Sunday Notes on Monday

I am bored and restless.  I am having trouble sleeping.  I am sure some of you psychology folks think I might be a tad depressed.  Really what I am is a Gemini with Spring fever looking for something to wake me up from the doldrums of Winter.  Not that I don't love Winter.  I love watching it snow while I read a good book.  But enough is enough.  Once I see those daffodils start blooming I am itching to do something.  I am also working some ungodly hours and my brain can't process books as fast as I would like.  It needs some down time. Don't get me wrong, I am still reading.  In fact I am finishing up The Prince of Risk and will be posting my blog on Wednesday but I am just not able to keep up my same pace.

Last year my container gardens was really successful.  I planted oregano, rosemary and basil in one large container and they were very happy together.  I had fresh basil late into the Fall and like many of you have heard me say you can never have too much basil. I also plan to make jam again this year.  My strawberry jam was a success and so was my apple butter.  I think I will pass on the peach jam and leave it to the experts at Smuckers.

So I have got to find new projects.  I have asked my husband to widen the flower beds a little and I plan to do some gardening so that's a good project for a Sunday. I have spent more time walking outdoors so I think I have the exercise thing covered, But I want more. 

When my daughter was younger and there were so many after school activities I had very little time to cook meals when I came home from working all day.  I use to spend most of Saturday or Sunday mornings going to the grocery store and then cooking meals for the week.  This worked out really well.  I avoided most of the take out places and served a home cooked meal most nights.  All I had to do was make a side and add a salad.  That is a half hour function at most.  Everyone was happy.

I thought once my daughter got her license I would have more time.  That is so not true.  I just work longer hours and get home and throw things together dinner.  That is fine but I am envious of some of my foodie friends who are so creative when it comes to cooking meals for their families.  So I am expanding my foodie quest from reading books that have a food in the title to books that have recipes incorporated into the story.  I read my first book a month ago,  Red Velvet Cupcake Murders.  I wasn't that impressed with the book itself but it did have a yummy sounding red velvet cupcake recipe. 

The second book in this quest that I blogged about was Lunch in Paris which is a memoir.  There is a really good ribs recipe in the book which I will be trying just in time for Bar-B-Que season.  And by the way I loved the book.  I really feel the author captured Paris well.   So I will be looking for more books like these that contain recipes with realistic ingredients, and not that are not too terribly challenging because while I can cook I am no chef amd there is the time constraint issue.  One other thing that Would be great is if the dish could be frozen so that on days that are hectic, I can come home and take it out of my freezer and still have a decent meal to serve.  If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears.  Also if anyone has a favorite cookbook they would like to recommend I would like to know that as well. 

If you have been reading my blog by now you know that every Sunday I play this little game with myself. On Sunday the first section that I read of the Washington Post is the Outlook section, it contains the book section. I go to the last page and read the Washington Bestseller list. This week the bestseller list focused on Hard covers but it alternates between paperbacks and hardcover. You can check my scoring system on the May 6, 2013 post. I only read one book on the list this week, The Invention of Wings which I would highly recommend.

Have a great week.