Two sure signs of spring - we made some campground reservations on Thursday, and yesterday we went to the Spring RV show. JUST TO LOOK! We were hoping to find some carpets on sale (the kind for outside on the grass), but only found some step covers, which we needed as well. We poked and peered through several units, none of which held a candle to ours (except for that Big Horn, but it was huge). I did run into an old friend from work. Nicole retired 8 years ago and no one had heard from her since. I guess retirement was a lot of fun for her! It was fun to catchup :-)
After we were sick of RVs we drove up to T&T, the Asian grocery store. It is a giant mecca of Asian delights. They have a good meat department where we were able to get pork neck bones and these other beef bones for the dogs. The produce department had lovely bok choy, snow peas, red peppers, ginger, basil, mint, etc. After our trip to Costco where we got brussels sprouts, green beans, mushrooms, spinach, salad, broccoli, and goodness knows what I've forgotten, our fridge is FULL of produce and I'd better get cooking. I think I let myself get a bit carried away. And I didn't mention all the fruit!
What am I going to make with all this abundance? An Asian soup with bok choy, mushrooms, snow peas, ginger, basil & mint - with some rice noodles. I'll stir fry the snow peas with ginger, garlic, mushrooms and red peppers. The green beans will be roasted and tossed with a tahini lemon sauce. Brussels sprouts will be roasted and served with roasted sweet potato and white kidney beans. Spinach in my smoothie, salad with mushroooms and chick peas for lunches. Broccoli will be for Grace & the dogs. That about covers it - I think it is manageable, but we won't need a trip to the grocery store for several days!
I knew we were going out for the day so had to plan a meal for Friday night that could be somewhat made ahead. I got out my favorite Moroccan cook book and got cracking on Thursday night. All the ingredients for a Moroccan couscous (except the couscous) were assembled into the crockpot and stuck in the fridge. Next up, Moroccan bread. This was an experiment for me - I made the bread, kneaded it, shaped it, put it on a baking sheet, made sure it was covered with olive oil, then covered it and stuck it in the garage, which was hovering at around 1C (freezing). I picked out two salads that would be easy to make when we got home from the RV show and that was that. The stew turned out great, the bread baked perfectly, the salads were weird but good (carrot orange salad with cinnamon, and a cucumber salad with orange blossom water and black olives). Carm really helped with the salads so we actually had everything ready when the guests got here (Trudie & Leo, just back from their trip south ; Vashek and Marie, just leaving for their trip south). It was a congenial evening.
This morning so far all we've done is do more dishes and tidy up. And drink coffee.
I am going to notice the lights of the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, the lights of our candles as we march, the lights with which spring teases us, the light that is already present.
Anne Lamott
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