Saturday, October 18, 2014

Later evening

I cannot tell a lie: I never intended to even try to read for the entire 24 hours. For one, at some point around hour fifteen (or earlier, given how much I'd be using my eyes) I would have to take out my contact lenses. Now, I have two pair of wonderful no-line bifocals, but I've discovered that once the contacts are out, I'm pretty much done seeing anything. My poor eyes figure removing those hard pieces of plastic is the signal to relax.

It's been difficult to focus today. Once I came home, I read at the computer upstairs for a bit, then wandered downstairs about one o'clock with a vague idea of making that pumpkin soup for lunch. Well, I sat down in a chair and picked up the kindle...

...two and a half hours later, I decided I'd better get something in me quickly (once my blood sugar starts to go low, it drops pretty quickly, and while I could just eat a granola bar to get it up, I much prefer eating something tasty), so I headed off to the local Albanian-American restaurant.

Yes, Albanian-American. We have lots of local places run by the Greeks, but to my knowledge, this is the only Albanian run joint. They carry a few ethnic dishes, but I've yet to try them. Today, it was a chicken philly sandwich with french fries, all of which I ate with a fork because 1) messy, messy sandwich with lots of slide-y peppers and onions covered in very hot cheese, and 2) I needed one hand free to hold the kindle.

Back home again, another hour or so of reading (while watching the last couple episodes of the last season of The Walking Dead - not exactly the best reading environment, but I tend to do this a lot). I finally decided around six p.m. I should take care of some of the cooking stuff I've been putting off.

I made the pumpkin soup detailed here. It's my go-to pumpkin recipe, one that highlights the taste of the squash without being overwhelmingly pumpkinish. As I went, I washed dishes. No matter how efficient you try to be, you still end up with two saucepans and the food processor to wash.

While the soup was on the final simmer, I trimmed and cleaned a couple of leeks. They are in the onion family, though considerably milder. They look much like a green onion, though one that has been eating its Wheaties and bulking up for the season. I ate (and read, and watched Call the Midwife) while they drip dried. After dinner they were sliced and put away for tomorrow, when the plan is to finally make up the salisbury steak (in a wonderful mushroom gravy) and a potato-leek gratin. Between that and the soup, I won't have to cook for lunches or dinners until at least Thursday.

I'm going to read for a little bit yet tonight, but my eyes are rapidly approaching the state where I would do anything just to take.the.contacts.OUT.

From the time I learned to read my first word (C-A-T, which is a bit ironic considering I'm deathly allergic to them)(and by the way, we didn't start to learn to read until we entered first grade) I've been an avid reader. No pocket of time is too small not to dip into a book for a bit. Since the advent of the kindle, and the availability of reader apps on the phone, I'm never without dozens of books from which to pick. Heaven.

4 comments:

KaKiJoKoJa said...

As long as you had fun, that's what matters!!

world4anna said...

I love being able to have multiple books on hand and not all the weight. Enjoy your reading and soup.

CaroG said...

If you need some rest, listen to your body. The important thing is to have fun!

Unknown said...

It sounds like a lovely day full of books and good food, and what could be better than that? Great job!