She left out the most important thing of all. Not what what she did,or what she was going to do,but what she was doing right then.

Marda, this is a language use thing I suspect. I am about to type the next sentence but it is part of what I'm engaged in right now, which is writing to you.

Here's that next sentence I just spoke of not fifteen seconds ago. So although I said I was about to do it the actual doing of it is close enough in time, I feel, to make it something I'm going right now.

Send more pictures of Digby. I love that pup.

To me her quote translates to "Be here now" and look forward, not rest on your laurels (or sofa in my case). I don't have many laurels but I have some extra closet and bookshelf space I'm enjoying after weeks of culling. It keeps me motivated with frequent breaks of course to reread a 1908 Ladies Home Journal...or to browse thru LaRousse Gastronimique one last time. I have to keep telling myself "You can find this info on the net". LOL I'm afraid I'm going to suffer from "empty shelf syndrome" and end up buying more books. josh

Josh you can browse through the Larousse Gastronomique endlessly! DH's old copy is so beat up that it begins with the B's, so a couple of Christmases ago I bought him a new copy. He turned immediately to his favorite entry which was "Rutabaga, Swiss Turnip - Turnip with yellowish flesh, edible but seldom used in France as foodstuff" only to find that it didn't exist in the new edition. Therefore we still have the old copy on the shelf, now held together with duct tape!

That is why I have never updated the copy of Joy of Cooking my mother gave me, doubtless an auction find. She took it upon herself to give one to every female in our family, but the younger gals got the newer versions and some very important things about basic foods have gone missing in them. The issue I have is older than me, and I am slightly younger than dirt.

Swiss turnip? You have me LOL right now, because the British term for them is Swede. Seems like each country blames them on another. I wonder what the Swedes call them?

Andie, I'm afraid I'm more of a reader than a cook but I love the history of spices, herbs, all foodstuffs and ways of preparing it. It ties in nicely with the history of gardening too...and exploration and colonies...just never ending threads to follow.

Suzy, your lament about the excision of favorites from Joy of Cooking is how I wound up with my 1964 edition, then a 2-volume paperback edition in 1974, the latest a 2006 edition...LOL I still use my 1964 edition most and like it best. josh

My go to cookbook is the 10th edition of the Fanny Farmer cookbook....think it was put out in 49? maybe 50...that page is gone!
My mother gave it to me at a wedding shower, complete with a hand written silly poem she wrote....and that page is still there...held together with tape and white glue down the spine. It gives directions for preparing turtle and how to remove the claws, to how to prepare a beef tongue ( don't forget to remove the small bones at the base).

Hmm....sometimes what I have done weighs very strongly on what I am about to do....
Linda C