art walk, which was strangely quiet this month. It was a somewhat disappointing evening out, but we managed to stay out awfully late in spite of that. Sunday morning was nice and lazy. I made a beautiful frittata with eggs from my friend’s chickens, we threw in some country potatoes and coffee cake, and lazed about before heading to the farmer’s market, which was also strangely uncrowded. I’m usually dodging people left and right as I work my way around the stalls, but this time was a breeze. Maybe the holiday weekend meant a lot of people were out of town. I picked up some sweet potatoes to make sweet potato gnocchi, a bunch of nice mushrooms, grapes, and corn. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with the mushrooms pretty soon, though.

I had to nap for a bit in the afternoon, and then I felt awfully groggy, but I FINALLY managed to pull out the quilt I started for my niece months and months ago and finished piecing together most of the top! Yay!!!! I’m hoping to have the quilt substantially done by this weekend, so that I can get started on the next quilt around Thanksgiving and have them both done by Christmas. That might be a bit optimistic, but I think if I set my sights high, I can get a lot done in a short time.

Ideas for food in May

In May I plan to live entirely off of my garden and my pantry with a few exceptions - I'll buy a little bit of fresh produce and eggs, some butter, and some flour. So I need to have a pretty good plan about what I'll make. Considering how much food I have, it shouldn't be too difficult, so here goes:

Eastern European pea soup (whole pea soup)
Split pea soup
All kinds of pasta with both pesto and tomato sauces (and capers)
Zucchini soup
Frozen meals
Tortellini
Canned soup
Tamales
Couscous
Asparagus! Oh, how I love asparagus...

Wow, that's a lot of options!

On food and packaging

So I’ve been doing some thinking on how to reduce waste, especially packaging waste, and also how to eat more healthfully. I want to stop eating margarine and eat butter instead. I’m considering buying the giant stick of butter from the co-op that’s just wrapped in one piece of paper. I think it’s a pound of butter. But I’d need an easy way to 1) bring some to work to keep in the fridge, and 2) use it at home without hacking off a piece of the huge block every time. I’m thinking I can reuse the glass jars that certain things come in, such as bread yeast or the new boullion that comes as a paste. I can refill the jar from the big block that I keep at home. I would probably buy the individually wrapped sticks of unsalted butter for cooking and baking, because they’re much easier to measure than the huge blocks.

I also hate how much packaging my English muffins come in. Every week, I have the little cardboard box and plastic bag to deal with. English muffins are relatively easy to make, but they don’t keep long, so I think I will make several weeks worth at one time and then freeze the majority of them in individual bags. I can then put them in packs of 5 and each Sunday place a pack of 5 in the fridge to use for the week. I may try it out this weekend and see what happens.

I’m also having a hard time with my diet. I tend to either eat too much or nowhere near enough. It’s been very difficult for me to find that happy middle ground, and I would sure like to. I would love to know exactly how much to eat, to know when to stop eating because I really am full (and not feel guilty if my plate isn’t clean). I would like to look at a normal portion and not think “that’s all I get to eat?”. I find that when I put what I think is an appropriate amount of food on a plate, it generally turns out to be too much, but because I was raised to eat everything on my plate, I eat it all anyway.

So those are some goals to work on: less food, less packaging, and definitely less soda.