A confession, a success, and a failure..............

I have to admit that I enjoy a bit of a reputation in my family for being a good cook.  While it's true that I am adventurous in my cooking and love to try new recipes, the real truth is, I cook like I play the piano, by the book.   To cook, I need a recipe; to play the piano, I need sheet music or a score.  I excel at following directions.  I've never really been very good at coloring outside the lines, improvising, creating..... I just can't seem to take that leap.  And as long as I'm confessing, I might as well take the plunge and admit that the real cook in my family is my sister.  She can open her fridge, pull out a few leftovers or bits and pieces of whatever, and VOILA, dinner.  And it tastes good!  I've always envied her that skill.

I have decided to work on changing this, both in my cooking and in my music (if my esteemed friend and professor, Dr. Mark A Leach is reading this, I hope he'll be proud)!  Today at lunch, as I was preparing to heat up last night's left-overs, I felt a tiny wiggle of an idea......  Why not throw the left overs in a bowl, mush them up, add a few more ingredients, and make something new?  So, that's what I did.  I flaked a piece of salmon into a bowl, added a scoop of rice, some cilantro, swiss cheese, a little Indian chili powder, some mayo, and an egg.  It looked like this

Next, I heated up my cast iron skillet, put in a little butter and fried the mixture in patties.   I had about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter dressing left over from an asian noodle salad I made on New Year's day so I drizzled it over the top.  They were delicious!  Salmon and wild rice patties..... may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but it was a personal triumph!

I'm glad my lunch was a success because my morning was, in a word, discouraging.  The yoga session this morning involved spending long periods of time balancing on one leg while bending over, kicking the other leg back and up, stretching, bending, lifting, pointing....   It was a misery!  I couldn't keep my balance to save my life.  Lots of work to do there.  Lots and lots of work!  I actually didn't get a work-out at all because I couldn't follow the routines.  I kept falling over.  I was very disappointed in myself because I always had such good balance.  Can this be blamed on age?  Or lack of practice?   If it's the first, I'm out of luck.  But if it's the second, there might be hope!

Tomorrow, I plan to start DECLUTTERING!