Sunday, May 19, 2002

Sunday morning

It's almost 8:00 on Sunday morning, and the paper has not yet been delivered. I like to get up early so I can read the paper before going to church. Today is Pentecost Sunday, so in the service about a dozen of us will read John 3:16 in various languages. (I was assigned Hebrew.)

Yesterday I needed to get out of my house. I had intended to study, which is why I chose not to go to the Huntington plant sale. But later in the day I made a pilgrimage to the used cookbook store nearby. It's right next to the biblical studies and theology used book store, a very dangerous stretch of road for my wallet.

I picked up a couple cookbooks. Dear S.O.S.: Thirty Years of Recipe Requests to the Los Angeles Times is a collection of recipes from a column in the LA Times that often prints recipes from local restaurants, as well as previously published recipes from the paper. I also got Gormet Every Day, which has some unusual, delicious sounding recipes that are fairly straightforward.

One idea I want to try is preparing lettuce ahead of time. The recipe (p. 163) recommends red-leaf lettuce, curly-leaf green lettuce, arugula, and grated carrots. Wash the lettuce but don't tear it. Then lay out the lettuce and arugla on a length of paper towels, sprinkle the carrots on top, roll up the paper towels, and put the bundle in a zip-lock bag. (If you use one head each of the red and green lettuce, two bunches of arugula, and half a pound of carrots, you can make four bundles.) The bundles will keep in the fridge up to one week. When it's time to make a salad all you have to do is tear up the lettuce.

I also have a piece of terry cloth I was going to make into a salad bag I saw in a store (for $10!). I'll have to experiment to see which way keeps the washed lettuce the longest.

Well, the paper still hasn't arrived. It must be because of the smattering of rain we got last night and this morning.

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