Astranoir

This Sunday evening I went to my first book club meeting with my friends.  We got together, had some delicious quiche, and read aloud to everyone.  I don’t remember the titles of everything that was read, but some of the works included Madeline, Where’s My Cow, a French poem, an excerpt from Zorba the Greek, an excerpt from Insoluble Fish, excerpts from Pissing in the Snow (a book of Ozark folktales), “Snow, Glass, Apples” from Smoke and Mirrors, and an excerpt from a superhero/zombie book.  It’s a bit intimidating reading in front of other people, but everyone was enough laid back and attentive that I was able to have fun.  We hadn’t previously discussed or planned a theme for our story choices, so it was interesting to see what everyone brought.

This Wednesday’s food club theme is “raw foods.”  I’m making a raw carrot goji cake, so today I went to the local natural food store to get ingredients.  I tend to be a bit leery of going to the natural food store because even though I’m a co-op member, I always feel like people are looking at me weird like I shouldn’t be there (maybe I don’t wear enough hemp?).  Fortunately, today was an exceptional experience.  Both employees and customers were friendly and tolerant of my bewilderment.  The produce manager was particularly fantastic (and may be starting a produce blog soon)!  I didn’t realize coconut flour and coconut oil were as expensive as they are, so hopefully this cake is pretty tasty.  I’m already soaking the nuts for the frosting, and tomorrow I’ll start working on the cake itself.