A Few Things to Get Excited About

A friend once said of me to another friend, “She never gets excited about anything.” I was slightly offended, but then was embarrassed to find no examples to use in refutation of my friend’s claim. (To be fair, I think my friend meant “happily excited.” There were plenty of examples, I’m sure, of me being “excited” in less positive directions.) To prove that things have changed at least a little, I’ll tell you about some of the things making me pretty excited right about now.

** Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan, which I’m reading on…

** My Nook HD+ tablet, on which I’m also enjoying…

** Eating In with Lynne Rossetto Kasper

** Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison, a botany lesson and exciting cookbook in one. (I own a hard copy, a rather large tome.)

** The Oxo Softworks^® Salad Dressing Shaker (dishwasher safe; BPA free) This is easy use to shake up and store a homemade salad dressing. The rubbery band makes it easy to grip so I can shake it vigorously, and the spout has a tight-fitting seal that doesn’t leak. I do recommend removing the top (it screws off) to clean it if you’re going to store dressing after pouring some out, so dressing doesn’t clog up that spout or interfere with the seal.

** The first signs that spring eating might actually come our way, like beautiful, locally grown lettuce heads and the opening of our local farmer’s market. 

Speaking of this elusive spring, I had tentatively done a bit of cool-season planting in my garden, but by last Thursday afternoon (May 2^nd!), everything around here was covered with a heavy layer of new snow. The snow is gone now, chased away by some really nice, warm sunny days, and the garden seems to have suffered no permanent damage. I may not be an express-myself-in-all-caps kind of girl, but, really, if that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is!!

(All of the excitable opinions above are mine alone. No paid product or vendor endorsements are involved.)

For more on how excited I get about Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Solution: The Michael Pollan Lecture

One year ago: Batter Fried Morel Mushrooms