The way she looked, the color of her hair

She’s not there. At least that is what Carlos and the boys are saying on the little office music player / spy machine. Serious guitar work is involved.

Years ago when my daughter moved out on her own, I typed up a bunch of our favorite and everyday recipes. Many items were things I just made, no recipe was previously ever written. I put the recipes on 8x11 sheets and slipped them inside plastic protectors in a loose leaf binder. I made one for us too. In all honesty, for most things I cook I use the recipe for oven temperature and cooking times. I know most of the ingredients.

Over the years the wife and I have tucked recipes, cards, notes and magazine pages into the pockets of the binder. Mostly she has. Some of those dishes have become current favorites.

We had a bunch of new binders and cover sheets we cleaned out of the boy’s desk when he moved out, so this week I started cleaning up the every day cookbook. I have started typing up some of the stray notes and cards we use. Some of the scrap paper recipes we have never made. They are going into the trash. Others are being modified. In all, a new binder is in order.

Right now binders, plastic cover sheets and recipes are spread in piles on my office floor. What should have been an afternoon undertaking has stretched three days as the wife vacillates in typical fashion over what to include and what not to include. I find this vaguely humorous since I do 95% of the cooking. I was done with the project and just offered her a chance to include any desserts or baked goods she wanted to add, like her chocolate chip cookie recipe (the original concept was to give my daughter recipes for stuff I always cooked. I don’t bake much, so few desserts were originally included) . So it goes.

Here is a musical interlude for your Saturday:

Here are The Zombies doing the original: