Bittersweettoast

I'm on a new mission. No longer will bags of produce be pulled from my crisper dripping in brown ooze that only comes from buyer neglect. I'm determined to find a use for that little bit of feta cheese that lingers in the cheese drawer just waiting to get moldy. And I vow to use up every heel of every loaf of bread I ever buy again. I will  boldly go where I seldom go and force myself to regularly use up what's in my refrigerator before returning to the grocery story. I will think more creatively about what I can put together with the ingredients on hand as opposed to pulling out a new recipe and adding unwanted food to an already crowded refrigerator. Oh, these vows sound so good, but they are so difficult for me because I am a recipe kind of gal. Blame it on my mom who created terrific meals but was wedded to her cookbooks. I am not genetically predisposed to winging it in the kitchen. Which is why I marvel at Lynne Rossetto Kasper who hosts NPR's show The Splendid

Remember those ads for Evelyn Wood speed reading classes? The ones where people simply turned the pages in the books they were reading and voila! The books were fully read and comprehended. Those ads always appealed to my need for project completion. When I start working on something, I like to keep working until it is finished. No interruptions. I marvel at people who have five or six books on their nightstands that they are reading simultaneously. How can you possibly do this? To me that feels like cheating those characters out of their due respect while having a quick fling with someone else in a completely different story. Maybe that's a bit harsh, and maybe I just need to embrace the art of multitasking. But remember I'm 50 years old and old dogs...well, some just like to go one book at a time. Last December I set a goal: 50 drinks in my 50th year. Research, concoct, photograph, and blog. I sit at 21, and I am well past the halfway mark. This does not sit well with me.