Inspiration

Living in a state like New Hampshire, there are a few unique things one learns to avoid. Driving north at the beginning of the Independence Day weekend, for example. With the copious amount of Massachusetts license plates sprinkled with a few New Hampshire plates (no doubt commuters who live at the southern end of the state) all driving north to the lakes and mountains, it is folly to think the usual weekend trip north to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning is possible. In fact, to try this is downright foolhardy, unless you actually enjoy sitting in completely stopped traffic (for both interstate and local roads). I write this from experience.

In fact, living in the center of the state means the traffic going any direction is likely to be ridiculous, and therefore, any thoughts of hiking or exploring are curbed. In a way, though, this is a gift. Much like hiking through the woods can relax one’s soul, sitting at home and deciding to do anything but housework can also be inspiring… or at least, provides time to think and work on one’s hobbies.

An enormous amount of time was spent this weekend knitting Sock #2. I wrote about my sock adventure on June 17, when I explained this would be my very first knitted pair of socks. Sock #1 was finished on a business trip last week (gotta love all that airplane time). The photo generated more than a couple of LOVE clicks on the Ravelry discussion board, which made me smile and encouraged me to finish. While I knit Sock #2, I am paying more attention to the construction, to try and better understand how it works.

While I rested my fingers, I looked more carefully through my new book, The Vegetable Butcher, also a benefit of last week’s trip. The author, Cara Mangini, did a short chopping demo at the What’s Cooking stage at the American Library Association conference in Orlando, and her publisher provided a free copy of the book to all of us in attendance. She answered a lot of questions, too, such as how to keep okra from getting so slimy. (Remove the seeds, she said. It wouldn’t totally solve the problem, but would definitely make a difference. Who knew?!).

On Thursday, I received three very large zucchini in the CSA box, so I looked in the zucchini pages to see if she had any unique insights into the easy-to-chop vegetable. None on chopping (that’s pretty intuitive, really), but she does have a great illustrated page on cutting it into ribbons. Very cool. And on the next page, a fantastic recipe for Zucchini with Cumin, Basil, Mint, and Ricotta. Oooooooh! I thought. We have a giant basil plant that needs trimming, and mint is easy enough to get. And I could use Claudia Lucero's One-Hour Cheese cookbook to make the ricotta! With my cookbook-inspired inspiration in hand, my holiday weekend at home was now a success.