The Rest of the Story

"He who wants to change the world should already begin by cleaning the dishes."  Paul Carvel

So, I'd really like to know more about this Paul Carvel who talks about cleaning the dishes.  Does he, Mrs. Carvel?

Not able to find an answer to that, I decided to tell you a little about the rest of my story.  This impulse was brought about by perusing other food blogs and marveling over the myriad of professional looking pictures that display, in a dozen or more images, all the steps that would lead to the creation of each and every dish.  I might have whipped myself into a state of shame over my own meager photo offerings, but one of my many mantras, pulled up for just such occasions is, "Imitation is suicide".  That and, "Be yourself, everyone else is taken," kind of sum up my ability to stay comfortable with my dishwasher-less kitchen and farmhouse kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen remodeling, after we bought our 100 year old home, consisted of painting the kitchen 2 shades of purple and stenciling pithy sayings on the walls.  A modern, remodeled kitchen would have only set us back a bundle but would not have improved my cooking skills.  And so I work in the comfy space that I have, tweaking and tasting, and washing mountains of mismatched dishes and cookware.   

This morning, while a blizzard swirls around outside, I roasted a batch of Beets and Tatters and cooked up a pot of Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage.  I didn't have the raisins that are called for in the red cabbage recipe so I substituted dried cranberries, calling to mind the counsel of Miss Piggy, "You've got to go with what you got!" 

Loveya
The Mom