Taking Stock

I've taken on a new project lately. No, it's nothing living and in need of shelter. It's my old recipe collection.

I have written favourite and family classics into an old binder for years, but, like me, that binder is beginning to show it's age. For that matter, so are my cookbooks. There is one I bought at work when some fella showed up at the office selling cookbooks. It was a big lug and in fact, has a starring role in the Santa Clause (at the beginning, when he is making dinner). I dont know what possessed me to buy it cause that would mean I would have had to carry it home as I did not drive back then, there is no public transporation in Trenton (still) and it was a good 40 minute walk home. But, I did buy it and I have, some 25 years later, taken the cover right off of it. I have another I scooped at up at a house we were renting when Randi was just a newborn. Still has the address written in the front of it.


So I've decided to start to retype all of these so they are legible, print them off, and put them in page protectors so they don't start colonies of their own for all the butter, sugar and flour I have spilled on them. Then I will keep them in a nice heavy-duty binder. Also, as more often then not, when I'm looking for a recipe I often check the internet, I can then print these ones off and slip them into a nice little page protector as well.


Now I have the original "cyndi's chocolite chip cookies" recipe, Grandma Hall's chocolate cake, my mom's amazing macaroni and cheese, which I can never get right, that yummy butter tart recipe from one book and the Pumpkin Thai soup I tore out of a magazine and made my own. All in one place, and ready for the next generation.


I could just be getting sentimental - and practical - but probably more sentimental. Note the picture I found at the back of my old binder.

I believe Randi would have created this masterpiece before she was even into double digits. Note the joy and happiness, not the sleeping brother up in the house, note that everyone is thinking about a ballerina, which is strange because it wasn't until many years later when we moved into town that we started taking in stray ballerinas.....


And now she is in her last year of University.


Sigh......I'm getting sentimental, and taking stock of my family history of cooking at the same time.

Turn the Page

It's been a big week for me; a new chapter, a turning of the page so to speak.

I dropped my baby off at University. That's right, my baby.

Child number one is starting her fifth year. We are old hat with her.
Child number two is starting his first year. And, he's my baby.

That means I'm done....my role as a mother is basically over. I know it is NEVER really over but the brunt of the job, once a full time role, is now moving to part time. I don't like it, I'm fighting against it, but eventually I will have to accept it.

I hate the part when you leave your off spring in some unknown and foreign land, far from home and you give them a hug and drive off. It's a terrible sink or swim feeling. Of course, they are more than ready to swim, you have been teaching them all the moves for the last 20 years and they are usually itching to go it alone.

but still....it is hard.

So, we are moving on to the "Empty Nest" syndrome which is making me feel rather old.
But I have an ace up my sleeve....a back up plan.

What if we could simply produce another child - still have one under the roof and remind me to keep in tune with the rhythms of school life?

Voila - we take in Kelly, a ballerina at the Quinte Ballet school. She is a mere 17 years old. Just going into Grade 11. That gives me at least two years to adapt into "Empty Nest".

Kelly is my "transition" child, my "ease me into it" girl. She's sweet, quiet and busy and indepedent enough to help me from over-mothering but just enough to allow me to keep my hand in this parenting career.

Some people are more than ready to have their kids out from underneath them. Some people are not. Give me some time. I'll get the hang of it. I was never a quick learner.

Puppy Love

This is Jack....

Jack is a chocolate lab puppy and I think I love him. I'm pretty sure he loves me too. In fact, Jack loves everybody. My daughter's boyfriend said, while playing with Jack, "whoever said you can't buy me love never had a puppy." And he was right!

Jack, sadly, was only visiting our house for a few days while his owners were off on a camping trip. Believe me, I could have kept him! While he was visiting I called him a number of things:

Jack,

Jackie

Jackson Browne

Jack Bowser,

Wiggleworm

Chubby-wob

Baby

Honey

Pudgy

Rolo (cause he's so chocolatey sweet and probably is made of caramel on the inside) ....

Petting Jack is like petting a live, warm, velveteen brown sweater. I loved his little tail, his all pink mouth, the way he would lean heavily up against me and look up. Sigh.....

He played a lot with Amelia and he peed on my rug several times. He had every dog toy that we owned scattered across the back yard and living room.

I miss him.

"Come back Jack.....come back!!"