Tonight I Swore Like a Sailor

And I challenge you to make this recipe and not do the same when you sit down to eat it.

I love to cook. I adore it, but I have been terrible at finding the time to do the things I love. Tonight I got home and began pulling things out of the fridge/freezer and my cupboards. I noticed I had both white wine AND carrot juice in my fridge (what are the chances?), and this recipe for a seafood hot pot started to burn hole in my stomach. I only had prawns and cod, but I felt ok with that.

I love movies like “No Reservations” and “Julie and Julia” that make the simple act of sitting down to a plate of food look like the most pleasurable experience. I love the sensuality and intimacy of food.

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Everyone has to grocery shop. Everyone has to eat. Tonight it was so gosh darn enjoyable. I do not hesitate to say that this is one of my top favourite dishes I have ever made.

It triggered a memory. It reminded me how much I love the simple pleasure of preparing food, and how a following a really great recipe can be such a great way to unwind after work.

Almost.

Tonight I am thankful for getting 1of 2 final drafting projects done ( when I manage to complete the second- I will officially be on winter break). And I am thankful for the glass of wine and 1 am bath that followed a looong day stooped over the drafting table.

Gratitude.

That’s it. Left another decade in my dust this morning. The joys of a December birthday when you’re a student means that there’s homework and studying for finals to be done before (and probably after) the birthday dinner. Been really reflective lately. Really reflective, and the common thread tying all my thoughts together is the act or practice of gratitude. I could go on and on and on about it, but it boils down to this: I am beyond blessed and I am shamefully ungrateful.

In a world where so many things go invisibly right- taps bring clean water, shops serve clean food and electricity switches bring electricity- it is ironically much easier to focus on the things that go wrong.- “Enough” by John Naish

In a culture that leaves me constantly striving to DO MORE, BE MORE, GET MORE- I forget to stop and say thanks for all the great things in my life (family, health, friends, food, shelter). Gratitude in todays culture has to be fought for- cultivated through choice and practice. If there’s a goal to be strived for in my 30’s- it’s to become an unbelievably grateful soul.

This video is worth a watch. It speaks volumes about not giving up, but I also think it speaks volumes about using what we DO have and squeezing every last drop out of it. I believe beautiful things can come from not only be grateful in thought, but also in action (making the most of what we’ve been given).

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie