Padron Pepper Break

The chaos around here continues, along with the poor nutrition and sloppy surroundings. I think I've gained five pounds in the last week alone, due to the interruption in my normal way of eating/cooking...as in, I haven't really been cooking. And as much as I sometimes enjoy eating out, after two or three meals in a row, I just long for something simple and cooked with my own hands. But with the kitchen 75% dismantled (and my whole life, for that matter), there just hasn't been the time, nor the mental space.

Thankfully, in spite of the chaos in here, out there in the yard, the garden just keeps on growing. As it turns out, the garden doesn't really care about your chaos as long as you remember to give it a little love, attention and water. And so far, it hasn't been TOO busy in here to remember to do that. And so the garden has rewarded us.

Tonight, and seemingly overnight, we discovered a big fat handful of Padron peppers that were ripe for the picking. And pick them we did, along with one perfect tomato. I can hardly wait to fry the peppers tomorrow and eat them with sliced tomatoes and just picked lettuce from the garden. It will be the most perfect antidote to all the heavy, fat-filled takeout meals we've been eating, and I can hardly wait.

As much as I'm looking forward to completing this move and making that first feast in the new place, I'm really savoring the last days of being here and enjoying this wonderful garden. I really hope that whomever lives here next will want to keep on nurturing it and loving it and growing it and in turn, be rewarded by its lovely abundance.

Until next time, cheers!

New Digs

I became a homeowner (again) on Thursday, July 8th, 2010. I'm still kind of pinching myself about it. How did that happen?!

I spent so much time over the last few months worrying about what would happen if I *didn't* get the place, if the loan *didn't* come through, that I neglected to really consider the enormity of what it would be like if everything DID come through.

Well, it did! And soon, I'll be off to a new (but admittedly, smaller) kitchen with marble counter tops and a new stove! Abundant closet space and windows! More than one bathroom! A music room and a guest room, oh my!

And yet, in spite of how thrilled I am, I'm a little freaked out about it too. I fear my days of eating out are over for the foreseeable future. I even had a nightmare recently, thanks to being too addicted to The Wire, that I was about to go to prison to serve time for being a heroin dealer. And I wasn't worried about life in prison, or leaving my friends and family behind, oh no. I was only worried that I'd lose my house because I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage. Uh, someone needs to step away from the television set. But that shouldn't be very difficult, because suddenly it feels like every single day and night for the next many months will be swallowed up by the act of dismantling one place and shoving its contents into boxes, transporting them to another place and bit by bit, turning that new place into a warm, cozy, inviting, comforting home. It's a project that could take a long, long time. And also, one that I am delighted to be able to sink my teeth into.

It's going to be a slow process getting all the stuff from here to there, one that will take the next several weeks. It's a little overwhelming. Our current digs are more chaotic than ever, filled with half-packed boxes and nervous dogs and a sloppy, stuff-strewn kitchen, and a fridge full of limp vegetables that have been sadly lacking attention. So tonight I chopped and stirred into a pot whatever I could find in there - onion, celery, carrots, cabbage, tomato sauce, potatoes, cooked pinto beans and yogurt. And from the pantry: french green lentils and quinoa and garlic. You might not call it delicious or even cohesive, but it wasn't bad either, and we called it dinner...and also, we called it Slop, Goulash, Gruel and Clean Out the Fridge Stew.

Something tells me I might have to get used to this kind of thing for the next little while - to that and eating takeout. But I am by no means complaining. I keep dreaming of the first meal I'll cook in the new place while the sunlight streams through the window with the stereo blasting, even though that time seems like light years away. I have no idea what it will be, or even when, but at least now, it's closer than it ever was before, and I am very thankful.