Vamping

I'm a student of the theater. Specifically, I'm trained as a stage manager. During a show, "vamping" (the repeating of a short musical phrase) is what you tell the orchestra to do when a scene shift or transition is taking longer than expected so that the audience is not left to sit in uncomfortable silence. Basically, it's a stalling mechanism. And this, my friends, is is the perfect analogy for my life during the past few weeks. I've been stuck somewhere between winter and spring; between having an infant and having a baby in full motion; between structure and disorganization; between connectivity and isolation; between sickness and health.

I had to include the picture of my living room from yesterday. I literally laughed out loud when I came down the stairs yesterday morning; I knew the carpet cleaners were coming and the furniture was therefore all stored in one room (after all, it looked like that when I went to bed the night before), but the irony of the parallel between this room and my life in general struck me funny :)

All that to say such "vamping" has forced me into a mode of efficiency and bare bones productivity that hasn't left much room for creativity in the kitchen. I've been doing a lot of my super simple (and not too interesting) meals, ala spaghetti and meatballs or repeating some of my favorite go to meals already posted on this blog. Nothing much worth posting. I did have one success, Italian Mac n Cheese, that was a hit I will post asap.

So.... as I anticipate moving out of this "vamping" season, what am I dreaming about:

1. Popsicles! I made one simple batch of homemade 'sicles last summer and after reading a feature on some creative recipes in RR's latest magazine, I'm exploding with inspiration and excitement about this yummy (and can be healthy!) treat for warmer weather. I've been seriously contemplating which molds I will invest in - clearly a big decision :)

2. CSA! That's Community Supported Agriculture if anyone is confused at this point. We are members of the Harmony Valley Farms CSA and deliveries of our beautiful, fresh, local, exotic, and hyper-organic fruits and veggies start June 1! I can't wait to dive back into creative cooking depending on what the box has in store for me each week! (Last time I checked, Harmony Valley still had shares available if anyone is interested.)

3. Our co-op garden! I will definitely post more pictures of it in the future. We garden along with our neighbors and this year we have doubled the size of our gardening space. The space is tilled; paper, compost, and wood chips are laid. The next time the sun is out, you can certainly find me planting seeds! We do sugar snap peas, 3 kinds of beans, several varieties of tomatoes, probably some peppers, strawberries, greens, purple carrots, green onions, basil, oregano, cilantro, and decorative gourds, oh my!

Stay tuned... hoping to back with more good stuff starting next week!