Daily Notes- November 18

A new book just released.  In the blurb it mentions being raised by a grandmother who lived to the Great Depression.  Like me.  My Grandmother suffered thru the Depression and my own father's hoarding of glass jars etc was part of that.  My grandmother had a garden but no glass jars to can the food for winter.  So they had nothing, very much, to eat that Winter.  It formed them. Informed the way they saw Life.  As dangerous, threatening, mean.

I grew up spending lots of Time with my father's mother.  She never threw anything away  but it wasn't hoarding.  Old clothing was re-made into something else.  String was saved.  Paper bags folded and stored.  Food was always canned and stored in the coldest part of the dirt floored basement. Every thing saved was used.

And there you have the DNA of me and the Magic Attic.  Which I love.  Keeps her close after all these years.

I already have the "little green balls" recipe from Food 52 which uses all the stems and top leaves which normally go into the compost bucket.  Not the garbage, please.  But whizzed in the processor and made into tiny balls that can be fried or baked.  Delicious.  Go find the recipe, please.  The hunt is good for you!

I am eating yogurt, Bran buds, grapefruit these days (layered and then left to rest as the buds soak up the grapefruit juices) and shredded green and red cabbage and carrots mixed with a knock off of the Oriental Salad dressing from Applebees--with canned chow mein noodles and sliced almonds.  Cold Food. I will be making a soup for myself one of these days. Hot Food.  But cannot decide what I feel like eating.  Perhaps onion soup.  I was quite old when I first tasted onion soup.  And it was love at first spoonful.  Or the recipe for carrot, leek and white bean soup.  Or the black bean bisque.  Both shared by favorite chef's in favorite restaurants.

I slept well.  Am test driving coffee made from a jar of dry "crystals".  I got it too strong this morning.  But it has promise.  And is easy enough to make with the hot water pot.  I crave easy this week.  I crave comfort.  I crave being warm enough.  I crave drifting and not having to "try very hard".  Or think too much.