My Thoughts: A Collection

Hi Friends!

So even though it's only been two days since I posted, I feel like it's been a while since I made a substantial post about a typical dinner recipe as you may have become accustomed to. Alas, this is not the post that will return The Bean to normalcy....but I'm in the middle of a string of hellishly (yes that is a word-in my world) long days involving me being gone 12-14 hours a day and then staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get everything else done that needs to get done. It's been a lot of me running around like a headless chicken hopped up caffeine. And as a result, I've been eating dinners that look like this:

 Or this:

And this:

Or this:

As you can see, not exactly noteworthy...but there have been some exciting things going on!

First of all, The Lean Green Bean got it's first shoutout on another blog!!! It happened yesterday and I got so excited I almost leaped off the couch and did a cartwheel (I said almost, I was far too tired to actually do it). But seriously, it made my whole day. There's something about being recognized on another blog that is super exciting and really makes you feel like people appreciate the time and effort you're putting into your blog.

Here is the link! The shoutout occurred on the blog of a college friend, who also happens to be named Lindsay, and also happens to spell her name in the superior fashion (Read: with an AY, not an EY). We both temporarily lost our minds in college and decided it would be fun to take three semesters of Japanese. Let me tell you....it was not fun. But, she is a lovely lady who just recently because a lawyer and I encourage you all to take a peek at her blog: Everyday Domestic Diversions

1) It has an awesome name
2) She has a cat named Pumpkin, which is awesome in and of itself, but the blog has a weekly Pumpkin Wednesday feature which I love
3) And finally, she provides not just recipes, but links to all sorts of interesting tidbits of information!

In other news, tonight I went to my first cookbook club at the local library. While I was definitely the youngest person there by at least 10 years, the majority of the women were approximately 40 years older than me. Not that there's anything wrong with that.....but it was an interesting experience. The idea is that every month they use the OhioLink catalog to get 30 copies of the same cookbook. Everyone checks the book out and spends the month making whatever recipes they want to try...and then at the end of the month there's a potluck and everyone brings in one of the recipes to share. There is a signup so no recipes are duplicated.

This month's book was:

Tonight, after everyone identified what they brought, we ate. There were all sorts of delicious appetizers. They provide pencil and paper if you want to write down the ones you liked so you can make them yourself. And then we spent some time discussing any changes we made to the recipes. We also talked about the book itself, what we liked about it, what we didn't like, whether we would buy it....There were also some ladies who asked general cooking questions and it was like a nice, informal Q&A/learning experience.

 I chose to make Muenster Cheese Dip with Pumpernickel Toast:

 It's essentially just cream cheese, Muenster cheese, fresh dill and some black pepper. To be honest, I'm not really sure why I chose it. I don't really like cream cheese, I don't really like dill, and I hate pumpernickel bread. But it looked easy, and since I wasn't really sure what this whole cookbook club was about, and I didn't have a whole lot of spare time to invest in making something since I just stumble onto the club last week, I thought it would be ok. If you like those flavors, I suppose it would be good...but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even try it :)

At the end of the meeting, we got the book for next month:

I'm super excited about this one! I have several cookie exchanges to go to and I'm hoping to get some good ideas. There's something about getting a new cookbook that is so exciting to me. I love sitting down and flipping through all the recipes, putting little sticky tabs on all the ones I want to try...which usually ends up being about 1/2 the book! My mom always had shelves and shelves of cookbooks. I loved sitting on the floor in the kitchen trying to find a recipe that matched what I wanted to make. When my parents were moving, I told her she had too many. But really, I was just trying to keep her in line because there definitely isn't room for her 100 cookbooks in their new apartment!

In other news, I'm still keeping up with my Little Things list. I'm finding it hard to just put down one thing each day, so I"m just writing down whatever comes to mind. Can't wait to share it with you!

So tell me:
Do you have a favorite cookbook?
Are you keeping a Little Things list?

--Lindsay--