Rainy Days and Mondays

Do you ever wish that the weekend was two days longer or that there were 10 more hours in a day? I certainly do! It just never seems that the weekends are long enough to do all the things I didn't do during the week (housework, laundry, etc.) AND rest, relax and reconnect with my children, friends and myself. Weekends are especially short when it rains. Not that I mind a rain shower now and then, but when there is torrential rain all weekend, that is what gets me down.

That was the type of weekend we had here on the East Coast. Hurricane Kyle was cranking up over the Atlantic bringing us unusually warm temperatures and heavy rains. I managed to escape the house early Saturday morning to run some errands before the rain (and street flooding) began. Once the rain began, I was in for the duration. Now, I could have used all that inside time to get things done around the house~and I did, to a point. Mostly, though, I felt tired and headachy (thanks to the air pressure changes that occurred with the storm) and not very interested in moving from the couch. I felt so blah that I couldn't even focus on a book. TV was the least interesting thing of all.

I went to bed on Sunday feeling very unaccomplished. Next thing I know, the alarm is sounding, it's Monday - again! As I dragged myself out of bed, I began to make a mental list of the things I didn't accomplish over the weekend and wouldn't get to because I had to go to work. After mulliing a few things over, I decided that tonight, I would go to my blog and make an entry, maybe include a picture. But before I came here, I checked out my favorite blog, "One Man's Travel Blog". I just love Graham's photographs and the wonderful way he describes his journeys in the kitchen and across the globe. Let me tell you, I was so happy that I had traveled there first! Seeing Graham's sepia toned photo project set me on a task. I was going to accomplish something today and that was going to be taking a couple of my own photographs and applying the sepia tone to them and post them here! (As soon as I have a free afternoon, I'm going to go out and take some pictures with the sepia applied on the actual picture, not after-the-fact with photo editing).

The photo at the top was taken this past June at the annual Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay Harbor, ME. We had the good fortune to take a harbor cruise and get out to where the ships were in full sail. It was a glorious day! (I'll write more about it in another post, along with more pictures). The contrast with the sepia toning gives the photo an "old world" feel.

The photo at the bottom is of my daughter Catherine. She was in a wedding this past summer and put up with my picture taking with the grace of a princess (and of course she is my little princess)! I like the effect of the sepia on her photo. It's quite interesting to see it this way because her dress is actually a bright sky blue!



I'll post more of each of these photos, in color at a later date. But for now - enjoy!

Until next time!
~T

There.....and back again!

I'm back! You probably never even knew that I was gone.....lol.

I started this blog a little over a year ago after discovering a folder of papers I had written for a course on Food and Culture I had taken at college. That discovery led to the idea that I would write about the foods I love and favorite food-related experiences. I wrote exactly two entries and then stopped. What happened, you ask? Life! I ended up in the middle of a divorce and was simply too exhausted to devote any time to my blog.

Since I've discovered that life will never "slow down" I decided to once again attempt to blog. I've been trying find an outlet for my creative side and this blog will be just that......I hope!

I plan write about food, my girls (ages 10 and 17), being a single parent, favorite books and movies, anything that happens to be on my mind. Also, this time around, I am going to include a passion I have been rediscovering ~ photography!

Hope you enjoy!
~T

Food Feeds the Soul

I have been very fortunate to have been exposed to many good cooks. My mother is a good cook, she learned most of what she knows from her mother, who though she was not a gourmet cook, could do wonders with a pile of chicken bones, a few veggies, water and flour. The resultant concoction would be chicken and dumplings. When you had twelve (yes, twelve) children, you made do with what you had, there was no waste in anything she cooked. My grandmother made chicken a hundred different ways. Baked, fried, chicken in soup, chicken and dumplings, the list goes on and on. No matter what way she cooked it, it was delicious, soul feeding food.

One of my favorite foods that Memere (that's what I called her..) made was something she called "gallettes". It sounds extravagant, doesn't it? Picture this: a smooth, golden brown puff of sweet dough, glistening in an amber syrup on a gleaming white plate. What "gallettes" were, quite simply, was fried dough drenched in 100% pure maple syrup (not that overly sweet fake stuff), gently warmed. Tender and sweet, they were like heaven itself.

What I wouldn't give for my Memere to be in my kitchen making "gallettes" for my daughters and myself as she did for my mother and me when I was a child. It would truly be a memorable experience. Today, we are so concerned with fat and calories that we have forgotten how to enjoy food. I believe we should strive to enjoy food again and once in a while indulge in a "gallette" to feed our bodies and our souls......

Till next time......
~T

My First Blog - yikes!

Welcome one and all to my first blog! Here you will find my thoughts, observations and reflections on my favorite subject - food!

Food is life. We all know that our bodies need food for energy and good health, but food is also much more than mere sustenance. Food is family, friends, good times, and sad times. Food, I believe could end many wars, or prevent them, if the opposing sides simply sat down together to share a meal. It is, after all, difficult to argue when your mouth is full!

Food, rather the sharing of it, means so many things to me. I have always loved food. I don't just eat it. I smell it, I devour it with my eyes, sometimes I even listen to it, and when I have done all these things, only then, can I taste it. Not just put it in my mouth, chew and swallow. I try to decipher the very mystery of the food itself. To me the ultimate adventure is to try a food that is new to me. From the simple to the extravagant, the very mystery that is food excites me.