Se Hace Camino Al Andar

It’s a foggy, misty Friday morning on the Cove. We arrived late last night, after battling horrendous traffic between the city and Bridgeport. Once the traffic cleared up, we were flying down 95 and before long, we were over the Cape Cod Canal via the Bourne Bridge, and navigating the rotary that signals the last leg of the trip. Alice hasn’t been to the Cottage since she was a month old… I wondered if I would be able to sense some kind of vague memory of the place. As it is, she was a tired mess which overpowered her exploratory tendencies. Once fed and changed, she took it all in and fell in love with the sailboat rocker.

Alice is napping at the moment, and when her Royal Sleepiness awakes, we’ll be off to Orleans and Rock Harbor to do the grocery shopping for the weekend.

Friday Night Dinner: Cod (or other fresh whitefish filet), Roasted Asparagus with Tarragon, Green Salad

Saturday Breakfast: Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon, Fresh Fruit

Lunch: We’re headed to Provincetown, so lunch will be had there… maybe at Bubala’s by the Bay!

Dinner: Shellfish Bake (scallops, shrimp, mussels), Baby Red Potatoes, Green Salad

Sunday Breakfast: Ari’s Spiral Coffeecake with Nuts and Orange Marmalade, Fresh Fruit

Lunch: Arnold’s for Lobster Rolls!

Dinner: Farmer’s Market Gleanings

Monday, sadly, we head home. Some of us have jobs, apparently!

I’ve often lamented that since having a baby, I’ve had neither the attention span nor the time to finish a book with any kind of speediness. (In my old life, I used to read several books a month.) I’ve gotten much better at my book completion rate since installing the Kindle app on my iPhone and I’m working my way through two actual books now. My next mission to resume my goal of reading the “Classics.”  To that end, I’m participating in the Beowulf on the Beach Reading Challenge over at Books on The Nightstand. Beowulf on the Beach, by Jack Murnighan is one author’s list of important classics that everyone should read, and while I’ve read a few on the list, there are more that I haven’t! 

The challenge is to read at least 1 book from Murnighan’s list, and blog/tweet/FB  about the challenge and the experience of reading the book. Here’s hoping that I can find the time read this summer. I’ll be spending a month at the cottage and probably my biggest responsibility will be to keep Alice from crawling off the cliff or down the stairs to the cove. Wish me luck… 

I’ll be back to report my book choice.  Won’t you join me?

Technorati Tags: Beowulf on The Beach

My old college friend, Erika, has been writing on her blog lately about stuff and not having so much of it. Her post resonated with me because having stuff seems like a never-ending battle in my house, too.  I’ve been feeling a real urge lately to purge and simplify, almost like I’m taking nesting to the next level. We tackled some major projects in this house, namely the kitchen and bathroom renovations, and I still have one more big project (carpeting the bedroom). The next level is creating more space. Doesn’t it make sense that open space leads to open mind? It does to me.

I read Erika’s blog post aloud to Henry and he pointed out that we really don’t have a lot of stuff. What we do have is a lot of clutter. He’s right. The clutter is cluttering our lives, our ability to breathe freely, to think clearly. Once upon a time, I was a packrat but at some point, I became really good at throwing stuff out, sometimes too good. Henry, on the other hand, accumulates random scraps of paper and collects them in different spots around the apartment.  So, we agreed–we need to declutter! Our apartment is in shambles right now because of the bathroom renovation, but when it’s done and we can move everything back where it belongs, we’re attacking the paper, the random odds and ends, and so forth.  On Saturday, I gave away half my shoe collection, thanks to Freecycle. (Seriously, I posted the shoes late Friday night and they were gone by the next morning.)  Henry has promised to get rid of his big, bulky, broken CPU, and his enormous collection of computer wires, cables and peripherals. I’m positively giddy about this. Is that wrong? No, I dont think so.

In other news, I am practically a semi-vegetarian! I have not bought meat in weeks to cook at home. I’ve definitely had meat elsewhere but dinners at home have been vegetarian, for the most part. I bought lots of greens yesterday to help us up our greens consumption this week. And now, I want to share a recipe with you, a very yummy vegan lunch. It was so good that I couldn’t stop to take a picture of it. Next time!

Tempeachy Sandwich (Serves 2)

(Inspired by the Indonesian Tempeh Sandwich at Wobble Cafe, Ossining, NY)

Ingredients

One  package of tempeh, soaked in your favorite marinade for a few hours or overnight (Tempeh is usually shrink-wrapped and found in or near the Dairy section.)

A handful of ripped Arugula or baby spinach or microgreens

Tahini Mayonnaise (I used this recipe and subsituted Nayonaise)

One peach, cut into wedges, then sliced thin

Four slices of a thick peasant bread or 7 grain bread

Assembly

1. Grill or broil the marinated tempeh until warmed through.

2. Toast the bread.

3. Spread all 4 pieces of toast with tahini mayonnaise

4. Layer the greens, using the mayonnaise as “glue.”

5. Layer peach slices on top of greens.

6. Cut the tempeh to fit the bread (I cut it in half, then into triangles to have two triangles per sandwich) and layer on top of peach slices. Close the sandwich.

7. Share and Enjoy!

It’s funny how a little thing like a bathroom renovation can totally cramp one’s style. I mean, life is pretty normal otherwise… except for all the bathroom crap in the living room and the office set-up that was moved to make room for the construction equipment. It’s enough to make the dining room table a real PITA to get to, and enough to make proper cleaning difficult. Alice doesn’t have a whole lot of room to play these days, and some days, the work drives us from the house all day (when there is cutting going on, we bail because of the dust and the noise.)
I’m not complaining, mind you but just merely making the observation that I’m definitely a creature of routine and when something encroaches on my routine, my life falls apart. Or something like that. I’m still functioning quite well over here but I lack the motivation to do much outside what needs to be done. I’m going to shut up about this now.

I’ve been reading Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman (on my new Kindle app! God bless iPhone!). Both my husband and I are trying to lose weight, for various reasons, and we’ve been unsatisfied so far by the various weight-losing techniques and methods. The cleanse was too extreme, a lot of diets rely on heavily processed food, others are too expensive. And really, we are not looking for a diet. We’re looking for a lifestyle change that is sustainable over the long term and allows for flexibility. A big theme lately has been cutting back on the amount of meat we eat. We cut back red meat (individually and together) a long time ago. Recently, I found out that turkey has tons of cholesterol, to my shock. Turkey has always been my go-to healthy meat but now, we are turning to fish and chicken as our protein mainstays.
The basic principle of Eat to Live is that the typical American diet, heavy on animal proteins and light on vegetation, is killing us. Dr. Furhman advocates a 180 degree turn– heavy on vegetation, light on the animal proteins. Though I haven’t yet finished the book, I’m incorporating the lessons into our meals. Dr. Furhman recommends eating meat no more than once or twice a week, so it’s been a challenge to create dinners that satisfying and nutritionally complete. For example, tonight we had burritos stuffed with tofu, red beans, onions and garlic, and a dollop of greek yogurt.

[...... I started this post on APRIL 21st!!! Blogging FAIL....]

1. We have a bathroom floor now. The end is in sight. I still have to squint a little to see it but it’s there!

2. I’ve been pretty good about not eating meat! We had a whole week of meatless dinners last week, and I plan to do the same this week. We are slacking off on the greens, though.

3. We are going to Cape Cod the last weekend in May. Hurrah! See you soon, little cottage on the cove!

When one’s life is in a holding pattern, there’s not much about which to blog.

Bathroom still not done? Check!
Husband’s job security up in the air? Check!

At least we know nothing’s wrong with our car, thanks to the second opinion of an honest mechanic.

In the meantime, I would like to shower whenever I damn well please, preferably in my own house. Please?

PS In the meantime, I am obsessed with <a href=”http://doorsixteen.com”>Door Sixteen</a>. Color me green with envy!

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