Making Time To Moodle

"Develop Interest in life as you see it; in people, in things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself."
~Henry Miller

Spending time regularly on your own, pondering on and thinking your own special thoughts often seems an incredible indulgence. Spending time on your own to explore and nurture your own God given talents seems downright impractical most of the time. We lead such busy lives and there never seem to be enough hours in the day as it is, let alone to find some that we can indulge ourselves in having fun just for ourselves! Fun just for having fun's sake!

Somewhere in the last twenty years or so, we seem to have misplaced a very essential part of ourselves . . . our Joi de vivre, as the French would say . . . our sense of zest and exuberance. We've spent most of that time nurturing family or careers, both of which, while very important, are not the be all and end all of what can help us to lead fulfilling and zestful, happy lives. There seems to be a piece of the puzzle missing, that heartfelt pleasure that comes when we discover something that brings us keen pleasure. Something that belongs to only us and is uniquely ours. Selfish as it may seem . . . we all need a hobby!



But how do you discover what that may be? The writer Brenda Ueland tells us our imaginations need . . . "moodling" . . . or in other words, we need to take the time to putter, dawdle, idle and daydream in order to flourish and discover which solitary pleasures bring us the most joy.

I, for instance, had not picked up a paint brush in many years, up until just a few months ago. My days were largely spent in work at work . . . which means cooking and cleaning up at the big house . . . and then I'd get home here, to the cottage, and I'd do it all again, cook and clean . . . with a little bit of telly and walking thrown in for good measure. Don't get me wrong here, I do enjoy cooking and cleaning, well at least the cooking bit . . . whether it be up there or here at home . . . but there seemed to be a little something missing.



Before I became a working woman, I used to spend quite a few hours every day fulfilling my creative nature . . . knitting, sewing, embroidering, painting, putting up preserves . . . to name but a few things. I used to really enjoy those hours spent and there was a wonderful sense of pride in each one of my accomplishments . . . these were activities that were uniquely my own, singular pleasures that brought me great joy and fulfillment. Rewarding reveries. It had been a long time since I had spent any time at all in pursuing any of these activities.

and so . . .



One afternoon I picked my paintbrushes up again, and I painted a silly little picture. It was just a little chef's head and a few lemons. Quite simple, nothing too exciting. "That's quite good." said my Todd. I looked at it and thought to myself, actually . . . it is not too bad. I thought about how much joy I had gotten out of just those few minutes that it had taken me to paint it and how much I had missed doing something just like that. I realized right then, that I really needed to take time out once in a while to pursue this solitary pleasure and feed the creative me that had been left idling for so long . . . and so now I regularly take out my brushes and I paint. I can often be found doodling sketches when I find a stolen moment, and I have a huge stack of ideas and pictures that are just waiting for me to make them real and tangible. And . . . I am loving every minute of it.

I realized that once my hobby, which was cooking . . . had become my job . . . I really had needed to find something else to take it's place . . . and, as much as I still enjoyed doing it . . . it was now work and no longer play. We all need to take some time to play, time to explore our interests and singular pleasures. "Me" time. "Play" time. It's not selfish. It's not indulgent. It's a part of what brings our life into harmony, and helps to make it richer and more rewarding. As children we knew how to play . . . now, as adults . . . we need to remember how to play, and then sometimes we need to . . . play.



I've been really busy this week putting the finishing touches on my cookbook. I have some big decisions to make regarding it. Photos or no photos is one of them. I have a folder just bulging with really nice food photos that I have taken but am wondering if I should include them. Including them means that the book will cost more . . . a lot more . . . not for me, but for the people who choose to buy it. I know myself, I find a cookbook infinitely more interesting when it includes delicious looking photos. It's nice to be able to see the finished project and get some idea of what it should look like. So, here's my question to you all . . . Would you settle for a cookbook that was stogged full of lovely recipes, but no pictures . . . or would you rather have a cookbook that had fewer recipes but lots of lovely photos??? I don't know . . .

Here's a delicious snack that can really be quite low in fat, depending on whether you choose to use low or no fat cream cheese instead of the full fat one. There's not a lot you can do about the sugar content though. It's using real sugar that makes this taste all caramel like and indulgent. Apples are healthy and very good for you . . . you know . . . an apple a day and all that . . . combining them with a luscious caramel like dip, well that's just genius!



*Caramel Apple Dip*
Makes about 1 ½ cups

One might think that this would be too sweet, but it is lovely and mellow and beautifully caramel-like. It’s a bit like having a caramel apple without any of the fuss! Actually I retract that, it’s even better than having a caramel apple!
1 250g package of cream cheese, softened
½ cup soft light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
½ tsp vanilla
5 to 6 apples washed well, cored and then sliced**

Put the cream cheese into a bowl and then stir in the sugars and vanilla, mixing it all in very well until smooth. Scoop into an attractive serving bowl and then cover and chill for several hours before serving with the sliced apples for dipping. I like to use a mixture of good eating apples, such as tart Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious or like we had yesterday, Pink Ladies. I am thinking sliced pears would also go very well with this dip.

**If you are not serving the fruit right away and you are cutting them up a bit ahead of time as I did yesterday, squeeze the juice of a lemon over the pieces and give them a bit of a toss to coat them all with it in order to keep the fruit from turning brown.