So...uh...long time no see.
Ya know, every time I say that I'm back, I really hope it is true. It is unlikely that I will ever be as prolific here as I was back in those good/horrible old days, but I would like to publish again regularly. I am going back to school for a Masters in Biology, but really it's in order to transition from lab schlep to technical writer or something similar. So, if for no other reason, I should be looking for ways to exercise my general audience-writing muscles.
I was sitting with some friends yesterday on shabbos. I mentioned that I had written about such-and-such here in this blog. "You wrote a blog? I would be interested to read it." "So would I!" "Yes, me too, I will have to look it up after shabbos." None of these were women I was particularly close with 10 years ago; some I have only met since then. The woman I met most recently is interested in several things that used to be a much bigger part of my life. She makes me excited about them again.
Remember the old rhyme?:
"Make new friends, but keep the old;
One is silver, and the other gold."
I get that the old friends are supposed to be more precious, and that is why they are "gold." But I was thinking of another way this could be understood: new friends are "silver" in the manner that silver is practically more useful, while gold's value is more ornamental. Silver plates a mirror, silver works as a conductor, silver has use is flatware and goblets, etc. New friends (or old friends we haven't seen in a long time) add new ideas, and bring out old and new from within us in a way that comfortable old friends may not. Or maybe not, I dunno, just an idea as I was driving around today.
I'd like to put something more substantial in here today. How about my attempt to change my cooking habits to save a little money: Like a lot of people, I built up a nice little sum the first months of Covid by buying almost nothing (well, after that first Passover, anyway) and cooking a great deal of our food from scratch. I always cooked most of our meals, but now I wasn't buying snacks or bread or nearly as much frozen veggie-meat substitute. But then again, I was home a couple days a week (I am considered an essential worker, so I was always going in at least a couple days), and I hadn't started my graduate work. Soon I was back to the lab everyday, and I was busier, and my normal cooking rhythms returned. This rhythm includes a lot of impulse buying. I usually enjoy grocery shopping when it's someplace fun, not just the supermarket. So when I'm in Trader Joe's, or a little market in Chinatown, or at a cute little specialty shop, I'm likely to buy something unusual or experimental. But if it is not a ready-to-eat item, it often sits in the cabinet. So every year when I pack up the kitchen contents for Pesach, I put away a bunch of these packaged good, usually grains or jarred and canned products. And then they never come out of the "Chometz closet", as the hall closet has come to be known.
Well the younger boys are now just about out of the house. The youngest will be out of state next year. I'm cooking for just me, and I am more willing to experiment, so I have been taking those stored items out of the closet. Kasha, quinoa, polenta and garbanzo flower; coconut milk and tamarind paste; spice mixtures. Plus a bunch of stuff like corn flakes and mashed potato-mix and such I took from people who were giving away from their free boxes (ugh, there is a whole topic I could talk about). I'm trying to enjoy the challenge and satisfaction of using it up, and it works to some extent. Here's a quick tip: Trader Joe's Green Goddess seasoning mix is great for a quick way to liven up almost any grain.
Okay, this is WAY boring, but I got it down, and I pressing PUBLISH. Hello to everyone new - go look at the old stuff, it's juicier than this post.
