the discovery of food [in a new way]

So while school is ruling both the content and form of my days, I have had some time to slowly stretch my proverbial cooking wings. I have yet to create a true miracle, but nothing has wound up burnt or inedible...yet.

Here's a glimpse of what has been filling my plate the last month or so <3

Toasted turkey-bacon sandwich with provolone and swiss on fantastic Italian bread from Salad Night. With fresh strawberries, of course.

Family dinner when Em and I both needed it. Pork Roast in the crock pot, baked beans, and broccoli.

My wonderful, last minute meal idea! Orange chicken in the crock pot--we actually had all the ingredients! Served with brown rice and peas.

Wonderful recipe from the lovely Lindsay. Had to get most of the ingredients, but our stuffed chicken breasts were well worth it. 

As it baked, the wonderful smell wafted through our little place <3

Today's creation, courtesy of the leftover ingredients from the previous evening's chicken. Grilled quesadilla with spinach, grape tomatoes, and chicken.

Quite scrumptious. 

On the menu for the coming week: Mother's Stir Fry, Creamy Tortellini Soup (in the crock pot!), and Chicken Lasagna Rolls. 

I'm also considering adding afternoon tea to our daily meal menu. I think hot tea to get you through the rest of the day is a perfectly British idea ; )

haunting my heart...

cri-sis (n)

1

a : the turning point for better or worse in an acute disease or feverb : a paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, or disordered functionc : an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person's life <a midlife crisis>

2

: the decisive moment (as in a literary plot)

3

a : an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially : one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome <a financial crisis>b : a situation that has reached a critical phase <the environmental crisis>t


turn-ing point

: a point at which a significant change occurs


brink

1

: edge; especially : the edge at the top of a steep place

2

: a bank especially of a river

3

: the point of onset : verge <on the brink of war>

4

: the threshold of danger

Mud on our Shelves

I just changed my desktop background to a photo of the library at Queen's College, Oxford so I would feel smarter.

Sometimes I wish I could just take hours and wander around a place like this...

I also wish I could soak up all the knowledge by just being there.

Alas, tis not to be.

I'm spending my evening with these lovely chaps tonight.

        

 

We prize and praise so highly the works of those who have gone before. Yet what I have found most interesting about Mr. Arnold's arguments is that he believes the best literature of mankind, the work that even the least educated among us could recognize--The Iliad, Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, to name a few-- was always produced during a certain atmosphere of emotion, which then caused the writers to feel more deeply and so write in a way that caused others to do the same.

Makes me think that maybe the vast majority of what is published today is probably a load of crap in comparison. After all, I think we live in a fairly tame and dull climate when compared to the establishment of the Greek society, the Renaissance, the rise of Modernism, and so on. Nothing is true today, say the postmodernists, so then everything must be correct. And no one says, "No, you suck. Don't be a writer. Be a plumber. You are not a good thinker and you should not think of yourself as good at this art that is literature." Yet I walk into a book store and barely glance at what fills the front half. The good stuff is on the lower shelves, towards the back, marked down to seven and eight dollars. Yet you have to pay at least twenty for the biography of some girl who lived in the Playboy mansion and apparently has a story to tell, even though she has yet to reach 30.