permission

Mondays mean three things in my current life:
1. I may be in a residual good mood from watching Question Time or House of Commons on C-Span Sunday night.
2. The New York Times Review Of Books, to look at.
3. I'll be in a mind-set of looking for recipes to try. (I think that's because over the weekend I may have the Food Channel on, and the desire to cook something interesting but not too difficult enters my consciousness subliminally.)

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Checked some recipes:
Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina
Smokey Roasted Peaches
Greens with Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette
Green Goddess Rice
Roasted Beet Salad
Updated Green Bean Casserole
Crockpot Wild Rice Pilaf.

One thing which can sometimes subtract from this positive mind-set is if I'm reading a few recipes and they mention stuff that I don't have ("cheesecloth"?? Go away I'm not doin' it), stuff wherein I don't know what it is, and when the recipe is labeled "easy" but as I read it I find it so unbelievably fussy that I start thinking sarcastically, "You know if I wanted to perform brain surgery I'd have gone to school for it...I Just Want To Cook A Little Something !!"

The other thing is -- food processors. Several recipes I selected based on their titles and the "easy" rating, tell you to put some of the ingredients in a food processor and mix them up that way.

Am I the last person in the free world who does not own a food processor??

I feel like -- my mother cooked throughout her adult life without any food processor; I have lived this long without one; why, all of a sudden, does a recipe labeled "easy" demand a freaking gadget which I do not own. I mean, I have to go out and BUY one, just so that I can make this dish?

I asked the Safety Manager of my workplace about this phenomenon; he is an excellent cook: and his answer to me was, he does not believe in food processors -- Thank You Very Much!

"I don't believe in them," is what he said.

If he has to mix something together, he either stirs it, or puts it in the blender.

THANK YOU, my man!

I felt like I'd been given permission to proceed as I see fit.

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