Cookbook-Free

It was this week last year that we braved a 1,600 mile trip north and west to our current location in ski country. Two cars loaded with clothing, two laptops, my food processor and Jim’s PlayStation, and the dog.

I didn’t bring one cookbook with me. Since then I’ve bought three, plus a couple of cooking magazines that caught my eye. HELP!!! I miss my “stuff!” It’s all in storage back “home.”

Not even having time to travel over the past year, I opened my suitcase a few weeks ago to a large piece of bubble wrap, and realize that I brought one photo with us, our wedding picture in a frame my mother-in-law gave me when she and I first met, a few months before we were married. Why I saved the bubble wrap in the suitcase was evident: this was a temporary move, but now we’ve stayed.

Cookbooks, books in general, are a comfort to me. Living in another family’s home with their furnishings is one thing; living with the things one has amassed over a lifetime is better. Searching through new and old recipes to get ideas for dishes to please friends and family is a passion of mine that I now have to do online. I have found old sauce recipes and new dishes online and that’s great! Still missing the books, though. I don’t care about the Kindle or any other book reading device, give me paper.

Now we have snow tires that will need to be taken off and replaced by all-weather tires next month (we didn’t need snow tires in Texas) and our small garage is being taken over by Things We Need To Keep (a one-car garage storing eight tires). It’s a joy to live here with a view of the mountains and wildlife, and ironic that we’re happy here and envision city life or country life for our long-term future.

There’s a box that came a couple of days before our actual move, from my mother’s estate. We were in such a state of chaos that it was moved, sight unseen, to storage. Air-conditioned storage. We look forward to having our own things about us, and having a few memories unsealed as well.

Happy St. Patricks’ Day! I didn’t make anything but bought some shamrock cookies for my hairdresser who will hopefully transform me into someone who doesn’t live in a desert climate! Cheers, Slainte, Dee