These questions come from Candi's blog, Circle of Words.

Cooking Companions

"No one who cooks cooks alone. Even at at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers."

-Laurie Colwin

1. Who taught you how to cook? Where do you get recipes and ideas for meals? What is the one thing that you cook the best? Do you have an item that you always seem to make for pot lucks and/or parties?

Although my mom was not a great cook, and she'll admit that herself, I learned to cook from watching her work in the kitchen. For the latter part of my growing up years, my mom was a single mother raising four kids alone, so she became very resourceful when it came to making her grocery money stretch while still providing healthy meals for her children. My mother loved whole, foods in their natural state. She never bought pre-packaged foods or frozen foods, but made everything from scratch. One year she even bought a flour mill that mounted on the counter. We would pour the kernels of wheat into the the hopper and then grind the wheat fresh. Rather than buy those small bags of chips to put in our lunches, she'd get up before we woke up and make granola and put it into little sandwich baggies. When we were kids we HATED her granola, but our friends loved it. They happily traded their little bags of corn chips for our fresh, home-made granola. She taught me how to bake bread and make cookies and pie crust. At first, my bread making skills were sorely lacking. My sisters and brother used to laugh and say that we should save up the loaves that I baked and build a house with them. Over time my cooking skills improved and my older sister and I actually did a little catering for a local health food restaurant. I remember one day when we brought in our basket of fresh cookies and breads and pies a few of the regular customers were waiting for us to arrive and they were thrilled to see us.

My grandmother is from the south and she is a great cook, but she doesn't share her recipes. I often try to hang out in the kitchen while she cooks, but she always shoos me away. Grandma makes these fishcakes that are absolutely amazing. She will never tell what she puts in them, and my sister and I have tried to duplicate her recipe, but they never quite come out right.

My dad is a very innovative and creative cook. He likes to try new recipes and give them his own unique twist. Sometimes what he comes up with is questionable, but his concoctions are usually pretty good. From him I have inherited my spirit of adventure in the kitchen and the boldness to try new and maybe unexpected combinations.

I cook very simple meals these days now that we are on a low-carb lifestyle. I get ideas from my cookbooks and more recently from the food network on TV. The thing that I cook the best is my Italian herb bread, and my special spice cake. Whenever we have a family gathering or an event at church, I'm always bringing the bread or baking a cake. I also make a mean macoroni and cheese, although I don't eat it anymore I still make it for my girls.

For me, cooking is a labor of love. I love to cook for my family and friends. When people eat what I've cooked and really enjoy it, that makes me very happy.

The Good Life

"The one fact that I would cry from every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us- here and now."

-B F Skinner

2. Helen and Scott Nearing went in search of the good life: "simplicity, freedom from anxiety, an opportunity to be useful and live harmoniously" and they did just that. Helen later wrote a memoir called Loving and Leaving the Good Life. In this book she made some suggestions for living life less stressfully.

Comment on each suggestion (or as many as you would like). How well do you follow each one of them? Which ones do you need to work on? Comment however you would like :)

• Do the best you can, whatever arises.

  This is a principle that my parents tried to instill in my siblings and me. "Always do your best," was a constant mantra around our home growing up.

• Be at peace with yourself.

  The older I get, the more important being at peace is to me. I do my best not to second-guess decisions and I refuse to give in to worry. My relationship with God affords me the luxury of yielding my troubles and trials to Him, who bears all of my burdens and who is always with me no matter what I may be going through.

• Find a job you enjoy.

  Life is too short to have a job you don't enjoy. If you work a typical 40 hour job, the only thing you do as much as work is sleep, so you'd better find some kind of work that fulfills you in some way--something that's not complete drudgery--or you'll be miserable.

• Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet.

  I crave contact with nature because it is God's handiwork. Where I live now we don't have space for a vegetable garden, and I really miss gardening. There is something spiritual about tending a garden for me. We do have some flowers and grass, and a pesky cactus plant that was damaged in a storm but is now putting out several new shoots. I would love to just get away and go camping and hike in the woods and sleep under the stars if I did not think I'd get devoured by mosquitoes.

• Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking.

  This one I've been slacking on lately. Before I had my baby I used to run by the side of the river four or five mornings a week. Now I'm feeling flabby and sluggish. What's weird is that my body misses running because I run in my dreams.

• Don't worry; live one day at a time.

  Grandma used to always say, "Don't borrow trouble."

• Share something every day with someone else.

  One of the blessings of family is the opportunity to share with one another on a daily basis. My children share their infectious energy and ideas and laughter, and I try to share with them the lessons that I have learned in my life that will help them to avoid some of the pitfalls that I have fallen prey to.

• Be kind to all creatures.

  Even to mosquitos??? :-) One thing that I would add to this list if one is striving to live harmoniously and more stress free is the principle of living within your means. I am a very simple person and "things" begin to become a distraction for me. Buying un-necessary things can eventually lead to debt, which adds stress. I say Keep it simple and don't buy crap you don't really need.

Daryll left the house this morning in his dress whites looking very dapper indeed. He had to go to Bethesda to settle some last minute details for his trip. I'm not sure what it's going to be like without him for 20 days. The girls are going to be looking for him, and I'll be doing everything by myself. It'll be like being a single mom again. I know that I will certainly appreciate him so much more when he returns. He really is a great husband and father, and I don't ever want to take that for granted. I remember those years of being a single mother very well. Once a friend was complaining that her husband was late getting home from work. I told her that she shouldn't complain but be happy that she had a husband who came home at all. She agreed.