Living and Cooking Solo

On preparing to fix breakfast earlier this week, I encountered the realization that it was time for a shopping day.  One of the things I’ve learned over years of cooking for one is restraint when it comes to purchasing perishable foods, which often means running out of or low on some items before its time to shop again. This seems especially true in the summer when garden supplies fill my refrigerator and I’m even less inclined to stock up on things like lettuce.  Still, one cannot live on zucchini alone, especially when the tomatoes begin to ripen at an exaggerated pace.  The good thing is tomatoes can be  easily and safely canned (if you take the appropriate precautions), but not before I eat my fill. This particular morning I found myself without milk for cereal, no yogurt to eat with my fruit, and not one egg to be found in my refrigerator.  What I did have were a few slices of bread, a couple of slices bacon, lots of tomatoes and an abundance of Basil. ...

The harvesting of my garden’s first eggplant this season coincided with a visit from my best friend Rose.  The two seemed to fit together like sunshine and rainbows.  Each vivifying the world around me: Rose with her uplifting, intelligent personality, the eggplant with its vivid purple color and strikingly subtle taste, the latter quality shared by both. I met Rose in 1987 when she served as librarian in a neighboring community.  Ever the feisty optimist, Rose attempted to bring culture to a populist grown artistically anemic.  On this occasion, she organized a book signing by local author Kent Haruf following the publication of his first novel, The Tie That Binds .  Haruf later garnered national recognition when Hallmark® created a made-for-television movie based on his third novel, Plainsong . Rose and I clicked immediately.  I wanted to know more about her and in the asking discovered that she published a newsletter (For you youngsters out there, th...