Springtime and street food

It's a beautiful, sunny day here and it makes me want to get out into that sunshine and stay for awhile. Not much sunshine up in these trees, so I went for a 35 minute walk down the hill and around a short loop on the running trail, just to get out there, and because after a lazy day yesterday, the body was itching for some exercise. It wasn't a lot, but I think it'll take the edge off. Weather says it's only 63 out there, heading for 74.  Tomorrow and the next day are headed for 79! Yum. Unfortunately, it's not nearly that warm inside -- full sweats and wool socks! It'll warm up a little later in the day as the sun reaches this side of the house, and the windows.

Spent some time this morning at the local animal shelter, training for a volunteer job in the cattery. Most of it was dry, classroom stuff, but we got to spend a few minutes with the cats and I enjoyed that. Saw two older, really shy cats that would fit into my life just fine, but it's too early to think about that kind of thing. One is headed to a permanent sanctuary next week if not adopted, don't know about the other. I need a cat like that, especially in an apartment or here, in one room. They're happy to sleep all day and all night, aren't likely to claw at the carpet or climb the curtains. But again -- too soon for that! I still have the 'where to  put the litter box' issue. I start my weekly volunteer period at 8am on Thursday, and while it's early to get out and about, I'm looking forward to it. There aren't many cats right now, but kitten season has started so there will be plenty of those little critters soon enough, and it's good that there are so few cats who need homes.

Changing subject (who, me?), I've found a cookbook that I really, really want to buy. I saw a copy on the new books shelf at the library and picked it up, since the chef is legendary on the west coast. This one is all about street food, from her travels all over the world, mostly Asia, and also from her very successful restaurant in Los Angeles called Street, serving this kind of thing.

This happens to be the kind of food I love -- simple, quick, indigenous food that's full of flavor and authentic to the country where it's found. I could (and would like to) happily cook my way through the book from cover to cover. There are lots of exotic ingredients needed and while I can get them here, I don't have much room to store them here. Still, I'll get it little by little. In

the meantime, I've found two that are good diet foods and require relatively little in the way of unusual ingredients: a curried sweet potato pancake, and a shaved Brussels sprout dish with hazelnuts and goat cheese. I can get into both of those. In fact I bought the ingredients for the sweet potatoes on Thursday with full intentions to cook them yesterday, but my tummy was a little unhappy as mealtime approached, so I didn't try it. I will do so soon, however, and will report back. The Brussels sprouts won't be far behind. I don't think I'll be disappointed with either -- at least, I sure hope not.

On still a third subject, track & field season has begun here in Eugene, at historic Hayward Field (home of Steve Prefontaine, birthplace of Nike). Second weekend for meets, second weekend for Oregon athletes to be setting all kinds of records. Fun. One of these days, I should go to campus and watch, just for the heck of it. Fun to watch and hear about, whether I'm there or not.

So that's my Saturday! Later....