Culinary Adventure: Shave the ... Mussels

I just de-bearded mussels! I have probably consumed a mussel before, but not that I can specifically recall. Never before had I prepared one.
   This guide by my seafood guru took the potential whattheheckamievendoing?! stress out of the mystery.
   There were 3 dead mussels. They are in their grave. The others, alive — and now beardless, sleek — sit unmoored in the fridge. Thank you, little bivalves, for your lives.

Eat ALL the Kingdoms!

Guess what, people? I eat mushrooms now. I eat mushrooms and I like them.

   You gasped, right? It's a shift more radical than my sucking the marrow out of chicken bones, right? Yeah. I know. Now I devour all manner of heterotrophs.

I had long eschewed mushrooms.

   Though I didn't try them anew until this month, I'd considered them a lot this year, in the recurring remembrance of Roscivs' widowed aunt, with whom he lived for two years. She loved — loves? — stuffed mushrooms. I want to try stuffing some with crab meat, propers to this shroomy cookbook. 

One of the most important things about cooking that I found out by myself was how vital homemade stock is. This cookbook suggested mushroom stock, and I'm so glad it did. I made it yesterday. It's yum yum umami! After I made it I found out there are vegetarian constraints on the dish I'm to bring to a UU book club/pot luck this weekend. This stock will make rich anything I do.

   Yesterday Jøthin and I watched Food Fight (our kth food documentary of the year) and in it Alice Waters said 85% of cooking is finding the ingredients to cook with. Meaning not, of course, finding the best water chestnuts for a recipe that calls for water chestnuts, but making recipes out of the best foods around.

   I have Waters' book out from the library but I haven't opened it yet — I also have out a dozen other cookbooks. I've changed my approach to cookbooks. Rather than poring strenuously over them to measure their treasure I take away one technique, one tidbit, or one eureka.

cha-ching + diaeresis

The first 3 weeks of our CSA totaled 28 pounds of vegetables!

I procure the rest of our food (including even more vegetables o_o) at the downtown farmers' market and at the town's food coöperative, of which I'm a member.
   I fell in love with the coöp when I learned that to shop there, I was to bring my own containers (weighed and tare weight marked) and fill 'em up. Such had been my dream!
   ...
   The coöp's better than I had dreamed a grocery store could be; it's so much more, so much more awesome than a traditional standard grocery store, and not just because of packaging reduction and reuse. It offers food education classes (see principle #5 of the 7 Coöperative Principles). It has provenance stickers for each produce item, and a special sticker for local items.
   I wish I could take all my readers on a tour.

The coöp also relies on member volunteers.
   Earlier this week I finished my final training session (a supervised shift) to qualify as a volunteer cashier.
   I think that being a cashier is a daring job. It takes chutzpah. I have to be bold. I have to execute. I have to be careful but speedy. I have to handle money. It's a good way for me to do something crazy and new, and it earns me a wee stipend.
   Tomorrow morning, I take on my first lonesome cashiering shift! Wish me luck.

Simplicity, Roscivs Style

My parents have china, and silver, and when I was growing up they used it at least eight times a year (seven birthdays and Christmas). Two (and maybe all) of my sisters have a full set of china, used less than once a year.
   Roscivs and I did not get china for our wedding, nor did we ask for it. We were not in agreement about that at first. He said, if I get china, I'm going to use it every day. Huh? Every day? said I. That's ... not what china is for. It's for special occasions.

Turns out that every day is a special occasion. Nobody lives this as much as Roscivs did, and it's why he died so well. He'd spent each day like a golden coin.
   You could summarize his position as "buy only what will serve you for the average day" AND "the average day deserves the best".

I have all the special plates I will ever need. One set for every special day.

I'm Going to Pwn Paper

Remember my new month resolutions? January was juicing. Habit acquired! I still juice every morning.

February was zero screen use starting 1.5 hours before bed. Habit acquired!
   I got this idea from talking with my narcoleptic sister who read a 40,000 page book on sleep.
   Speaking of books, records reflect that I suddenly started reading a lot more books in February; reading books seems to be one of the things I do more when I sit on [sic] the computer less.

   I have read so many books this year that GoodReads is prompting me to increase my goal for its "2013 Reading Challenge". Let me explain sum up:
   GoodReads invites its members to participate in its yearly reading challenge. You set your goal and GoodReads puts a progress/status bar on your front page. The challenge is just a motivator/a bragging tool.
   I entered 52 books as my 2013 goal. I am already 73% of the way done, which is, as GoodReads tells me, 41% ahead.
   I am not going to increase my goal, because I keep hearing Roscivs wising about not retroactively fitting goals to what you have or have not attained.

Yeah, I hear dead people.

March was a glass of water in the morning upon waking. Habit acquired!
   As once a runner (which may or may not be like being a King or Queen in Narnia) I have read a lot about the Great Hydration Controversy. Group A aver that one should "drink to thirst"; people who "drink ahead" are, like most house-plants, overwatered. Group ∀ aver that one should "pre-hydrate"; by the time you feel thirsty you're already dehydrated.
   For me it is moot. I haven't been able to sense thirst since Roscivs got sick, so I can't "follow my thirst". I am happy with my new habit. With all my new habits!

April was no electric light after sundown/8:30pm. Habit acquired! 
   Boy am I waking up earlier! And, mirabile dictu, I'm functional as soon as I'm out of bed! 
   I use 100%-beeswax candles for my bedtime routine.
   When I implemented February's habit I had no idea I'd be doing this; Feb's intentional became a stepping stone. 

May? 
   For May I am doing the paper part in the first chapter in the Unstuff Your Life book, which has the BEST. METHOD. EVAR!!! for organization and Simplicity. 
   This chapter involves radical changes in my paper processing habits. Paper processing is my bête noire. May's work is big. It's so big that it isn't even cut out for me. I have to cut it out myself.
   I fancy I'm on my slow way to becoming like unto Winifred, my sister Mona's mother-in-law, next-to-godliness Matron Saint of Org, who "doesn't even have a jumble drawer!!!"
   My mom gave me the book for a housewarming gift last year. When Bjórnathrón moved in, we did the kitchen chapter together, and — hallelujah — our kitchen is organized like God's sock drawer!