Cook, Make, Think

Coming up in May there are a bunch of Food related celebrations though for some reason alcohol seems to be the most prominent. Now I am not a drinker but I think I may try one or two of these. Below is a list of  Special Food Celebrations. I have created a board on Pinterest with at least one recipe for each day should you decide to celebrate a few as I mean to.

BTW I just found out that the nearest Farmers Market will be opening on May 1st so I am definitely headed there for some fresh food! If you are in the Peterborough area come on over to Charlotte Street between George & Alymer between 7 AM & 2 PM. Maybe I'll see you there.

May Food Celebrations

May 12 International Hummus Day
May 16 Caesar Day (the drink)

all month
Asparagus Month
Barbecue Month
Egg Month
Hamburger Month
Mediterranean Diet Month
Salad Month
Salsa Month
Strawberry Month

daily
May 1st Chocolate Parfait Day
May 2nd Truffle Day; World Tuna Day
May 3rd Chocolate Custard Day; Raspberry Pop Over Day; School L…

I used to love to dance... for so long it was one of the only things that made me smile but one day I had a flashback to an event in my childhood that took away all that joy.

It is something I wish I could forget again so that I can enjoy dancing again. I miss that simple joy. Every time I start to enjoy moving to the music the memory comes back and I lose it again. It makes me very sad.

Once when I was about six I saw a ballet on TV. It captured me & I watched the whole thing. The next day I went to school and I tried to dance like they did with the shadows from some big old trees. When I had finished I became aware that my school mates and teachers had been watching and they all had big smiles and clapped for me. Sounds great right! It was right up until I fell ill with the chicken pox a few days later. The fever dreams twisted that image of positive reinforcement into a nightmare of catcalls and sarcastic laughter ruining everything I had gained.

I still danced as the years we…

Not much to show for this month sadly it has been one of those months. You know the kind where one or two days you have lots of energy but the rest of the time you just sleep or read because everything hurts.

I have spent an enjoyable morning looking at small things made big throughout Canada beginning with one of two I could remember seeing.
A long time ago I took a train to Alberta to visit with family out there and I remember going through Sudbury and seeing the Big Nickel, it stuck with me and began my interest in such things. Now that I have the time maybe I'll get to see some of the ones I've heard of.
There are also similar sculptures for the Loonie & the Toonie and I think the penny though I haven't found it yet.
The other one I have seen is the Big Apple which stands in Colborne. We pass this whenever we go to Ottawa and we usually stop to pick up a fresh Apple Pie which they make on site. If you have kids do check it out as they have a small amusement park on site as well.


If you are interested in learning about more of these "little things made big" in Ontario check out the Following:
Interesting Sculptures in Ontario Large Roadside Attractions in Ontari…

1) Go to a farmers market (outdoor one doesn't start until after May 24) 2) Finish planting the herbs (terrarium isn't ready yet) 3) Get things ready for yard sale (going through my crafting stuff and sending it to my gd#1 to sell) 4) Clean the refrigerator & stove (going to empty the fridge out and clean the shelves, ditto the stove) 5) Sew a garbage bag for the car (the professor complains so I'm going to make a reusable garbage bag for his car)  6) Sew altar cloth for summer (I always try to be seasonal) (Beltane is May 1st) 7) Complete one chair cover (still looking for a pattern or other idea but will have one soon) 8) Experiment with celery & rhubarb (saw rhubarb in the garden so may be able to pick my own) 9) Try Sangria (I collected a few recipes I want to try, trying to figure out how to drink wine) 10) Everything is coming up flowers so expect to see lots of photos
Those are my plans for the month. One last thing, I'll be talking about sewing a lot i…

I had never heard of this before so I decided to investigate.
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2019 is on April 18 and is part of National Poetry Month. On this day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #pocketpoem.  Poem in Your Pocket Day was initiated in April 2002 by the Office of the Mayor in New York City, in partnership with the city’s Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education. In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to participate. In 2016, the League of Canadian Poets extended Poem in Your Pocket Day to Canada. I had other things to do on the 18th so I decided to share it today. Check out their web site to learn more and put it on you calendar for next year :) Remember Joy Harjo Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the…

I have done so little cooking this month outside my normal go to foods of pasta with something on top and vegetable soup that I thought it would be fun to prepare an imaginary picnic that would work during this time of year.

Of course the first requirement would be a sunny day but if it's going to rain then you will need to find a covered area to have your picnic. Heck you can even just spread a blanket on the floor in your living space and eat on it or if that is too hard to get back up from put a table of some sort in front of an open window and eat at it. The idea is to have the outdoors in your eyes, ears and nose while you eat.

This would be my prefered way but sans the Gazebo a bench in the garden would be perfect.

The food: You can do the sandwiches, salads and lemonade of a summer picnic or you can put a little bit of work into it and make yourself a thermos of nice warm soup, a lavender latte in a takeaway cup (you know the reusable plastic ones) a couple of pieces of toa…

Good words to remember. Easter Sunday passed in a blur due to me overdoing it on Saturday. I spent the day in my bed either sleeping or reading. I am afraid I disappointed my daughter and her family because it simply was not possible for me to be social today so I passed on Easter Dinner. But it will get better I am sure.

GS#3, and his sisters GD#3 and GD#4 came for a visit today. After spending a half an hour to hide a bunch of Easter Eggs it took them maybe 15 minutes to find all but two which were extra well hidden. So we played hot and cold to find them. All in all, it was a great few hours. Best of all I sent them back to their parents high on sugar

To commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his demise at Calvary, Good Friday is celebrated as a Christian religious holiday. The holiday happens during Holy Week and is considered as a part of Paschal Triduum on the Friday that comes before Easter Sunday. Good Friday is also known as Black Friday, Great Friday, or Holy Friday. Good Friday is a national holiday in many countries around the world, especially in the Anglican and Catholic nations. This solemn day is observed by fasting and then with sombre processions.

Up for a little reading check out the web site that is all about Easter & Good Friday It has all kinds of things from the history of these events to some crafts to try your hand at to food you can prepare to celebrate.

I am sorry I'm running late with this up until Monday I was ahead of the game but three days of debilitating headaches and the usual body pain put me out of commission and I got behind. I usually try to have a week worth ready to go in case of that but this swept in and knocked me on my ass.

Anyway enough of that. This post is supposed to be about the lego challenge for this month which was to create a resurrection piece. Yeah I know I don't usually go for the Christian ones but this looked like a real challenge and besides, they called it a resurrection garden so I could have green in it.

Green... green keeps coming up for me this year, in everything I think about, green figures prominently from clothes to creative efforts. Maybe it is time I left my purples behind and start wearing green. I am thinking about it.

Back on topic, the upshot of all this meandering is that I have nothing done so nothing to show you. If you are interested in learning more about the different ways …

Traditional form- unrhymed 17 syllable poem of Japanese origin. It usually has a seasonal reference. The structure is: line 1 - 5 syllables; line 2 - 7 syllables; line 3 - 5 syllables

It is a lovely verse form and can say a lot in 17 syllables. See the example below.

Spring's Way© Patricia L. Cisco Published: April 2018 Winter fights to stay.
Sweet Spring always wins her way.
Flowers bloomed today!

Spring has final say,
Sending Winter on his way.
Her true love is May!

Spring's June wedding day.
White lily and rose bouquet.
Bells ring out today!

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/springs-way

I have not written one in a long time and will not attempt it today as I am suffering from a brain fog this morning. But do give it a try as we celebrate Haiku Day today.

I love seasonal decor and I change certain things every month.

The colour scheme for April is a little difficult because it's mainly about rain and mud which makes it a palette of grey and brown with a dash of green and a dash of sky blue.

Finding artificial flowers in grey and brown is difficult but it can be done you just have to visit a lot of Dollar stores and thrift stores

If I could afford it I would buy a set of Chair covers or seat cushions in a colour scheme for each month or at least each season. I am looking for a pattern like the one to the left that might work because the yarn idea is too labour intensive. The other option would be just to paint them but I like the idea of chair covers because I can change them whenever I get bored or the season changes

I am working on creating a couple of wreaths for my door so I can change them out too. I love magnetic hooks and I am glad the landlord used metal fire doors on our units. It makes changing the decoration on my front do…

The Professors brother was very into Jazz music when I lived there and he had tons of CD's but I never listened to them because they belonged to him and I was a bit of a mouse then. It did, however, initiate a minor interest in the music and I did listen to it a bit but it was not something I could appreciate then. Today I decided I was going to do a bit of exploring into the music style and see if I could find an appreciation for it beginning of course at Wikipedia to learn a little of it's history then look up a musician called Miles Davis who I have been told is the greatest Jazz musician ever.

Oh about the travel thing yesterday, it appears I am going to have to go to the depot to find out what buses leave from there and get the Go Schedule from the bus station next door. I'll be doing that later today.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program:

Jazz in a fairly new music style beginning in the 1910s in New Orleans. It came out of the African- American community so i…

There are several ways to interpret the word reach: there is the everpresent physical one that tells you to stand tall and reach as high as you can to stretch and lengthen your spine; there is the emotional one that tells you to reach for the things that you need, don't give up.; there is the mental command to reach out and become all that you can be; and finally there is the one that combines them all that tells you not to be afraid and to reach out for your goals, to strive, to dream.

Reaching for our dreams seems to diminish as we allow our illnesses and age to persuade our minds that it is too late, we are too old or too broken.

I know I've been there and will return there again probably when the cold weather comes back, for a Canadian that grew up on the snow belt you'd think I would have come to terms with the cold but I never have, and it always sends me into a depressive cycle.

But when the snow is mostly gone and the skies are sometimes blue that is when my energy…

Part 2 of a three-part series on eating well. Breakfast like a King is here.

Lunch like a Prince... what does this mean exactly? Beyond the obvious that lunch should be smaller than breakfast what is the most important thing about this meal?

Well since lunch is in the middle of the day (more or less), the first thing we have to acknowledge is that we have used up all the energy that we got from our healthy breakfast so now we need more energy for the remainder of the day or at least until dinner time.

It needs to be solid energy that will last a long time so this is definitely not the time for something heavily sweet or simple carbs that get burned up in an hour leaving you in worse shape than you were before you ate them

I spent a lot of time looking for answers as to what should be included in a healthy lunch. One of the first things I found that made sense was that it should include at least three food groups.

Food Groups are vegetables, fruits, grains, protein and dairy/calcium-ric…

"NATIONAL DAY OF SILENCE
National Day of Silence is a student-led movement to protest bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and those who support them. The Day of Silence brings illustrates to the schools and the colleges how the intimidation, name calling and general bullying has a silencing effect.  Participating students take a day-long vow of silence." Break the silence: bullying from grade school to high school and beyond is a major issue. It isn't easy being different and when people we think should understand don't the issue becomes magnified. This applies equally to other groups as well including those who have mental health or physical differences. Bullying begins at home and can continue into adulthood and even old age.

There is still a lot of "don't ask don't tell" in many countries. You would think that it would not be an issue in our first world countries but it is. Many of our children face …

Some few events in the last 30 odd years have turned me down right cynical and untrusting. I wonder if it is possible to change that, turn the clock back as it were to when I was able to give everyone the benefit of a doubt.

April is the Month of Hope did you know that? When I found the graphic above I wanted to write about hope and how important it is in daily life, the problem is how can I write about something I don't feel.

Like most of you I suspect, I live from day to day not really caring about much of anything except getting through the day without too much pain or energy. It is hard to foster hope when you don't feel you have anything to hope for. And how pray tell are you supposed to foster hope in others when you have none of your own.

Well I thought long and hard about it and this is what I came up with:

Hope is what I have when I look at my daughter and her sons and see them thriving despite being on the wrong side of the poverty line with some serious health issu…

If you have ever checked out National Day Calendar you will have noticed that every day celebrates at least one type of food. I gathered together some recipes last month for the food days this month.

Check out the board to see what is coming up. I've added at least two recipes for each day.

Continuing in the Pin it, make it tradition I pinned these two recipes then made them with some mixed results.

Below that is a quick look at the health qualities of the fruit (lime) and the vegetable (avocado) that I am experimenting with this month

Cooking Experiments April 1-10The Recipe's I TriedNailed it or A FailChanges ECT
Guaca-hummus by Copycat
my version- I'm calling it a fail but it did taste goodI used greek yoghurt instead of the olive oil, lime instead of lemon and no other seasonings.

I used a can chickpeas and decided to mash them rather than use the processor, that was my big error so instead of smooth it was kinda lumpy
Poached Salmon in Coconut Lime Sauce by RecipeTinEats
…

After yesterday I needed something fun to think about so when I saw this in the National Day Calendar for today I built a board on Pinterest and thought I'd share some of the names those lists gave me.

My five favourites:


What's Your Bitchy Name: Wicked SweetheartWhat's Your Cupid Name: Sparkly Snicker-dooWhat is Your Star Wars Name: Jar Jar SoloWhat's Your Turkey Name: Hot Bunns Pie HeadWhat's Your Disney Name: Queen Ice Cream Go have some fun, there are nearly fifty to choose from, find a new name for yourself just for today.

We all have our secrets this is one of mine. I am a Sexual Abuse Survivor. Here in Canada, there is a compensation fund for that if you can prove it and it meets their criteria. My abuse did not. Because all of the males were within 10 years of my age at the time it is not considered sexual abuse.

I do not agree and I think that needs to change. You can not tell me that as a three-year-old with her panties around her ankles with a 10-year-old boy is not a victim of sexual assault. I refuse to believe that a 13-year-old who was jumped and pulled into the brush by a 16-year-old was not a victim of sexual assault. It just seems wrong that since there was no penetration and the male in question was only a few years older than me that coming into my room and rubbing himself between my legs is not sexual assault.

I am a second generation sexual abuse victim, my mother was abused by the father of two of the three males mentioned above and my daughter was assaulted by the last one before he …

I've been crowing because I have begun to lose weight after so many years of trying to do so. The first time I saw 215 on the scale I did a major happy dance I had lost my first 10 lbs. Today I am ???

My goal is to lose 1-2 lbs a week and I am hopeful this will happen. As a reward, I booked myself into a spa here for a 3 hr Afternoon Delight which included a facial, a mani and a pedi.

Now that may seem a little extravagant to you but such self-care is actually good for you, for your mental, spiritual and of course physical health. It doesn't need to be an every week thing or even every month, this is the first time I've been to the spa for anything other than my annual haircut in 5 years.

For many years I've explored the many ways to become healthier what I did, had to do to get any results was to go back to eating as I did as a child. Oh, & incidentally I found out that my mother had been feeding us according to the Canadian Food Guide even though she didn't …

I was introduced to writing poetry in my 13th year. My English teacher read something I wrote for class and suggested that I was very talented. I suspect now he was only doing his job to teach me to express myself but whatever it was it set me on a road of learning about poetry and writing it. A few years back I joined a web site called Writing.com with the express purpose of getting a short story that had come to me in a dream written down.That didn't work out so well though I did manage to get a start on it.

An even older desire was to write a book containing my poetry so I set out to write 52 poems each in a different style. As I worked through it, it became a teaching book as much as a display of my writing skill. Unfortunately, I never did put it into any coherent shape and it has sat on this web site for years. Recently I began to move it from Writing.com to my Writing Journal here on blogger.

I figured if I had it handy then I wouldn't have to worry about paying the fe…

By now you have figured out that I pin a lot of stuff for ideas and reference today I am challenging myself to make something I pinned. The problem is there are so many great ideas I'm not sure which one to do. I decided to put down 10 ideas and just begin at the top and see how many I could get done in one month. As I complete each one I'll post them here so you are going to have to keep checking to see how far I got.

Pinned Mine Mosaic used what I had. I think it turned out pretty good Sewing It does not look as soft & flowy as the one in the picture but that is because of the fabric I used. I will try again with a less stiff material.
EmbroideryMine

Window DecorationMine
Breakfast
Chickpeas & avocado with a little lime & greek yoghurt makes a great spread for toast. This was breakfast this morning
MovementMine
Spring Nails
I went with lavender rather than the multi-colour but lavender is a great colour for spring

Something Fun OutsideMine

ReadingThere was no way…