Duck: it's what's for dinner

Dear Friends,

Tonight I’m fixing duck with curry and honey, pine nut couscous with Gorgonzola cheese and dried cranberries, and an herb salad. You are invited. I wish you weren’t so far away. I’m feeling a little bit alone right now. I won’t go into that.

The cooking thing is something new I’m going to try this year. In fact, I am a woman who has has never used yeast. My ex-mother in law once gave me a pie crust recipe. I didn’t have the heart to say I have never, and never will, make a pie crust. Then again, she never read Tristram Shandy. But we got along ok. That, too, is another story.

At any rate I decided this year to try and become a gourmetrina. That’s a little like being a gourmet, just a teeny weeny bit, but not too much. I’m hoping that by being smaller than a gourmet I'll encourage folks to leave their expectations at the door. Oh, by the way, did I tell you I sometimes make up words?

Speaking of new things for the year, are you doing the resolution bit? I decided to take some time and look at various categories of my life, where I’m going, where I wanna go, blah blah very boring. In the best information gathering self I have, I came up with lots of stuff, but three areas came to surface, the kind of stuff that I thought, wow, what would push my envelope? I call this broad area my time and space goal, and anything that’s important spiritually and artistically has to fit that, except for the two other areas, and I’ll elaborate on those, if you ask me about them.

Meanwhile I’m back in my mode of doing one new thing per day. This means seeing something new, meeting someone new, consciously having one new thought, doing one unexpected action. Done with intention. I also collect off-beat posters of places I’ve been and things I’ve seen, and I’m happy to report that I now have a great poster of Marilyn, I wanna be loved by you.

Today, in addition to making the pine nut couscous, which is new for me (and so easy, I know what you’re thinking) I am going to a movie I’ve never seen, although I haven’t decided as yet which one it will be. Also, I’ve never gone to a movie on New Year’s Day, that I can recall. So you see, my requirements for one new thing per day aren’t too difficult to accomplish. Some might even say, cheesy.

I’m looking forward to seeing you over the duck. Here’s to pushing our envelope.

Warmly,
Beth