Radical Sabbatical

Ladies and Gents, after 20 years (I don't count the first 5) of either being in school or working full time, I'm on a sabbatical. And honestly, as enjoyable as it is, it's also a little weird. I told myself that I was going to to take this time slowly (maybe a month) to figure "IT" out. Ahh, the elusive "it". Let me tell you, three days in and I'm closer to finding "it" but I would say for a person who doesn't really know how to relax, I've done OK. Firstly, here is the destination location of my sabbatical, a charming town called New Hope, in a comfortable river home. Today was a particularly sunny day with temps in the 70s. No wind.

view from back deck of Delaware River

I have projects, I have ideas, there are things I want and need to do in order to make the most out of this: apply to grad school, make my own cheese, create a new blog on wordpress for my portfolio (don't worry, I'll let ya know) read for pleasure, learn how to cook fish for one, work on my sketchbook for the project, develop my own greeting card line, go to the dentist, learn how to silkscreen with the sun...I could go on for days. But I'm trying to take it one day at a time (it's only day three) and selfishly, enjoy it. Today was glorious; I made real progress on the sketchbook and will be uploading some pictures tomorrow if I can get the scanner to work. Today was also the first day I successfully poached an egg. Sometimes its the small stuff but really I'm quite proud.

atop a salad with lentils, leeks, tomatoes and ricotta  drizzled with balsamic:amazing!

The other thing I did, was ponder and plan uses for the 75 tomatoes on the kitchen counter. From my mother's farm, they are so fresh and sweet but I cannot possibly eat another. seriously, after eating tomatoes in every meal and between, my stomach is dying from the acidity. I was forced to rice cakes for  dinner. no more. But then how do I become victorious over the fruit flies? I can't let them go to waste....Well, thanks to a recipe courtesy of Smittenkitchen, I learned how to roast my own! click here for the recipe. Tomorrow, its salsa time.

the bounty post throw-out.