Swimming Lessons

Lately, I have been in a major cooking rut. OK, maybe the truth is something closer to a life rut!My nose barely above water, as I tread for the longest time. Not really getting anywhere but wore out and cranky. My days off,just being me, a lovely visit with a dear friend, an encouraging conversation with an emerging kindred spirit, realization of the awesome community of women surrounding me and a boost in the arm (yesterday) that these kids are my calling . . . these things have me swimming again. I am not going for the full out around the world swim but I am going to try and make it across the lake. When I am down , in a rut, the first thing to go is cooking. My dear J doesn't mind so much but a few of the older children have a hard time eating frozen foods. I fear the younger ones will come to think of me cooking as a special treat! Today I was feeling mighty fine and decided to test the waters in the kitchen. I pulled out two of my favorite cookbooks and started in with some help from my kitchen side kick. She resembles the Red Hen quite a bit, in that she is really into tasting everything and not so into the helping part. Lots of people love the Moosewood cookbooks for all their yummy vegetarian recipes. In our house we do have a couple favorite entrees and salads but the most used sections of my Moosewood cookbooks are the deserts! So we whipped up some blueberry muffins. Trust me these count as a desert, my J compares the batter to cookie dough. We also made brownies but I do not have a picture of those. They were eaten right out of the pan. And there is nothing left to take a picture of except contented tummies! It feels grand to be swimming along again. Very grand indeed.