Keep It Fresh and Local

For the past month or so I've been reading Barbra Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and have been inspired by it. In the book Kingsolver and her family resolve to try to eat only local foods that they, or people they know, have grown. This includes all fruit and meat. It's a bit commitment, one that I'm not willing to undertake but I can see the reasoning in why she did it.

I consider myself a pretty eco-friendly chick. I buy organic foods because I believe in sustainable farming and avoiding the use of pesticides is important to my health and the health of everyone else. Kinggsolvers book has opened my eyes a bit to trying to be a bit more conscientious of where my organic foods are coming from. Last week I opened a container of organic salad mix that I had bought earlier that day to make dinner. Some of the lettuce had already started to wilt and begun to transform into a yucky green slime. I flipped over the container to read the label and it turned out my greens had come all the way from Minnesota. I know I don't feel so fresh after the trek from Minnesota to Massachusetts so why should my leafy greens?

I've started to try to figure out where a lot of the food I eat came from, and let me tell you it's hard. At most you can find where something is being distributed from but where the actual tomato or cheese originated is a bit of mystery on most labels. I am so ready for the farmers market to start.

I'm not quiet ready to kick off my shoes and run around bare-foot like a crazy hippy but I am going to start to try to eat local dairy products and breads. Nobody can argue how much better fresh picked produce is, so for now I'm ready to be a bit more mindful of how far my greens had to travel for a wonderful salads.

One Ring

As our wedding planning winds down we find ourselves taking care of the smaller details of the wedding. Like our rings. We both picked up our rings this weekend and since Steve has never worn any jewelry in his life, much less a ring on his hands, we thought he should wear it around the house for a few days to see how it feels.

As soon as he put the ring on his hand he looked up at me and said, "you know this is going to be very hard for me not to lose this in the forever that I'm going to be wearing it". I told him that I already knew that. Steve has gone though more dress shirts, phones, hats, and jackets then anyone I've ever know because he takes them off and then forgets them somewhere. In the few hours he wore the ring around the house I saw him play with it in his hands, drop it on the floor, and roll under the couch. He retrieved it,put it back on and was able to keep in on for the rest of the night. As we were getting into bed and turning the lights off I asked him if he was going to wear the ring to bed, he answered "Um, I'm not wearing it now." When I asked him where his ring was he told me in the pocket of the pants he was wearing when he got ready for bed that were now in a crumpled mess on the floor.

I made him get up, find the ring in the pockets and return back to the box for safe keeping. "It's fine in my pants pocket until tomorrow" he grumbled as he burrowed though the multiple pockets on his pants. I pointed out that it probability would be safe until tomorrow morning, until he went looking for his car keys and would turn his pant upside down trying to find them.

The moral of this story is, you should be surprised if you come to our wedding and Steve still has the same ring he's wearing now.

Flours

One of my favorite parts of the movie "Stranger Than Fiction" is when Will Ferrell comes running up to Maggie Gyllenhaal as she is about to close her bakery and professes his love for her. He holds out a box filled with little brown bags and says he brought her a present. She eyes them over and asks what they are, and he meekly answers "flours". It's a beautiful moment and a turning point in the movie and a gift that I am totally envious of.

Without really being conscious of the slowly growing number of bags in my pantry I now have 5 different flours sitting in my small kitchen waiting to be used. I realized my flour wealth last night while I was making bread and had assumed that I would need bread flour but upon closer inspection found that I just needed regular flour and whole wheat flour. No extra trip to the store was needed, everything was already here. I love cooking and every time I use an new ingredient I am excited. I can't wait to find a new type of flour to use and make into another delicious loaf of bread, or dumpling, or cookie.

Handstands

Spring time always makes we want to spend every moment outside. To run barefoot though the lush green grass, to read books under blooming trees, and mostly to do handstands out of happiness that the world is coming back to life. A calypso Hallelujah to bring us back into the social weather.

I am awful at handstands and that isn't usually a problem until spring rolls around and I want to do is see the world upside down. Even without the handstands I still am appreciating spring!