You may recall that I previously shared that my bestie gifted me with this awesome menu board for my birthday in 2020. It may have been one of the best things about the year :-)
Each week she invites the women in The Real Sisterhood to share their menu plan for the week, and I just upload a photo of the board. How easy is that!?
This week, as part of working through The Artist's Way, I am supposed to be doing an exercise called Reading Deprivation (in newer editions she apparently has edited it to more closer reflect what we mostly really need - Device Deprivation). My initial reaction to the suggestion to not read anything (ANYTHING) all week was, "You're kidding, right? That's not gonna happen." It was at that moment that all the things I read throughout the days and weeks flashed before my eyes and I stopped taking the ability for granted. It's not just about social media, it's about blocking the input of other people's words, opinions, creativity, etc from my mind so that my own words, opinions, creativity has a chance to bubble up to the surface where they might actually stand a chance of being noticed and acted upon.
I'm going to do my best to do the exercise in some form. I can't promise it will be a full-on deprivation. I think I will focus on the mindless scrolling... and it's not really clear as to whether or not the exercise is meant to include writing. I would think that if the purpose is to unleash some of our own creativity we would need a way to capture it before it completely eludes us again.
One of the first things I found myself venturing into when attempting to slow-the-scroll was my cookbooks. I needed to plan the menu and I've been wanting to experiment with new recipes. Now technically that involves reading but, in the spirit of the exercise, I think Julia would be okay with this reading. [Note: I'll also likely have to read in order to learn how to do many of the other creative activities that come to mind.] Then I thought, why not post that on the blog? That's where I've been wanting to play with my creativity in many ways. So just for fun, here's the menu for the week and some links to the recipes.
Chicken Stir Fry page 81
Keilbasa and Beans page 69
Tuna Pasta Salad page 259
Creamy Tomato Soup page 259
Beef Barley Soup page page 47
Mushroom Beef Patties page 82
And because I was there anyway, I jotted down some other things I might want to create while I'm spending time in the kitchen.
Swedish Coffee Bread page 102
Apple Orange Bread page 98
Holiday Braid page 100
Ginger Cookies page 121
Peanut Cookies page 126
Spiced Pineapple Upside Down Cake page 139
All these recipes are in the 1997 Edition of Taste of Home. Remind me to share with you, another day, the obsession I have with my personal library of Taste of Home cookbooks and magazines (and sadly the reason why I no longer subscribe to the print copy). Of all the editions, this is my favorite and, in my opinion, has the best collection of their recipes. If I could only own one, this would be it. I hope to crack open the other editions in the coming weeks and months and, perhaps, prove myself wrong :-)
Next week I hope to post some photos of how well (or poorly) these recipes turn out!
Oh, and some day I'll be able to share the video of one of the most outrageously fun things I have ever done, but for now my cohort and daughter has to keep it under wraps. This is creative play at its best!
Have a happy and joy-filled week!