recipes

Random Acts of Kindness

I’ve been thinking for some time and definitely after my last post I will mention this to make people appreciate and respect where I’m coming from. I’m going to be writing a little about money soon and I want people to understand where its coming from and that hellonwheels will never be asking or even alluding to a “Please donate here” page. I mean people are starving and countries are still at war, it’s never a good time to suggest I’m suffering too and can I have this ridiculous thing I can’t even do credit too. Can’t read my handwriting. Don’t need an expensive pen.

I will suggest it is always a good thing if you have spare in life to consider helping those who do not have as much or are struggling to eat and help those in need. If you don’t have spare cash, to give time is a great way to help someone.

And if you don’t have spare cash to give, time is a great way to help someone. I cook like a Nonna. A Nonna, if you’re not sure, is an Italian grandmother. I can’t help it. It’s a disease.

I cook like I’ve got a family to feed, and it’s impossible for me to make single-girl portions. So, as a perfect example, I’ll make a large batch of veggie bolognese. I bottle it, and my yield is often eight or nine bottles. Why make a smaller batch?

I’m thinking I’ll make a lazy pasta bake. If I were a real Nonna, I would call it Pasta al Forno.

I have a friend who does a lot for me and does a lot of charity work out in the community. I’ll have him collect some of the food and take it to a men’s group where they get together to share a meal. The men range in age from 25 to 70.

There is someone who, at the end of the night, always asks if there are leftovers he can take home.

On one particularly memorable delivery, I thought the guys would be able to take the food home and have another meal from it. But when the priest arrived to start cooking for the guests, he discovered that the copper pipes had been stolen. So, my delivery became the main meal.

And that’s really all I’m suggesting: everyone can find some meaningful way to help somebody else who isn’t doing as well as they are. Maybe go and find your own way to help someone. And then blog about it and link me.

That reminds me — I’ve got some chicken and veggie lasagne for my friend Frank. I know he can take it and share it with his mum. She will NOT be pleased that I put chicken in it. She is a Nonna. And my friend is way more Italian than I am.

I’m Still Here and Making Pudding

Feeling really flat right now. You know those days it’s all too much and people that should love you don’t pick up what you’re putting down. It’s normally these days I don’t blog because I feel it’s a little too raw. So, I can’t make any good humour about things. Just appreciate I’m still here. I’m doing what I can, putting one foot in front of another planning to die healthy one day, a long time from now.

I’ll likely have more friends and beautifully kind people around me than those related to me. It’s weird at 53, the things I ended up being good at, even one-handed.

Last week I made two puddings the same day. Baked one that day, baked the other the next. Despite not all of Said-Puddings being out of my home, I made another this week. Some of the pudding after trying to deliver to its intended target, twice landed at the post office with the lovely ladies that always are kind and sweet to me. That’s not actually part of their job but I like to reward people with treats I make with love. Just for being who they are.

A friend took the time to visit yesterday while in Melbourne, was in my home while family dropped in for ten whole minutes. Five of which was spent criticizing me for my life choices, etc. She took me for dinner and while she then used public transport to get the two hours home, she kindly took some pudding and muled some to a friend that lives out near her.

Got feedback online late today from family about the expired used by dates on foodie treats, ungrateful the lot of them. No thanks for the delicious lemon tart I considered to get for them from my favourite cafe, costing me more than $10, I got myself one also and shared it with my friend.

I got a message from my friend tonight simply stating feedback on the bread-and-butter pudding. We had touched base earlier today about her arriving safely home and her car starting. For once I got to bed before she got home. Her feedback simply stating, “Your pudding was divine!”

If I could have everything else in life be as easy and productive as my pudding production, I would be a very happy woman. But none of that it seems in in my control.

About a month ago I arrived at my beauticians with a small container of my pudding and I put it in her hands at her front door. She works from home, she exclaimed immediately “It’s still warm!” I told her to take it to her kitchen and eat a spoonful. She came back a minute later with the washed container in her hands. She had inhaled it, then she stated she had half in one spoonful and she couldn’t leave the rest. Never is there a better compliment.

So, can I tell humans related to me if they can’t eat something with a lot of sugar in it, past its used by date to toughen up and eat some concrete. Asking for a friend?