Food | M. Suzanne Terry

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2014 Resolutions – Words, Food, and Beauty

Posted in Beauty, Books, Food, Resolutions, Writing on January 2, 2014| 5 Comments »

Today is the first day that I’m back at work. I am glad no one was here to see me coo at these little fellows who greeted me once I got my computer hooked back up. That would have been awkward. It was an exuberant cooing.

(This is a snapshot of my computer screen. Sadly, I was not present to take the original photo, and I would give proper credit to the person who had the good fortune to be near enough to these little guys to take the picture, but the photo/website has since been taken down, so the world will never know the identity of this lucky, lucky person.)

Seriously. Look at the face! And the puffy, stubby tail! I love everything about red pandas.

Anyway…back to the topic at hand…

Last year, I finally admitted to myself what I want to do with my life. I want to write. I want to be published. I want to spend my days staring at a computer screen and writing terrible first drafts and editing like mad and watching those terrible first drafts become something I would actually let another human being read. So three of my five 100s are related to this goal:

1. One hundred books read

Just as I would not trust a pastry chef who never ate cake, I also don’t trust writers who don’t read. It teaches me. Reading Elmore Leonard is how I learned to write dialogue that didn’t just sound like my characters puppeting my own voice. Reading poetry is a reminder to be picky about word choice, particularly when editing. Reading is vital to writing well.

2. One hundred thousand words written

I will finish Fishbowl this year. I will finish Fishbowl this year. I will finish Fishbowl this year.

I am committing to writing at least 100,000 words toward fiction or poetry – projects that, ultimately, I would like to submit for publication. This might seem like a lot, but really, it’s only double the goal for NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been known to do that in just one month. It’s less than 10,000 a month. It’s 275 words a day. This post is going to be longer than 275 words, and it will only take me about half an hour to finish it. An average of half an hour a day spent on fiction or poetry is not a lot. So surely, I can reach it.

3. One hundred blog posts

Now that I’ve actually managed to start keeping up with a blog again (and by “keeping up,” I do mean “I have posted at least once a month for a year.” Don’t get your expectations all raised.), I remember how helpful it is to have a place where I speak in just my voice, not through the voice of a character. It helps me differentiate between the two. It helps me edit.

It also keeps me connected to people, which is important because I sometimes forget to do this on my own. I don’t have a lot of followers, but I do have a faithful few. And I appreciate you all!

So those are my word-related goals. If you want to follow my reading list, you can follow/friend me on Goodreads. I will try to post an update here once a month in order to keep track of the other two goals.

Next, there’s my health situation. Last year was a healthier year than the one before, as I successfully avoided the emergency room, but there is still room for improvement. I still don’t know what’s going on with my digestive system (my doctor has suggested a full scan, so that’s a fun thing I get to do this month), but we’ve narrowed it down enough to identify some things that trigger my episodes, and the main offender seems to be lactose. Sad times. I love me some lactose – specifically, cheese. Fortunately, most of the time, if I don’t overdo it, I can offset the problem with a couple of enzymes in pill form. There are, therefore, very few items I have to give up entirely. Cheesecake is one of them. Never again. Cheesecake is delicious, but there’s not a cheesecake in the world that is worth what I went through last month, and there’s not a pill in the world that can compensate for the ridiculous amount of dairy in a slice of cheesecake.

But even though taking a pill is an option, I don’t wanna. I don’t want to have to take a pill every time I eat something. That’s not what a proper solution looks like to me. So my fourth resolution is:

4. One hundred vegan recipes, tried and successfully eaten without taking a pill or getting sick

This will ensure at least 300 meals, snacks, or treats for which I will not have to medicate. I estimate an average of three servings out of most recipes, as most of them are written for at least four people, so an average of three will offset the count for the relatively few recipes that are single-serving. To keep track of this goal, I have created a Pinterest board where I will post pictures and recipes that I have tried and successfully managed sans pill assistance.

And last but not least, my One Word for 2014 – beauty. I am looking for it. I’m not sure what I’ll find. I’m not even sure what to call it when I do. Pictures of beauty? Examples of beauty? Ideas about beauty? I imagine that I will be writing about beauty, but I don’t want to stifle discovery by limiting expectations. I want to remain open to whatever I need to learn from it. So here’s the last goal:

5. One hundred moments of beauty

I have also created a Pinterest board to track this goal, so we’ll see how that works out. My first wordy post about beauty is on the board, along with a picture of one of the beautiful things in my apartment that doesn’t get much use as it was originally intended but is still beautiful nonetheless.

So that’s my year. What do you hope for your year to be?

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What I’m Into – December 2013

Posted in Books, Food, Poetry, TV, What I'm Into, Writing on December 31, 2013| 5 Comments »

This was a weird month. It’s the first time I’ve been at a church that observes the liturgical year. It’s the first time I’ve really “done” Advent (does one do Advent? Is that something that’s done? Or experienced? Or watched? I’m not sure which verb goes there.).

I’ve also been sick most of the month, so food choices have been limited. It also limited my coffee consumption – I went completely without for a week and a half – which, as you might imagine, put me in a fantastic mood.

And let’s not forget North Texas’s little Icetember adventure. Because large quantities of ice are so rare in Texas, it’s not really cost effective to keep the resources to deal with it. It’s cheaper to just shut everything down until it passes. So we did. Happy 4-day Icecation to me! I got home at about 4:00 on Thursday, and I did not even walk out the door to get the mail until the following Wednesday morning. Ah, introvert bliss.

One might think that, between being iced in and having to stay home sick and getting two weeks off from work for regular holiday vacation, I would have gotten a lot of writing/reading/TV watching done.

Heh. Not really. Not any more than usual. My house is pretty clean, though.

Here’s what I was into this month, besides deep, leisurely cleaning.

To write:

I wrote a lot of poetry this month. I participated in Story Sessions’s 40 Days of Poetry. I guess it wouldn’t be a lot to people who usually write poetry, but for me, the nine or ten poems I wrote is more poetry than I wrote the rest of the year combined. So for me, that’s a lot.

I also ranted about freedom of speech, which a couple of friends picked up and shared on Facebook without my sharing it first. I didn’t have to point it out to them. Translation: my friends read my blog and like what I write. Sweet! Thanks, friends. That made my week.

To read:

As inspiration, I also read a lot of poetry this month. I reacquainted myself with the likes of Neruda and Donne, and I reread Adrienne Rich’s Fox collection.

I mentioned last month that I jumped on the Divergent bandwagon, and during Christmas, I finished the last two of the trilogy. In a day and a half. I haven’t been sucked into something that completely in a while. I have a confession, though. Unpopular opinion #427 – I liked the ending. I’ll try to tell you why without giving anything away to anyone who inexplicably has not read it yet. Any other ending would have been, at best, a contrived mess. I would even go so far as to say that the ending that a lot of people wanted would have been a betrayal of the craft, because when an author foreshadows something so blatantly, she ought to make good on it. I mean, I read a lot of YA fiction, so I have a pretty high tolerance for teenage angst, but if I had sat through three books of it and ended up with no learning curve or subsequent resolution, that might have merited a nice, healthy tossing of the book across the room. And that would have been problematic, as the book was large (hardback), and I was at my mother’s house, and she has many breakable knick-knacks. So, for knick-knack’s sake, I am glad that it ended the way it did.

To watch:

This month that has meant reruns of Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office. This month has also meant made-for-TV Christmas movies, because that’s what Mom likes, and Pawn Stars, because that’s what Dad likes. I’m not opposed to either choice, but the hours upon hours spent…let’s just say that, while the trip to their house was lovely in many ways, I’m really happy to be home, where I’ve spent the last two days watching the second season of Castle.

To hear:

I have been obsessed with The Bangles this month. You know how you wake up with a song in your head every day, and it stays with you for most of the day (no? Just me? Okay, then)? At least half the month, that song for me has been a Bangles song. You’d think I would be sick of it, but no. I blame Lorelai Gilmore and growing up in the 80s.

To taste:

The Sickness put a bit of a damper on my meal choices this month. I’ve apparently been really into vegetable broth, potatoes, applesauce, and peppermint tea. I had to cancel Supper Club one night, because I wasn’t sure I could even take the smell of the meal I had planned.

But around the 20th, I started to feel better, so I got brave and had some toast, then some peaches, and by the 25th, I was able to enjoy my dad’s crock-pot turkey, roasted in a citrus gravy, which was either the most delicious thing I’ve eaten all year, or I was just really happy that it wasn’t broth.

So that’s how 2013 ends for me. What are you into?

I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – follow me over there!

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What I’m Into – November 2013

Posted in Books, Feminism, Food, Music, Thanks, TV, What I'm Into, Writing on December 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Let’s take a little trip back in time to when it was actually November. November has two big things going for it:

– Thanksgiving month! My favorite holiday with my favorite holiday traditions.

– NaNoWriMo! I didn’t finish this year, but I’ve got a new character whom I love.

The weather could have been cooler. We had way too many days that made it up to 80 for my taste, but so far, Icetember is making up for it.

Here’s what I was into in November:

To write:

My NaNo piece this year started to be YA fiction about a group of five friends (because nobody has done that before /sarcasm). I am a proud pantser, but having nothing other than names and costuming in mind before starting is not much to work with. So about ten days in, I decided to start over with stories about Uncle Wallace the Christmas Mouse.

Uncle Wallace is this fellow:

He lives under my Christmas tree. He holds a bell in one hand, and a random basket of apples in the other.

I want to believe that there is a deep, meaningful reason for the person who created this masterpiece of holiday decoration to put a basket of apples into his hand. Clearly, Uncle Wallace has stories to tell. He’s just letting me write them down.

So I didn’t make it to 50,000 words, but Uncle Wallace does have a Facebook page. So there’s that.

I also wrote a couple of blog posts of which I am proud. I linked up with Sarah Bessey in celebration of the Jesus Feminist launch with this post, and I wrote Going Home as part of Tara Owens’s synchroblog on Coming Home.

To read:

I finally made it through The Unbearable Lightness of Being. There were many lines in the book that I liked. Unfortunately, there were several pages to wade through between each of those lines. I’m happy I read it. I’m happier that I’m through reading it.

My book club read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy. The book was fine, but I don’t like his writing style. I would read some of it out loud and imagine it in his voice, and that made it a little better. I would watch it as a documentary. I also read Dad is Fat and imagined it in Jim Gaffigan’s voice, but that just made it funnier.

I jumped on the Divergent bandwagon, and I am hooked. I finished book one, and I’ll be buying the other two (or, let’s face it – all three – I can’t have an incomplete trilogy on the shelf) to read over holiday break, because the wait at the library is looooong, and I am impatient.

My favorite book of the month was Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber. I tried to find my favorite quote, but I’d just end up quoting half the book. I have narrowed it down that much. This book made me snort-laugh and ugly-cry, sometimes in the same sentence. That’s pretty much what I look for in any book I read about God.

To watch:

I’ve been into Burn Notice this month. His accents are sometimes good, but usually terrible. Just awful. But he’s so adorable (and sure, also badass) that I just don’t care.

I haven’t watched much else, unless you count the ridiculous number of hours I spent watching made-for-TV Christmas movies with Mom and the Psych marathon of Christmas episodes over Thanksgiving.

To hear:

November was a weird soundtrack of industrial music (…I don’t know), Memphis Blues (I blame Uncle Wallace), and classical music (because that’s what I listen to when I write).

To taste:

November means homemade candy. It’s my favorite holiday tradition. Every year, on Black Friday, we do not shop. We put up Christmas decorations and make candy to share with friends and take to parties. This year, we made five different candies – Martha Washingtons (coconut and pecan nougat, covered in chocolate – my favorite), Texas Millionaires (caramel and pecan nougat, covered in chocolate), peanut butter bon bons (peanut butter nougat – you guessed it – covered in chocolate), dark chocolate fudge with peanut butter, and buttermilk pecan pralines. Can you tell my parents have pecan trees?

My dad made my favorite meal this month. He made enchiladas with flour tortillas (instead of the traditional corn), and he made them special for me by substituting goat cheese for the cheese he normally uses. I am not ashamed to admit that I ate five in one setting. I also do not recommend doing that.

What were you into in November? Need recommendations for your holiday break? I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – go over and see what everyone else has to say!

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The Perfect Weekend: Book Sale and Food with Friends

Posted in Books, Denton, Food on November 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This weekend went by way too quickly, because I spent it living how I imagine myself living when I retire. I had breakfast with friends on Saturday, bought books, and had friends over for supper. I even worked in a little cleaning, a lot of reading, and a bit of writing. It was the perfect weekend.

Saturday, I went to breakfast with Margat, Tommy, Jeff, Micah, and Raven. It was the first time I’d been to Le Peep in quite some time. We got my favorite waitress, who didn’t recognize me at first, but brightened up when she took my order. “I knew you looked familiar! Where have you been?”

“I’m still here, but the person who usually came with me moved to Houston, so I don’t go out for breakfast as much anymore.”

“Well, tell her I said hello.” So Maggie, our waitress says, “Hello.”

Then we went to the Denton Library’s book sale. Did I let the fact that I have a tiny apartment and had not unpacked my box of books from the Fort Worth Library’s sale a few weeks ago stifle my purchasing decisions? Heck, no. I can always find room for more books.

Especially books with title like this one:

Don’t even pretend that you’re not aching with curiosity. I know I am.

Whenever there are large sales where I can acquire a large number of books for a small price, I have a system. I look for six things:

1. Books by my favorite authors that I don’t already own.

2. Books that I do own that everyone needs to read, because that shelf at Traditions is not going to stock itself.

3. Books on my to-find and to-read list (particularly those I’ve started from the library that I know I’ll want so that I can return the library’s copy).

4. Books that I know are on friends’ to-find lists.

5. DVDs of my favorite shows or movies that I don’t already have.

6. Books with amazing titles.

The finds from #6 are my favorite finds.

It’s how I came to own such gems as Good Lord, You’re Upside Down, P.S. Your Cat is Dead, and my first good-title buy, If This is Love, I’ll Take Spaghetti.

Just look at that cover. I feel her struggle, just like I felt it at my fifth grade Scholastic sale where I bought the book.

Of course, when I took on the immense task of finding a spot for all my new ~~friends~~ books on Sunday, I had to completely re-order my bookshelves. It’s not pretty – I now either have to buy another bookshelf or only buy books written by people whose names begin with “E” or “F” – but they all fit.

I could get used to weekends like that.

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Day Thirty-one – Grace

Posted in 31 Days, Food on October 31, 2013| 4 Comments »

Today is the final day of my 31 days without fast food. A little recap for you of things I’ve learned:

– Fast food was more a part of my routine than I thought it was. This was harder than I thought it was going to be.

– Food is my boyfriend. I am emotionally attached, in both good and bad ways. Food is how I express affection and connection, but it is also the thing I associate with shame, guilt, and avoidance. So, maybe food is a bad boyfriend. Maybe food should just be food.

– Soft poached egg on potato chips is a nice occasional treat, but should not be one’s go-to breakfast.

– Good time management means never having to go without coffee.

– Meal planning only works if you actually do it.

– You don’t have to spend a lot of money to eat well, but you will probably have to spend more than you’re used to spending.

– Guests are just as happy with a one-pot meal that took me less than an hour to make as they are with an elaborate, themed party.

– Supper Club! I’M SO EXCITED!!!

– My food choices are connected to larger issues and problems, and they can also be part of the solution to those problems.

But the most important thing I learned this month – the thing that I need to remember the most – is to extend grace.

I need to extend grace to others. Grace to others who don’t make the choices that I think are important. Grace to listen to them when they feel the need to justify those choices. Grace to really listen – not to just wait until they stop talking so that I can tell them why they’re wrong. Grace to accept that my disagreement doesn’t automatically make them wrong.

I also need to extend grace to myself, which is sometimes harder than extending grace to others. Grace to enjoy the occasional bowl of eggs with potato chips without feeling the need to justify it. Grace to accept where I am now, even if I don’t plan on staying there. Grace to appreciate my body and what it does for me.

And yes – grace to occasionally indulge in Whataburger. Just giving myself permission to do so reminds me that I have a choice, and going a month without it taught me that it’s not a choice I want to make very often. Inherent in the grace to indulge is the freedom not to.

I went 31 days without fast food!

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Day Thirty – Sugar High

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Work on October 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

My students started their how-to speeches tonight. A few of the how-to topics on the list: how to make better-than-sex cake, how to make peanut butter cup brownies, how to make chocolate decorations for cupcakes (with a special one made just for me, the teacher).

I think I consumed more sugar this evening than I have consumed the rest of the month combined. It was glorious/terrifying.

I didn’t even eat all of what was given to me. I had a couple of bites of each thing.

And still – sugar high!

I knew I was sensitive to sugar, but I did not expect such a small amount (relative to what I was served) to affect me so much.

The fun part was that the students got a kick out of watching me get all darty-eyed and fidgety when the sugar kicked in.

The not-fun part was the sugar crash that happened about thirty minutes after class.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– I can’t even think straight right now. Sugar is bad, kids.

– After almost a month of not even trying to limit my sugar intake – of just limiting it because drinking less soda was a byproduct of nixing fast food – the difference in my focus and my ability to maintain my energy level is remarkable. Noted.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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Day Twenty-nine – Well-Stocked Pantry

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Work on October 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I want to have a well-stocked pantry. I covet other people’s pantries when I visit their homes. I save my favorite pantry tips on my Kitchen Sink board. My current favorite: this article from examiner (sorry for the overkill of ads),

Don’t worry – I’m not going to list tons of pantry items for you to skim over and ignore. Everyone’s pantry list is different. What I use often enough to keep in bulk will probably be different from yours. For instance, I keep extra jars of roasted red peppers, because I throw them into just about everything, and I do not have time to roast peppers every time I want to use them (although that does sound like a nice canning project for next summer). I also know that I need to keep quick fixes on hand, or I will use the time factor as an excuse to go to Chicken Express.

But the next step for me in sticking to monthly meal planning is making sure I keep a stocked pantry. I will start with the list in the article mentioned above and adapt it to my needs.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– My night desk cohort and I are planning a series of lessons called “How to be a Grown Up 101” for the residents next semester. This month has inspired me to put meal planning on the list of topics.

– When I drove past Chicken Express the other day, I said (to myself, but yes, out loud), “I don’t need your greasy chicken! I have egg rolls at home!” It was awesome.

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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What I’m Into – October

Posted in Books, Food, TV, What I'm Into, Work, Writing on October 30, 2013| 8 Comments »

These shenanigans:

My boss likes to decorate the hall for holidays. Even the bathroom.

The hall has been festive. Homecoming is happening in a couple of weeks, and they’re going to haunted houses this week and picking out their costumes. They all have declined to have their pictures taken for this post, but trust me – it’s really cute.

The weather is finally not terrible here! It’s stormy today, which I love. It’s been cooler, and that’s fantastic.

Here are my favorite things from October:

To write –

I accepted The Nester’s challenge to write for 31 days on a topic, and my topic is “31 Days of No Fast Food.” Only three more posts to go, and I will be finished! That’s most of what I’ve written.

In non-bloggy news, I finished some editing on Fishbowl. I also mapped out the characters for my NaNoWriMo novel this year. It’s called Oddities, and it’s a YA novel, possibly steampunk-y because I want to play with that era, there are gadgets involved, and when I picture my characters, they are wearing corsets, vests, bustles, and spats.

To read –

This was a month of reading things slowly and drinking them in, which is why I probably only made it through three books this month. Worth it.

Every Shattered Thing by Elora Ramirez – I really loved Stephanie. This story broke my heart. It’s possible to read it quickly, but I don’t recommend doing so. You’ll want to take your time.

Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God – To say that I read this collection is an understatement. I read and re-read and pondered and absorbed. I want to brush up on the German I started learning in college so that I can read it in its original language.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop – I was perfectly calm when I started this book. It was a nice little group of essays by writers on their favorite bookstores. Then I got to the essay about Book People, and all the feelings came out of my eyes. I want to go to all these places. I will neither confirm nor deny that I have mapped out various road trips designed specifically to do so. This is a very dangerous book.

To watch –

So…Scandal. I love it. They’re not very nice people, these people. Some of the dialogue is trite. They talk very quickly. Olivia Pope is emotionally intense all the time, and I don’t quite know what to do with that. On the one hand, it’s nice to imagine someone so emotionally expressive being successful in that environment. On the other hand…EVERYTHING makes her tear up, and sometimes I just want her to get a grip, because let’s face it – she’s running a country here.

I also have been watching season one of Arrow. I avoided doing so for so long, because being part of Smallville fandom taught me that the only acceptable Green Arrow is Justin Hartley. The good: Oliver Queen is a superhero, and he looks like one (you’re welcome). The bad: Oliver’s inner monologue is terrible. Just awful. It makes me laugh every time, which I assume is not what the writers were going for. Fortunately for them, the bad seasons of Smallville trained me to look past bad writing/acting and just focus on the positive when it comes to people in costume, saving the city.

To hear –

Esthero, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Massive Attack. It’s been a trippy kind of month.

To taste –

I have been writing a lot about food in my 31 Days posts. The one thing I just can’t stop talking about is caponata. I love it, I love it, I love it.

Cooler weather makes me want to cook. This weekend, it’s chicken and dumplings. Happy.

What have you been up to and into this month? I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – hop over if you need some recommendations.

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Day Twenty-eight – Supper Club

Posted in 31 Days, Food on October 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I have people over a lot. I feed someone at least once a week (I’m an introvert – that’s a lot for me). It’s not always the same people, but it’s fun, and it’s one of my favorite things to do.

But I don’t always want to make it a big deal. When it’s people who haven’t been over in a month or so, the excitement and the planning seem to spin out of control. What was originally a hot dog and beer night becomes a hot dog and beer and I’ve-been-into-Tom-Collins-lately and vegan beanie weenie and sauerkraut and four kinds of bread night. Then I don’t do it again for a month, because while fun, that’s exhausting.

I have wanted to have a regular time for a small, regular group of people to come over for a while. I have also wanted a writing/reading group for a while. Earlier this month, I got the idea to combine the two desires into one – and the seed for Supper Club was planted.

I had a certain couple in mind. He writes – and pretty seriously (last time I checked, he was looking for an agent). I’m not sure if she writes, but she has thoughtful insights (and also, I just really like her). They also suggested another mutual friend who has diverse reading interests and seems very enthusiastic about the group.

So on November 10, the four of us are going to have the first Supper Club at my house. I want it to be a weekly thing eventually, but we’re starting out with every other week. It will be potluck.

I’m going to make lasagna, and they can bring whatever they want to go with it.

I will try to limit myself to two lasagnas – one meat, one veggie.

I’m not sure what we’ll discuss. I don’t want it to be a book club, where we all read the same thing, because that’s more work than I want it to be. I mostly just want to hang out with them and support one another in our creative endeavors, whatever those endeavors might be. Perhaps that’s what we’ll discuss.

Depending on how it goes, we might be inviting more people to join, but I don’t want it to get too big. I’m excited to see where this goes.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– My house is never cleaner than when I’m expecting company. Here’s hoping that this is motivation to keep my house more organized. Here’s hoping that this will not be a drudgery.

– I’m so excited!!!

I’m going 31 days without fast food.

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Day Twenty-seven – Easy Like Sunday

Posted in 31 Days, Church, Food on October 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I love Sunday. It’s my favorite day of the week.

Sunday is the day we’ve chosen for Supper Club.

When I was regularly attending services, Sunday was the day I went to lunch with people I loved.

Since my attendance has been sporadic as of late (i.e., the last year or so), Sunday has been baking day.

Sunday is usually a good writing day.

On Sundays, I feel un-rushed, inspired, at peace, at home (even when, technically, I’m not).

This Sunday, I went to Kincaid’s with Margarett, Micah, and Raven. It had been a long time since I’ve been there. I forgot how good those hamburgers are. There might have been moaning.

Then we went to the Fort Worth Friends of the Library Book Sale. It was $15-a-box day. This has nothing to do with food. I just wanted to bask in the goodness of a book sale one more time. Well, I bought some cookbooks, so I guess that’s related.

I drove past Taco Casa, which I love, and I wasn’t even tempted. That crispy salad shell doesn’t even come close to the hamburger I’d just had (and could easily afford, since no money was wasted on fast food this month) or the food I had waiting at home.

Then I came home to the lingering smell of the caponata, and I cleaned the kitchen, grateful for the weekend of food, friends, and relaxed productivity.

This was the best weekend I’ve had in a long time.

Themes, Observations, and Lessons:

– My desire to drive through seems to be inversely related to the time I spend planning for and making easy options at home. What a surprise that…isn’t.

– Sundays = ❤

I’m going 31 days without fast food, and today, I don’t even miss it.