Random Doings

Here it is January 6 and I've yet to post anything for the new year. This is mainly because I can't seem to focus on any one cookbook, or any cookbook at all, for that matter. My mind still seems to be cluttered with things from the old year.

Perhaps a post about some of the random things I've been doing or thinking about will get me motivated and I can get back on track.

First of all, although Santa did not bring me a new camera last Christmas as I had hoped, he did bring me one this year. My old digital camera was purchased many, many years ago, specifically to take pictures for Ebay. Surprisingly it had not yet given up the ghost, but it was past time for a new one. Like my refrigerator and the Energizer Bunny, it just never seemed to quit, so I was having a hard time rationalizing my "need" for a replacement. (This is one of the ways in which I manage to not have to rejoin the corporate world; by exercising patience--lots and lots of patience.)

I have a bad habit of not using new things right away, letting them sit around in the box or bag, for quite a while in some cases. Case in point, I have been hand washing dishes for months because the new replacement dishwasher is not quite all the way installed. (I hope it works.)


The camera brought the pressure of having only 30 days to decide if it was one I liked. Darn those return policy rules! This meant I have had to actually get it out and use it, whether I felt like it or not. So far I have managed to take some pictures and get them downloaded to the computer. There's still about 160 pages in the manual that I haven't yet addressed.

I though these pictures from the garden turned out okay. At least, they look okay to me, on my monitor, another thing I've not yet taken the time to fine tune.

This was the first time I've ever grown broccoli. One of my neighbors told me it was easy. And she was right. I wish I had planted more.

This is my Bok Choy, also a first. I think I may have let it get a little larger than it's supposed to be before harvesting.


And the Lettuce, something else that's easy when the temperature's not too hot.

The old camera would have never taken pictures like these. Now I can take a decent picture of a ladybug on a leaf if I want to.

Another neighbor brought us two more jars of Cowboy Candy just before Christmas. I shared one jar with my gardening buddy, who loves it even more than I do, and plan to ration the remaining jar out over a period of time. I think this was the best new food that I tried in all of 2008.

This picture, taken indoors in poor lighting, is not so great, though you can see the remants of the old masking tape on the jar lid pretty well. If I had time to mess with learning more detailed photo editing, I suppose it could be made to disappear.

I've also signed up for a Workshare in a CSA in a neighboring town. (This is where a corporate job would come in handy, enabling me to fork over the cash for a regular share instead of doing it this way.) We'll see how that goes as my first day is scheduled for later this week. I think rubber boots will be in order, although it remains to be seen whether I'll be wearing a jacket and gloves or a tank top and shorts to go with the boots. The weather can't decide if it's winter or summer. I wonder if they'll kick me out if they find out I have a blog that features processsed food cookbooks?

I noticed that Robb Walsh, restaurant critic for the Houston Press and author of my favorite Tex-Mex cookbook, has a new book out about oysters. He has a slideshow, Oyster Moments, with some great photos he took during the course of writing the book.

Okay, now that I've gotten all this out of my system, do I feel compelled to grab a cookbook off the shelf and start writing? Not really. But maybe tomorrow.