"doing nothing much can be surprisingly productive."
Anita Chaudhuri/The Guardian
Yesterday and the day before were pretty hectic, preparing for my grandson's birthday party and then the party itself. Enjoyable, relaxing in a weird sort of way, but yes - hectic.
Today it's a new week, an empty week, and a fasting day, so it's a complete day off from the kitchen, and indeed from anything else, unless I want to stir myself into noble things like decluttering the house room by room. No. It's a day off for me. So what to do? Shall I be like the cat and just do nothing or what something shall I do? Decisions, decisions already. We humans do not seem to be able to relax in the same way as a cat can.
"When I am confronted with a whole week in which I have nothing to do but enjoy myself I do not know where to begin. To me, enjoyment comes fleetingly and unheralded; I cannot determinedly enjoy myself for a whole week at a time." Robertson Davies
Mind you, like the cat in the picture, every day is pretty much a day off when you have retired. You can afford to sit and think and just watch the world go by, with the occasional brief excursion around the neighbourhood. No commute, no stress at a job, no children to manage and no exhaustion at the end of a day. When you retire you have time. Time to choose. Especially when you have a husband who seems to enjoy doing jobs around the house, that you would have done in other times.
Of course there are things that have to be done, the main one for me, being to cook the evening meal, which, of course, is not a chore for me, it's a pleasure.
Today, however, is a non-cooking day, and so I don't really have anything to do, so I shall try and make it into something perfect, as this picture suggests. I read a lot as a child, which is perhaps why I chose this picture, and I still do, although not as much as I should. But I have every intention of relaxing with a book in my favourite spot looking out at the garden. I might even do a tiny bit of that completely time-wasting thing - colouring in - which I am somewhat ashamed to admit I very occasionally do. It's curiously soothing, although sometimes irritating. So maybe not. It depends on how page-turning the book is.
So how have I gone so far with my no food, no cooking day? So so I guess, because, well I shouldn't really be writing a blog, however remotely connected to food. However, I have got into such a habit of doing this - almost a ritual - that I feel that I have failed if I have written nothing.
On the plus side I walked back from our accountant after dropping off some tax forms. This time I walked along Eltham's main road for a while, and then up the slightly less main road up to our little cluster of houses, past the cemetery where the dead are at peace at last. Almost home I took a photo of some flowers in bloom. I don't know what they are but they looked so bright and cheerful at the side of the road as the cars rushed by.
And back home I noticed the pelargonium are in bloom, so I might pick some to brighten up the kitchen. The birds are happily tweeting to each other and the river splashes over the rapids at the back of our garden. Occasionally even the sun shines. So it's a day off. I can make two ticks in my diary for a walk and a blog, and then just chill. No need to think any more about food.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." John Hughes/Ferris Bueller's Day Off (once my older son's favourite film)
The weekend was a busy cooking time - most of the time in fact. It was my time to escape to the kitchen, not from it. The main dish was, of course, spaghetti and meatballs which is a bit of a chore, but the final pulling it all together is all down to my younger son - on the right here, putting the last of the spaghetti into my largest bowl - mountains of spaghetti, with the help of his brother.
However I also made these Leek, cheese and za'atar rugelach from Ottolenghi's latest book Comfort, although it is his co-author Verena Lochmuller whose recipe it is. The recipe is not online, but the link above will take you to a YouTube video, which I think has been put there by a website called Random Lunches. The cake was made by my younger granddaughter - here seen with her two cousins, just before the very noisy candle blowing out ceremony. The cake was delicious. I must ask her whose recipe it is.
So busy, busy, busy with cooking, cooking, cooking then eating and partying, and now a day in which to do nothing. A day off the whole food thing. So I'll end with the rival to our affections when it comes to pets - a dog. Dogs, are different to cats. They are excited about their days off - their permanant days off - like us retirees.
I won't even start thinking of what I shall cook - or write - tomorrow.
THE DAYS GONE BY
October 28
2022 - An oldie but a goodie - Pollo alla Romana con peperoni - and what about this coincidental quote that starts that piece - "a time to interrupt all ordinary activities and get some rest." Toni Brancatisano
2021 - Sauce soubise
2017 - Melbourne's laneways
Time past and time future. What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. 😉