Daily Archive

The grass really is greener here in WI. It may take a long time to struggle out from under first the snow and then the muck but once it does it’s undeniably lush and bright and cheerful, making hope seem like a viable frame of mind. I’ve been on the lookout for recipes that feature spring-conjuring ingredients to try to help things along.

Tonight’s meal was based on a recipe I took a picture of with my phone a while back. I don’t know what possessed me to do that (it’s not really my style, except for that other time I took fourteen pictures of someone’s homemade ripple-striped hat so that I could copy it) but I’m glad I did.

Not the prettiest dish ever, hence no photo of the finished product, but I would make it again and a moment’s notice is just about all I’d need. Plus some leeks and rotini, because I was suspicious of the advisability of fettuccine in this application. Rightly so, I’d say. Everything else came from staples on hand.

It feels so first-world indulgent to make a two-item surgical strike of a grocery trip. At least it’s an exception, not my usual way of doing things. I’ve pretty much got the layout down and can visualize the speediest path to my objectives, avoiding the aisles that are always crowded.

People take more time to shop the expensive aisles, like cereal and the almost-comically bountiful cheese section that is standard around these parts. The cheese selection even in gourmet grocery environments in other states looks paltry by comparison.

That’s what living in WI means to me – the greenest grass and the widest variety of cheeses I’ve ever encountered. And yet I yearn for more.

I would feel like more of a spoiled brat about my (albeit mild) dissatisfaction if Technicolor grass and nearly-unlimited cheese choice were among my long-yearned-for dreams in life. But I think it’s enough that I don’t take these windfalls for granted, especially since I didn’t seek them out.

Glowing rosy pink and lavender sunsets like the one going on right now can join the cheese and the grass on my list of unsought but welcome WI delights.