View from the Cottage

Too Much Food?

June 3, 2018

Cutest acolyte ever

His mom is pretty cute too

I was pleased as could be that my recent giveaway of Murder at the Blue Plate Café brought that title to 50 Amazon reviews (rated 4.5 stars) which is supposed to be a magic number for Amazon. We’ll see if they start advertising the book, but today I scrolled through those reviews to see if there were people I needed to thank personally (reviews, even two sentences, are so important to an author!). I found one review that said the reader had enjoyed the book, the plot was good, she liked the characters but there was too much about food. I wanted to holler that it’s a culinary mystery, for heaven’s sake. What does one expect?

It may be that there’s too much about food in this blog too, but that tells you something about my life, especially on weekends. Today I spent some time chopping for a fruit salad and a pasta salad with chicken for tomorrow (okay, Heather Hogan Holt, the secret is out). I thought it was fitting that I was chopping, since I’m just finishing a Diane Mott Davidson culinary novel titled Chopping Spree.

I tried to open a can of quartered artichoke hearts, the kind of can with a ring top to pull, and couldn’t do it, couldn’t pull that ring back. Threw me into depression as I decided that I have no strength in my hand, it was a sure sign of aging, and probably imminent death. Well, no, I didn’t go to that extreme, but I was pretty depressed about it. I called for a reinforcement in the shape of Jacob who came out, tried, and couldn’t pull that top either. He started to attack it with the best knife in my kitchen, but a quick shouted “No!” stopped that. He finally used a fork handle to pry the top halfway off. I was left to drain the can and then prize the artichokes out, butchering them in the process. But that was okay—I was going to chop them anyway.

The family had a catch-as-catch-can dinner in the cottage tonight. Christian brined and grilled some seasoned chicken Jordan had bought, along with oven roasted potatoes. I chose to eat leftover chili dip, and I fear Jacob filled up on that before his supper. It seemed like everyone was eating something different, and in the process, they used almost every dish in my kitchen. I now have them washed and in the draining basket.

We were all up extra early today since Jacob was an acolyte at the nine o’clock service—we usually attend eleven o’clock. He was of course adorable in the acolyte outfit. I am always grateful to be in the service and realize that I am part of this huge community of faith.

Another busy week coming up. Wish the heat would abate just a bit.