Recognize the woman in the picture with me? It’s Gretchen Rubin, the writer who has done so much to shape my thinking on happiness, and now on habits. She was on the cover of Parade magazine this past Sunday, so she may look familiar to you even if you haven’t heard of her. (Sigh. As with a number of other images, this one did not survive our site migration. So this is just Gretchen’s author pic from Amazon.)
Gretchen’s on tour right now promoting her latest book Better than Before, and last night she was at the downtown Denver Tattered Cover Bookstore. I was determined to go and see her in person, especially since I missed out on the last time she was in Denver two years ago.
My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife (2011) and My So-Called Life as a Submissive Wife (2013) by Sara Horn, Harvest House Publishers.
As everyone in the known universe knows, Gretchen Rubin’s new book on habits, Better than Before, came out last week. While Gideon was getting his MRI on Friday at the hospital I walked over to the Tattered Cover Bookstore to buy my copy and get my admission ticket for her appearance there tomorrow night. I’ve been reading it kind of slowly, trying to savor it and take it all in. I even plan to do something very rare for me: go back and highlight the most important ideas.
Holding the whole pepper on a fork over a gas flame, turning it until all sides are blackened. Putting the peppers directly on an electric burner, again monitoring it and turning it until done. Putting the peppers under the broiler. Putting the roasted peppers into a paper bag to steam. Rinsing every bit of blackened skin off under running water. On and on. While these peppers are a great addition to salads, they sometimes can seem more trouble than they’re worth. But they’re very expensive if you buy them at the grocery store, and I don’t think they taste as good as the freshly-made ones. So here’s my take on them, which is still finicky but easier than the run-of-the-mill procedures.
Here’s a shot of one of the chocolate lava cakes I made for my brother-in-law’s birthday party. I think the last time I made these was for the same occasion, two years ago. Gideon has said periodically since then that I should make them again, and my answer has always been, “I’ll make them for Ed’s birthday.” So here they are. I made some changes from the recipe I found online, and this is now a pretty standard recipe anyway. I did find it interesting that, as for a number of recipes, the innovation came about because of a mistake. Its originator, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, apparently pulled a chocolate cake out of the oven too soon and realized that its underbaked warm center was actually an asset. Then he must have developed the individual cakes that are usual today. A full-sized version would be very messy to serve.
Saturday I took my last blood-pressure pill and my last sleeping pill. It will be about a week before I get the new medications in the mail. While it’s just as well for me not to have the sleeping pills and therefore have to get through the night without them, going without my b.p. meds even for such a short time is certainly not recommended.
Some of you reading this will want to hit me over the head with your Day-Timers(c) when I say this, but the fact is that I have altogether too much control over my time. I work from home, my only child is 20 years old, and my husband is a laid-back kind of guy. Don’t get me wrong: 1) I have lots to do, and 2) I’m not complaining. It’s just that I get to choose when to do most of the things I have to do. And I’m very, very bad at making those choices. Why is that? Because I’m what Gretchen Rubin calls an “obliger.” I will kill myself meeting an outside deadline because I respond readily to others’ expectations. But I have a terrible time responding to my own.
This is another sort-of-fiddly item that I make because I can’t stand the thought of buying them pre-made. They’re really not all that hard. This is more of a procedure than a recipe. I’ve made them with Italian flavors since that fits with my usual homemade salad dressing, creamy Italian. Other spices could include cumin or smoked paprika. Fresh herbs wouldn’t work as they’d tend to burn.
I am mildly obsessed with salad dressing and for the most part refuse to buy the store-bought stuff. The following is a recipe that I have tweaked and tweaked until it’s pretty much perfect. There is almost always a container of it sitting in our fridge. A perfect salad to go with this perfect dressing consists of romaine, spinach, red onion, roasted red peppers, homemade croutons, and perhaps some toasted pine nuts, if you can stand to pay for them.
. . . that will help keep you from being BORING. You know both of these, but they’re so good that they deserve space here.