Wonky on Wednesday

Had my second chemo treatment in this series and have been  sort of  wonky ever since  we got home, asleep more than awake so will have to make this a short blog entry. Or not.  Sometimes I talk too much even when tired.

Yesterday was rainy and windy all day so  didn't get any work done outside except to check on the new seedlings and other plants in the greenhouse and refill the bird feeders. I had gotten most of the   living room carpet vacuumed when I  made a wrong twisting move and threw my hip out, so didn't get much more done in the way of housecleaning, either. I did get some ironing down and  some cooking, thanks in part to the lovely surprise that came via UPS yesterday. But  by the time we'd finished supper I was too tired to  do my usual blog post and went to bed early. So here's part of what I would have posted, had I been awake enough to do so :-)

When we   were watching the  Jacques Pépin cooking show, Heart and Soul, on  our local  Public Television channel a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had  quite a few  of Jacques' books, but not the one for that series. Unbeknownst to me, Mr. G  went online and ordered it. It came yesterday.  He   wrote on the  box, "Happy Anniversary, Birthday, and Maybe Merry Christmas." I  didn't quite know how to take that, so I asked him if he gave it to me early because he  thought I wouldn't live another  few months  to celebrate our anniversary or my birthday, but he assured me that was not the case, that he just wanted to get it while he was thinking about it and then not forget where he'd put it. I can believe that because his mother had a habit of buying birthday presents for people, hiding them away and  then forgetting where she'd put them. I can't remember how many times  she told me she'd bought me a birthday present but  forgot where it was. I got a lot of birthday presents four months late,  usually on Christmas. Since I'm convinced the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree, I accept Mr. G's explanation.

Here's a pic of the title page from the  cookbook. There are wonderful recipes, beautiful photographs of the food, and of Jacques  enjoying food and fun with his friends and family. I just discovered that Jacques Pépin is also an artist in  a medium other than food- the  whimsical  roosters are just some of his original artwork scattered throughout the book.

I used a recipe for velvet spinach from the new book.  I liked that very much.  Mr. G not so much- he says  he prefers  my  old recipe for creamed spinach. Oh, well.  The rest of our meal  was prepared using  recipes from another Pépin cookbook, More Fast Food My Way.  The Pork medallions with grapes in  pomegranate sauce were oh, so tender and delicious.  And the Apple maple topping served over butter pecan ice cream- what can I say?! Here's a pic of the apples bubbling away on the stove.  Can you smell that delicious scent of  maple syrup, apples and  just outright deliciousness- which I'm convinced has a  scent all its own.