“Each of us, when our day’s work is done, must seek our ideal,
whether it be love or pinochle or lobster Γ  la Newburg,
or the sweet silence of the musty bookshelves.”
O. Henry

It’s been a Lots Of Work To Do sort of week. Bottle-feeding our orphaned baby goats, planting winter crops, writing, cooking, photographing, more writing, and collecting the last of the Autumn harvest.

It’s good work, satisfying work, but boy am I glad to reach the end of each day and climb into bed and get cozy under the blankets with a good story.

wooden bowl of tomatoes

One of the good things about cooking and photographing for a writing assignmentΒ is that Bear and I have heaps to eat at the end of it. Tonight we got to tuck into all sorts of nibble-y bites, including far too many pretzels dunked in a roasted garlic yogurt dip. It sure hit the spot after getting back inside from doing chores in the cold Autumn wind.

party food

Bear and I continue to plug along writing our medieval cookbook. Today we baked spelt bread rolls over the campfire and they turned out beautifully. We were so excited. πŸ™‚ Tomorrow I get back to writing and cooking for the Spices section. I love seeing whole spices, like this mace, that I’ve only seen in powdered form before. The history of food is so fascinating to me, and I can’t wait to see this book come together.

basket of mace

Now it’s time for me to retreat to the “sweet silence of the musty bookshelves.”

What is the best book you’ve read recently?