1.5.2010

I did some cooking last night. Nothing so grand as what we had on New Year's Day. No, it was a simple thing: cranberry sauce. I guess I have not gotten Thanksgiving out of my system and I was craving turkey and cranberry sauce. I have always eaten (devoured) jellied cranberry sauce and shunned the whole berry stuff. I love craisins, though, which is the odd part. So, there in the Publix produce department, clutching a bag of fresh cranberries, I chastised myself - cast off the inner child and eat the whole berry sauce and, in fact, make it from scratch while you're at it. Yes! Nix the corn syrup and the sugar and the preservatives. If I can cook Julia Child's pot roast, it can't be too difficult. And it wasn't. I even read while it bubbled away on the stove, making the kitchen smell like some fabulous Yankee Candle. D and I had the sauce at lunch with turkey and it was very, very tasty and bright. I made it with Splenda so it was a reduced-sugar sauce. Now I don't have to feel guilty and I can count it as a serving of fruit.

I am currently reading a book RidgewayGirl lent to me. I told her that I was doing a Bronte-inspired read-a-thon this year. None of the books on my list are written by the Brontes, for I already know most of those by heart. They are all secondary works which use the Bronte books as inspiration. The book I'm reading now, Daphne, has to do with Branwell Bronte, who I have always been curious about. One, being the brother of those three sisters. And two, because some Bronte scholars say that Emily and Charlotte used him as the inspiration for Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester. And three, because after painting that beautiful family portrait he then removed himself from it. He suffered from depression and I wonder what incident drove him to erase himself from the family...I am eager to learn more about him, even if it is in a fictionalized format. D and I have been talking about places we would like to visit. If I ever have the resources, I would to visit Haworth and walk the moors and imagine myself strolling with the girls.