A Full Belly and a Feeling of Peace

Today was the first day I felt almost perfectly healthy since just after Christmas. I was able to make it to the gym for a 35 minute walk -- nothing strenuous, but enough to generate a light sweat. Then I arrived home starving and ate some leftover Afghani food (lamb, rice, carrots and raisins) and an orange before getting horizontal with the cats for a little nap. I awoke at 2:30 and popped into the shower, after which I ate another snack of rigatoni and tomato sauce and a banana. It feels good not to be nauseated, to feel hunger and eat with pleasure again. My hope is that this trend continues!

To get out of the house I headed to the library for a cup of tea in the café and to read my novel, The Master and Margarita. While I was there I looked up some soup cookbooks. I wanted to check out The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes And Reveries, but it wasn't on the shelf though it was checked in. However, I happened across two other books. An Exaltation of Soups: The Soul-Satisfying Story of Soup, As Told in More Than 100 Recipes has been on my list to check out, and I found a copy of Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. My cousin gave me a copy of his other cookbook, From a Monastery Kitchen, in 2005. I sat for a couple of hours browsing these books and then checked them out. I love soup, and yet I eat it infrequently and rarely make it. The monastery cookbook is chock-full of seasonal recipes, and he has made an effort to ensure these are simple instructions. The other book has more elaborate concoctions that call for somewhat fussier ingredients, so I may not use as many recipes from it. When I drove home later, I felt suffused with peace and contentment that had eluded me for many weeks. For dinner I had soup -- from a can (Progresso), but it was warm and tasted good. Armed with these new books, I plan on making soup a daily food for at least one meal, and I'll make my very own.

We are moving next Monday, January 29. The packing is proceeding at a reasonable speed, and we are trying to eat foods from the freezer and cupboards. We hope to impose on our two friends one more time next weekend (their packing assistance has been invaluable the past two weeks) as we pack the kitchen and bathroom. And then? Then comes the nesting and unpacking, but I think that will feel less arduous, especially now that I'm feeling better. And since we're moving Monday, this means we won't miss the next episode of Rome! Small pleasures...

[cross-posted at A Mindful Life]