cookbooks and writing letters.

Today is pretty. Lots of sunshine. A good day to walk the .3 miles to the beach and check out the snow/ice there. I haven't gone yet, but I'll probably go at some point today and take some pictures.

If I could encourage you to do one thing today, it would be to go buy a cookbook and make something out of it. Be really picky about the cookbook you buy. Make sure you like most of the things in the cookbook, otherwise you won't ever look at it and it will just sit there. For my birthday, I got a "Classic Vegetarian Cookbook from the Middle East and North Africa." I love it. Literally everything in this cookbook looks amazing. The main ingredients are some of my favorite things: artichokes, avocados, chickpeas, asparagus, pomegranates, eggplant, and lentils.

Tonight, we're making an Arabian Pizza from Lebanon and Artichoke Tajin from Morocco. I'm super excited. I think it's easy to get stuck in a routine with food (especially if you pack your lunch for work). Buying a cookbook will help you to make foods that are unique. I would recommend buying a cookbook that specializes in food from another part of the world. You can easily find a lot of recipes for "American" food online (such as www.food.com, which used to be Recipe Zaar, which I LOVED).

So there is your challenge for today. Buy a cookbook OR look up an interesting recipe and make something different for dinner tonight.

Question: If you could write a letter to anyone, who would it be?

I thought about this question for a while, and I can't come up with a good answer. I think the letter I would write would be a general letter to anyone who would find said letter. How great would it be to be to have a random letter of encouragement show up in your mailbox from some anonymous person?

I used to love writing letters and sending them to people. I think this habit developed because I was generally out of this city/state/country for almost every summer. I would work at camp, or move to Spain, or go on trips... so I got in the habit of writing. I think I'm too lazy now, which is sad. Lazy or busy. Neither are very good excuses, but it's just not on my priority list right now. Maybe I will make it a goal to write at least one letter a month and send it.