Back in the kitchen, again and gone again

A couple of years ago I wrote about how I'd resigned from cooking at our local senior center.  I was sad, but relieved at the same time.

I knew I was going to miss going in every week, was going to miss my great volunteers, a couple of whom have since passed on.
And I did.
I missed the people, I missed the kitchen, I missed the adrenaline rush I would get every week, racing against the clock to make sure that lunch was ready, right at noon.

And we made it most of the time.  There was a time or two that we were late, not more than 5 minutes or so, but I'd say we made it with seconds to spare, most weeks.

Well, I got back in the kitchen again.
Started in January, and got that lovely adrenaline rush again, racing against the clock, and made it, every single week.

I was the kitchen manager this time round, I set the menu's, make sure we made enough food.  And that can be a tricky little detail, cause I never knew how many people we were going to be feeding.  I  ran out of food a couple of times, well, ran short that is.   I totally overestimated how many people would come in and had a surfeit of food left over.   But that was just part and parcel of the whole experience.

I really enjoyed watching our numbers climb week by week, most weeks that is.

But, it was time for me to bow out again, I just didn't have the time to devote to cooking every week.   Not only was I going in once a week to cook, but I had to take time to plan menus, take time to do the shopping, the prep work and it got to be too much.

I did enjoy myself, the volunteers were fantastic, the food was well received and it was a positive experience.

All good things do come to an end sometimes, and this was one of them.

So...
I'm back in my own kitchen again, experimenting, having fun and have the occasional offering to the Kitchen Goddess, otherwise known as the garbage can.
But that's life.  

Clothes and pipes and carpets...

I think I'm ready for a break, a complete break from my everyday life.

In other words, I wanna run away, go on vacation, go somewhere where I don't have to think about the mundane. 

I don't want to think about the leak that's got water dribbling down a wall, making puddles, and which made me find out just how many clothes I have.  

I did not want to face that.

It's sobering, very sobering to look at piles of clothes and get irritated because you have to find a place to put them so that the plumbers and carpenters can get to the wall in your walk in closet. 

And realizing that you are so fortunate, not only do you have a house, you have a walk in closet stuffed with clothing, more clothes than you realized you had.

The leak was fixed, the wall repaired and the clothes, they're still here.  I'm not quite ready to part with any of them.  

But at least I got them sorted out, and found a couple of treasures I'd forgotten about. 

I guess I should mention that this happened a few months ago, but I'm just getting around to telling you all about it.

Grocery Store conversations

One of my fun things is to go grocery shopping. 

Yeah, I know, but I like it.  But what most people don't realize is all the fun conversations you can have with total strangers in just about every section of the store.  And the valuable information people will give you.
Let me give you an example.   I was in a large chain store last week, up in the 'big city', and was quite frankly aghast at the price of lamb.  I was making some gyro meat, and needed ground lamb for it. 
Have you seen the price of ground lamb?  

I mean it's ridiculous.   In other words, button your shirt or your heart will jump out.    At any rate, I was talking to my friend about it, and discussing buying some lamb shoulder chops and then grinding the meat myself.  I figured I could also dry roast the bones, and I'd have the beginnings of a good mulligatawny soup as well.    We were overheard discussing the benefits of DIY processing the lamb, how it was a pity that it was so pricy, etc.  

The next thing I know a gentleman who'd overheard our conversation about lamb jumped in with some very good tips on where to go for decent, well, almost affordable lamb.  Including one place I'd never heard of.   We had a lovely conversation about lamb, and prices and I found out about a couple of stores I'd never heard of.

I love these random conversations, I may never see these people again, but have gained so much knowledge and a good handful of tips from random grocery store chats.