In honor of DH’s birthday this week and Valentine’s Day this month, I baked cookies and the latest batch of pretzels that he likes. The recipe said use two 1/4 ounce packages of yeast, but that just didn’t seem like enough. Now that I’m buying two pound packages and reaching for the 1/4 cup measure, this was the result, very soft and even puffier pretzels!
This was an interesting month for a food ministry experiment. We had a package of peas no one wanted to eat, so I decided to donate them to a Tiny Purple Pantry on the grounds of a church where I served a few years ago. Then it occurred to me, why not buy more food and donate the items as well? I went shopping and spent about $20: vegetable oil, seasoning, a package of tea, sugar, flour, yeast, baking powder, a can of milk and cans of carrots. The chocolate bag was for carrying everything. Smile. Within half an hour of dropping off the food, everything was gone except for the can of milk. Either people are very hungry, or they know people who are, and so they pass on the items they find.
I was talking to a family friend about the croissants recipe I had that came from a 1980s calendar. I figured I was a weird kid, saving something like that all these years.
She asked me an interesting question. Was my mom like that? Not at all, but who in my family was? My mom’s younger sister was. I remember she had this avocado colored recipe box full of pictures that I found fascinating. When we’d go to her house to visit, I’d take it down from the shelf and look through it, imagining having the skills to make all the things I saw. I would have been a pre-teen by then.
At last, the mystery was solved. Thus, I have an explanation not only for why I saved that recipe, but for all the ones I saved over the years, and the two accordion folders I have of recipes now.
As for the writing life, I finally finished the latest re-write of the entire draft I finished presenting to my critique groups in December. I wrote the first draft in three. It took two months to rewrite the entire thing using recycled materials from the first edits after I submitted to my critique groups and the new material I wrote. I was hoping to finish in a month, but that just didn’t happen. At least I had a goal, right?
But I’m not done yet. Next, I’m reviewing the re-writes, and will likely do even more of them before I submit to the groups. My goal is to review twenty pages–two chapters–each day.
At some point, I will tackle a re-write of the first draft of another work in progress I finished this past fall.
Here are some books I’m interested in reading. Not much romances nowadays, similar to previous months. The inspirational romances I want to read aren’t out yet. Oh well.
Have a great month!
Copyright Barbara James. All rights reserved.
Barbara James 