As an experiment some time, everyone should click the "Next Blog" button at the top. The plethora of vegan/vegetarian/baking blogs is pretty humbling. And yet the veg ones are nice to read. I feel like I'm back in the community cabin. Everyone here is accepting/accomodating of my eating habits, but it's not the same without tasting kale and quinoa that other people cook and offer to you.
Brian's brother and his fiancee asked me to make them a cupcake spread for their wedding. This happened yesterday. The wedding is on May Day. Lots of work, but lots of love, and I was very excited and honored. Lately I've been stuck on cupcakes.They seem so approachable compared to my fondant/krispie/sponge cake animals.
I like eating food that other people make me. But I love making it and sharing it more. I love reading books that other people write. But when I try to write one it just doesn't happen (see National Novel Writing Month 09). Does anyone feel the same way? I know my career path provides for the flexibility of writing (see Beverly Cleary, children's librarian and novel-writer extraordinaire), but maybe I need something extra to really enter author territory. I fill notebooks, but only with snippets and blurbs. Where is the grand design for it all? Maybe I'm lazy.
I think this blog should be required as part of the Life After Americorps packet. Venn Diagrams. Five Year Plans. Real, true, freaking out post-service. I think that non-Americorps people say a lot of things during service about sacrifice and how wonderful it is to "give" a year to something bigger than yourself. But you (I) don't realize how much you actually gave until after the fact, when you can do the comparison of where you were vs. where you are and how you got there. When you're in it, you're in it, but afterwards the reflection is much deeper.
I had dinner the other night where a current Americorps member talked about living in the woods and how the water at their campsite was completely turned off for a few days before Christmas break. I didn't know other people lived in the woods. On the other hand these people have a vegetarian meal cooked for them 4 days a week, and not lodge-style vegetarian. A ping of jealousy flared there. But now I have multiple veggie cookbooks from Christmas and a full kitchen. So I can't complain. Even simple things like sliced tofu slightly fried in a cast iron skillet and smothered in ketchup and garlic are still appreciated.
Gratuitous pictures:
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Christmas cupcakes. Chocolate cake, white frosting is egg nog flavored buttercream with cinnamon dusting, Chocolate frosting is Bailey's Irish Cream frosting. Except for the one in the corner which is straight up chocolate (not everyone in the family is 21, and the alcohol in both of these buttercreams was dizzying.)
Contrary to popular belief my life is not all about food...I just like talking about it a lot.
I could use some kettle chips.