Covid Cooking

I had never intended this to become a cooking blog, and it really isn't. If I share recipes, it's because I have a plan which I'll explain later.

Recently, a friend and I read and discussed the book, "Recipe for A Perfect Wife,"  by Karma Brown. The author describes the lives of two housewives, one from the 50's and one from present day, both of whom occupied the same home during their marriages. Their stories intersect when the current inhabitant of the house, a hopeful author-wife, discovers the other's recipes which were left behind in the basement.

Although my friend and I originally discussed dressing up and recreating some of the recipes, this idea was soon abandoned, well, except for the dressing up part. She made the meat loaf and didn't like it. I made the chocolate chip cookies and they were good. We gave up after that...just as well, since neither of us were remembering 50's-60's type food with fond memories.

This did give me an idea, however.  I know that almost anything is available on the internet nowadays, but, old recipes, especially family favourites, or mom's versions, are not always easy to find. In fact, my children have been known to ask for ingredients and techniques to create certain dishes that they remember and always enjoyed.

With my daughter now married and living far away, I had an idea for her next birthday. I decided to  create a book of recipes and ship it to her. I thought about the various forms this could take...recipe cards, hand written pages by mom (do I have that much time left in my life?), and so on. Finally, I concluded that if I take photos of things that I cook, and write up the recipes on the computer, I could print them, add little messages/asides/jokes, and compile them into plastic protectors in a binder with a "catchy" front cover. So that's my plan. That's why every now and again, tried and true or even experimental recipes that turned out well might show up on my blog.

Books can be different things to different people. They can be educational,  riveting, thought provoking, shocking, suspenseful, or inspirational. I thank the author of this book, Karma Brown for the inspiration to leave a piece of myself, in the form of "Mom's Favourite Recipes", for my child.
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Let Her Eat Snow...er...Crow

Most of us are familiar with the Thomas Edison quote, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Truer words have never been spoken. Today, I perspired for almost two hours when the genius percentage finally kicked in. Let me explain.

I looked outside after completing my last blog and became concerned when I saw this.

                                               


There were wet snowballs falling from the sky. I had shovelled some slush earlier and thought I was done. Not so, I realized. The forecasters were indeed correct, if not slightly off on the time frame.

I donned my full winter garb and headed outdoors once again. First things first. I created a path for the puppy so that her short legs wouldn't have to suffer too much. It was then that I realized how heavy the snow was. Not a lot as yet, but quite the weight.








I decided to tackle the job in small portions. I worked my way up the sidewalk, past my vacationing neighbours' house and included some of my older widowed neighbour's place. Then I went back and started on the driveways between the sidewalk and the road. By the time I was done that bit, it was snowing very, very hard. In fact, the sidewalk which I had just completed was once again laden with white. I looked at the rest of our  driveway and said, (I'm old now so I'm allowed to talk to myself), "There must be an easier way to get rid of, or at least cut back on all this work."

As sleet started stinging my face, I had my idea.

Here I am. Do you see the lightbulb over my head? No, wait. That's just the fringe of my gladiator hat.

Here's a picture of what I did...a super fast way to clean off a driveway. No shovel necessary. As soon as I've had my bath, warm up a bit and find some dry clothing, I'll go clean up my neighbours' driveway in the same way. Won't they be surprised to see one of these greeters as they return from Florida?