Good Things

Another snow day!! This is getting ridiculous.

I mean, I know and accept that there is just way too much snow coming down too quickly for school to happen, but I guess my quarrel is with the weather and its craziness. But of course the girls are delighted.

Over the weekend we hiked all the way down to NYC to watch M run at The Millrose Games, an indoor track meet at the armory that’s “the world’s longest-running and most prestigious indoor track & field competition,” according to their website. As usual, I am new to track, so I was too ignorant to understand that I should be impressed until other people started acting impressed. The girls ran fast, but as you may expect from a very prestigious meet, there were very fast girls running super-duper fast. Still, I was very glad that we’d went, and meet itself was cool. It includes a couple of races with little kids all the way up to world-class athletes potentially breaking world records, so if the idea of going to a track meet is appealing to you, I highly recommend it. Also, it was comically fancy. The ushers wore bow ties and there were bars with tablecloths set up like you’d see at the theater. Most important, after recently spending a whole weekend shivering in the drafty and unpleasant armory in Rochester, I was relieved by how nice (and comfortably warm!) the venue was. Cute W and I met my brother and his girlfriend for brunch before watching the girls, and we were glad to see them and especially glad that we’d finally made it down to the armory. M’s been to a bunch of (less prestigious) meets down there, and it’s the first time we actually made the schlep, unlike the many other parents who apparently love their children more than we do.

Okay! I am copying Martha Stewart here with the good things, because I’ve been meaning to tell you about one of my new favorite things to eat.

Although, first, maybe I should back up and explain that I found this recipe when I was doing research on cookbooks, and I was doing research on cookbooks because I am trying something new, a cookbook club. Basically, a group picks a cookbook and then everyone makes a different dish from the cookbook and brings it to a potluck, so it’s a way to be social while also trying a whole bunch of new recipes all at once. My friend read an article about it and posted on Facebook to recruit people, and then we all had to decide on a cookbook to try together out of a list of several my friend suggested, and the one with this recipe also turned out to be the one that we’ll try for our first meeting in March. It’s Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden, and it is currently FREE from Amazon on Kindle. You’re welcome. I’ll let you know how the rest of the recipes go, but for now, here’s a link to his Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan. I’m totally loving this salad. Although, of course, by this salad, I really mean a-very-similar-salad-inspired-by-this-salad. Because I don’t love dates, so I do dried apricots instead. And I love almonds, but I’m too lazy to toast them, although I acknowledge they’d surely taste even better that way. And while I like Parmesan, I absolutely love Romano, so that’s what I use. But the point is, it’s something delightful to do with celery besides putting it into tuna fish salad or serving it with Buffalo whatever. Also, I use up the celery leaves in this salad, so I love having something extra-wonderful to do with the celery leaves I’d often just toss aside, and if we use the stalks for something else, I’ll set the leaves aside for a salad later. It is a lovely salad and a change of pace from lettuce.

Another good thing I’ve tried lately is something I “overheard” on Twitter, and it’s a trick for falling asleep. I’ve mentioned before that I am excellent at maintaining sleep, but sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep in the first place. I sometimes use that 4-7-8 breathing technique, but I don’t love it. It definitely helps slow me down a little, but it doesn’t knock me out immediately like it apparently does for some people, and usually after a few breaths it makes me feel like I need to gasp for air. Anyway, someone else (and I don’t remember whom, sorry–I should be giving them credit, but it’s Twitter, so I wasn’t fully focused) mentioned gratitude ABCs. Simple, right? Just think of one simple thing you’re grateful for per letter (A. . . air? . . . avocado? . . . an aunt?) and go down through the alphabet. It’s enough to occupy your mind and an exercise in gratitude at the same time. And since I’ve started doing this at night for the past several days, I’ve never gotten all the way through the alphabet, Sometimes I’ll start in the middle of the alphabet, just to give the other letters a try, but I swear I don’t think I’ve ever gotten through ten letters without falling asleep first. So if you have trouble falling asleep, give it a try!