Achieve anything in a month.

I didn't make it up. I think it was an author who wrote that her mother used to say that you can achieve anything in a month. I'd like to think it's true so I decided to test it during April. Obviously it says 'anything', not 'everything' so I had to choose my anything. 

I would've liked to have chosen 'learn to play the piano (again)', or, 'improve my Hebrew', or even, 'write the first draft of a novel'. But I know myself and I wouldn't be able to concentrate on a big project outside of work whilst there are loose ends in my life. By this I mean smaller projects that I've been ignoring. They sit on my shoulders, gently taunting and generally hindering my concentration. So during April I'm going to tie up all the loose ends.

April 1st - That side table.

I picked up this table from next to the dumpster on the corner. I've never taken anything from the dumpster before but I've been watching You Tube videos about people who restore furniture from thrift stores and I fancied a go. I brought the table upstairs and there it sat for months with its horrible blue legs and formica top. On Thursday I finally did something with it. 

I had an old tin of primer in the cupboard under the sink. I think it was from when the decorator painted my front door which is laminated steel. I know you need primer to paint over formica so I was half set.

For paint I raided my daughter's craft box and found some white, in liquid form that looked like it would do the job. It didn't look quite enough so I mixed it with the black to make grey. But that didn't look enough either so I mixed in the red to make an aubergine colour. Not what I would have chosen in a paint shop, but better than the horrible blue and formica. 

I primed and then I painted. I should've used a gloss paint, or finished off with a laquer and maybe some beeswax.... I'm making this up from what I've seen on the telly. Bottom line, I didn't spend anything on this project and thus, the top, whilst no longer looking like formica, did look a little dull. And then I found two place mats from Kakadu that fit perfectly on the top.

Voila, one loose end done and dusted. 

April 2nd - Those empty glass jars. 

A friend opened my food cupboard a few weeks ago and burst out laughing. She too had a whole shelf of empty glass jars saved from coffee, jam, pasta sauce, etc... And like me, she had no idea why she was saving them or what she was going to do with them. 

I do use old coffee jars for storing dry goods like rice, barley, couscous, salt, sugar, and oatmeal. One small jar is always in the fridge with homemade salad dressing. In previous years I've decorated jars and filled them with sweets or nuts for Mishloach Manot on Purim. All this does not excuse about 30 glass jars and counting, sitting idle in the cupboard. 

Today I used up all the leftover vegetables in the fridge and some from the freezer to make an enormous batch of soup. I filled seven jars to go in the freezer. Then I made another batch of soup and filled six more jars. One jar didn't have a lid so that was chucked out, and one jar was used for the leftover paint from the table (thereby creating another loose end as I've nothing else to paint). 

That's 15 jars cleared from the cupboard. The rest are sweet little jars that I will have to find a use for because I can't bear to throw them out. 

Nine other loose ends for April.

Editing and backing up the Midlife Singlemum blog.

Editing my digital photos which were done in December but need updating.

Making another photo album for myself as the one I made in December was for DD. 

Decluttering paperwork which is loosely filed but needs tidying up. 

Taking loads of decluttered stuff to the second-hand shop. 

Decluttering and organising my computer files. 

Doing my tax returns for 2020 as I've finally collected all the relevant forms.

Decluttering my phone, especially the phone contacts. 

Decluttering and organising my emails.

It's a challenge, but it wouldn't be a test if it weren't a challenge.

Cooking from the HeART

What do you do when you find yourself in quarantine with a fortnight's worth of free time? For Sally-Ann Thwaites the answer was simple. She would use the time to collect all her recipes, hithertofore on scraps of paper or on her phone, together into one convenient file. 

Sally-Ann (Sassy to her friends) is a great entertainer. Her passion is to have upwards of 10, and sometimes 20 friends around her dining table almost every Shabbat. Her greatest joy is a house full of guests for a party, a barbeque, or a celebration of any sort. So, on hearing of her plan to collate all her delicious recipes, everyone encouraged her to go the extra mile and make it into a book.

Thus began a five month project which resulted in Cooking from the Heart, a 260 page cornucopia of entertaining know-how, recipes, tips and luscious photos. 

Emerging from her solitary confinement, Sassy invited all her friends whose dishes she'd been borrowing for years, to send her the actual recipes. She contacted the chefs of restaurants and hotels to request the recipes of dishes she and her husband have particularly enjoyed locally and on their travels. 

She also dug deep into her memory to recreate the best loved dishes of her childhood. Recipes from her beloved mother, also a great cook and entertainer, and her first inspiration in the kitchen. In fact the book is dedicated to Monica Slater, a lovely lady whom I remember well from my childhood in our community in London.

When I offered to do some editing, I was told there would be about 25 recipes a week for three weeks. No problem, we were in lockdown, I wasn't going anywhere. But the recipes kept on coming. When, five months later, we reached 130 recipes I asked if this was a book of her favourite recipes or of every dish she'd ever eaten. Haha, very funny. These things often take on a life of their own. 

If you're going to do something, do it properly, right? A professional photographer, graphic designer and printer were essential to make the leap from crafts project to coffee table splendor. Fun for us, because every few weeks, in between the lockdowns, there was photo shoot and a whole bunch of friends had to come over and eat all the food. 

Sally-Ann setting the table.

I learned a few things too. Apparently a grazing table is a thing. But don't worry if you've never heard of it before as there's a page dedicated to telling you how it's done with elegance and panache*. Ditto for other more familiar concepts like table settings, buffets, reception food, and fruit platters.

Obviously after all the time, effort and expense, this is not the sort of thing where you print five copies and give them to your closest family. With the help of a sponsor, Cooking from the Heart is being distributed in aid of Beit Halochem, an organisation that supports military veterans in Israel. (Suggested donation £30 and all the proceeds go straight to the charity.) 

There's a facebook page where people are posting photos of their dinners from the book. It's fun to see everyone's choices, interpretations (because no two cooks are the same), and comments. And you can find information about how to get your very own copy. 

I've completed a few little projects during this pandemic, but Sassy raised the bar considerably. In fact, in my Jerusalem neighbourhood, I'd say she won the lockdowns by a mile. 

*I am particulalry interested in panache at the moment, having just started this new blog.