… also, happy Setsubun, if you are Japanese, and Groundhog Day (one day late).
Here on Canada’s East Coast we have been absolutely buried in snow, as has a good deal of the continent, by the sounds of it.
So, we all have time to relax and contemplate the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, if we are lucky enough not to be shoveling snow today.
I wish you all a very happy 2011 and Rabbit Year, and hope you are doing very little shoveling!
love,
meg xoxo
I’ve been away too long.
This summer has been so, so busy! I will write a proper post soon with some photos and words and maybe even an anecdote or two, but for now it will just be this ‘icebreaker’. We can consider this sort of thing the small-talk of blog posts.
What I’m saying is that this post will be just a short one, but I look forward to returning to this space more frequently in the coming weeks.
For anyone at all interested in Canadian Literature, this poem from the Geist website is pretty funny.
“the oatmeal of world literature” indeed. Sometimes, though, isn’t oatmeal just exactly the thing?
I hope summer has been all you’d hoped it would.
love,
meg xox
Today is my 27th birthday. I’m not usually one to make a big deal of getting a year older, but for today’s post I wanted to write a Happy List, to share with you some things that have been making me feel good lately.
What is a Happy List, you ask? Well, it’s just as it sounds– a list of things that make me happy. I used to write them all the time when I was younger and needed to cheer myself up for some reason or other. Try writing one sometime. They’re lots of fun, and your list will change as quickly as your mood does, if you’re anything like me. Today’s list will have 27 items, one for each of my years. 
Happy List: April 16th 2010 edition
1. spring
2. dark chocolate w/ mint
3. herbs (especially thai basil and shiso)
4. Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red
5. Marisa Monte
6. butterflies
I was surprised to read that J.D. Salinger died today. He was 91 years old, so he certainly lived a long time. I think that the main reason I was surprised was because he is never in the press… he gave his last interview in 1980 (three years before I was even born) and was almost as famous for being reclusive as he was for writing The Catcher in the Rye. I said almost.
My seventeen year old self, like many other adolescents, was able to identify deeply with Salinger’s characters; their humanity, their yearning for a more authentic way of being in the world, the passions and recklessness of being very young. I haven’t re-read Salinger’s work in years, and look forward to revisiting it as an adult. I loved Holden Caulfield’s voice, but identified even more profoundly with Franny Glass of Franny and Zooey. The fact that Salinger’s characters inspired such devotion in fans was a source of pain for him, he who most wanted to be left alone, but it has also insured that the genius of his singular talent will continue to live on. That’s the beauty of the written word.
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With love, from Meaghan & the edible library.
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That’s right, today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, as well as the first day of winter. I think that’s great news, because now we’ll be getting more and more daylight-time as the weeks go by, instead of less. The cold weather will still be here for awhile longer, of course, but for me the darkness of winter is more challenging than the cold, and every extra moment of daylight helps.
I read a bit about the winter solstice here on National Geographic.
Now for a mystery:
“It is the privilege of loneliness; in privacy one may do as one chooses.”
–Virginia Woolf, from Mrs. Dalloway, as quoted in the above book.
I recently borrowed this book, Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler from the library. Once I began reading, I found myself enthralled and barely took a break until I finished it. There’s something so irresistible about discovering what other people do when they are alone.
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the jack-o-lantern looks like it is crying!
Well, it is an appropriately gloomy/spooky day here in Montreal. It has been grey, windy and raining all day, and I can see flurries of leaves streak by the window every so often. Perfect Hallowe’en weather.
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We’ve been eating so much pumpkin and squash lately. They are so comforting and versatile, not to mention delicious, filling, and nutritious. They can be used to equal advantage in savory and sweet recipes, and are cheap and easy-to-find at this time of year.
Bring on the pumpkins!
pumpkin cake with chestnut creme filling, ooh la la! it just needs a candle
Meaghan is a bibliophile and budding cook.
autumn
Books
botanical gardens
Breakfast
Canadian Lit.
Chinese
coffee
cookbook
cookies
drawing
Favourite Ingredients
fish
foraging
fruit
fun
Grains
Haruki Murakami
herbs
Japanese
Korean
musings
mysteries
noodles
pickles
Plants
pottery
pumpkin/squash
ramenesque
Seasons
sencha
Snacks
spring
sprouting
summer
Tea
travel
Treats
vegan
vegetables
Vietnamese
winter 
