Week 7

After a busy and somewhat stressful week, it was nice to end it with Valentine's Day, a sun-filled Friday with a potluck at work and a nice evening at home. On Saturday we purchased tickets to Europe and I can feel spring coming fast. 

Reading

I finished Flights by Olga Tokarczuk on Friday night and immediately went back to the beginning. I love books that give you a reason to revisit chapters once you've gained a greater understanding of the recurring themes and ideas. I gave it five stars on Goodreads, making it the first book that's earned that rating for me in a long time. It was a completely unexpected read for me and I'm so glad I got to it.

Making

Nothing new to report here, really. I went down a rabbit trail the other day researching punch needle embroidery and made myself stop by envisioning where in my closet I'd fit another hobby. On a whim, though, I headed to Tossed and Found vintage store after work on Friday and hit the jackpot. An estate had offloaded a few bins of really nice yarn, normally $20-30 per skein, and the store was selling it for $6 each. I limited myself to just six skeins and then told my friends, hoping they could get there before it all disappeared. So I'm still faced with finding more room in my closet.

Recipes

I made a pretty boring but good lentil soup with spicy chicken sausage at the beginning of the week, and Joel interrupted it with an extravagant Wednesday night feast of steak with a mediterranean side of eggplant, tomatoes, mint and feta, recipe from the latest issue of Milk Street. Then, as though I needed another cookbook, I purchased (at long, long last) Melissa Clark's Dinner: Changing the Game. I created a rule that in order to cook from it, Joel and I have to cook together. We had success with it on Friday for Valentine's Day making lemony pasta with chickpeas and parsley. 

Eggplant saute

Listening

One night I dreamed I was traveling alone and stopped at a karaoke bar and signed up to sing Frank Sinatra's "Only the Lonely" (it's not what you think if you're thinking of the Roy Orbison song). Weird dream, lovely song. I listened to it the following day. Also, reading Flights created a dark mood that made me think of "Darkness" by the Police while reading. 

Watching

We dug out my copy of Woody Allen's Manhattan for Valentine's viewing after finding out that I do not, in fact, own Annie Hall, which would have been a better watch. It's been years since the last time I viewed it and Woody's romance with 17-year-old Mariel Hemingway's character Tracy will never age well. It's still a lovely view of New York.