Cheddar & Apple Salad Bites

I'm back!  I've got bronchitis, and I sound a little pitiful when I talk, but I'm back!  And I promise, I didn't cough on these bites before I served them to my boyfriend for lunch.

The first week of classes went well, but it's funny how your body can just rebel against you and tell you a firm, "NO.  I'm not doing this anymore.  I need sleep, and water, and some antibiotics.  Then - and ONLY then - will I do what you want me to do."  I thought I had a cold for a while, but it didn't go away.  Then I got a cough.  And by Friday, I had a full-blown fever, which is always the winning point in the "should I go to the doctor?" argument I have with myself sometimes.  So I got "on the sauce," as my dad likes to say, and now I'm here.  Thank God I have a 3-day weekend and some codeine-infused cough syrup to help me recuperate.

Also, I finally finished reading a book I've been working on for literally more than a year (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in case you're really wondering).  I'm not sure why it takes me so long to finish books, but I think it has something to do with a lack of time for pleasure reading, combined with a desire to make things last.  Probably more of the latter.  It actually makes me sad to hear people say they finished a book in one day.  Where's the chance to really think about it and enjoy it and let the characters sink in and become part of you?

I guess I do the same thing with food, too - I've definitely been called a food hoarder more than once in my life.  I've let food go bad more than I'd care to admit because of this habit of wanting to "save it for later."  I just don't like to see things go quickly, you know?  I want to know that I've gotten to spend a sufficient amount of time with my food (or book) for my money.

These salad bites are my first venture into my new project, based on the lovely 30 Pounds of Apples and her delicious recipes.  So even though I may be slightly phlegm-y, I managed to keep my promise to myself (and to you) to do a post this week, and I intend to continue.  See you next week for round 2!

Projects. And Love.

I need a project.  After watching "Julie & Julia" for the first time today... as a food blogger, I need a project.  I need something that will keep me writing here, because it's rare enough that I cook something, what with the crazy hectic schedule of a grad student and teacher.  It takes all I have to make something that isn't frozen pizza, I will tell you right now.  So even if I do cook something, I just can't find the time or energy to take pictures, or to write about it.

BUT.  If I gave myself a project, like the one Julie Powell gave herself.  Maybe I could find the time to actually make food that is good for me, maybe some that's not, and maybe... just maybe, I could breathe life into my relatively short-lived and currently dormant blog.

I used to have a LiveJournal in which I wrote all the goings-on of my little life.  I was most active with it during high school, and some in college.  I chronicled every single day I spent in Paris, which I'm so grateful for.  But my last entry was nearly two years ago, and I can't think why.  I have just as many feelings now as I did then - perhaps more - but nothing seems as dramatic or perhaps able to be put into words as it did then.  Sometimes when I was feeling really crappy, I would rant and rave and dump everything in a private entry so I could just be rid of it.  I guess it wasn't too long after Kyle and I moved in together and I could rant and rave to him instead that I stopped writing everything down... Huh.  I guess boyfriends and blogs have a lot in common.