Good Saturday Morning!

By Elizabeth Prata

It's a very frosty morning here in north Georgia. The rain has ceased for the moment and the day looks to be dawning clear, cold and bright.

Here are some photos I took of the frost at sunrise-

I'm looking forward to the day, even the cleaning I've put on my to-do list, lol. We had a hectic week at school, even though last Monday was a day off. But for some reason, shorter weeks are always harder. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we had half days for the kids, due to Parent Conferences. Again, the different schedule seems to make the kids a bit wild. And on Friday we had a two-hour school delay start tot he day due to black ice. Phew.

I went up to The Special Store, my favorite vintage store in all the world, for a little retail therapy. I had decided to buy some throw pillows for the classroom. On Fridays one of the small group reading groups I do is simply reading self-selected books. I tell the kids they can lay around on the floor or sit in any chair at any table to read for the 40 minutes. Other than school furniture, the room does not have anything soft in it. I'd like to get a rug, but for now, I decided to add some throw pillows to the room so the students that choose to lay on the floor will have something soft to lean against.

Of course, I needed to get the same amount of pillows of students that I have so no one would be left out, plus an extra or two in case I receive a new student. That's a lot of throw pillows, at least 8 or 10. Expensive. Where can I go? Yes, the Special Store.

Along the say I'd stopped at the Dollar General to buy hangers and lo and behold they had a 50% off sale on pillows. I bought some body pillows and a throw pillow. Then at the Special Store, 5 more for $2 each.

I also got a pencil sharpener! Wonderful! Mine broke 2 weeks ago and it's really inconvenient not to have one in the room. This rotation I have directions for both my reading groups to do a lot of writing. And there was a pencil sharpener for $5. How great.

I splurged and bought a book, yes a book, for $1: a first edition Agatha Christie from 1959, "Cat Among the Pigeons." I started it last night and I love it. It's not worth anything. I just like saying "first edition Agatha Christie" because I am a book snob.

I also love the dust jacket art:

The cookbook is part of the aforementioned in previous essay a freebie. You get a free piece of art or a free cookbook with a purchase. Last time I'd gotten the "Classic French Cooking" from the famous cookbook series "Time/Life Foods of the World" series. The original hardcover cookbooks in the series contain fabulous photos, I'm told. I read through many of the recipes last night and they are wonderful.

These spiral books are like an appendix to the hardcover main series, with supplemental recipes. The Provincial French Cooking has apparently risen to the top in the series in terms of belovedness and enduring fame. It's written by MFK Fisher and was the first to be published in the series in 1968.

Here's some chatter about these cookbooks:

This has been called the cookbook series that any cookbook collector MUST own, or they aren’t a real cookbook collector! The reason these are so highly sought after is the amazing depth and range of recipes in them, extremely remarkable and noteworthy for 1968. They were discontinued in part due to complaints that ingredients were hard to acquire for the home cook. Not so anymore. And these recipes are just fantastic!

Another woman wrote that these recipes never fail. This article extols the cookbooks, too-

Published in the late ’60s, Time-Life’s Foods of the World cookbook series was a good 50 years before its time. Truly from the golden age of publishing, these books were intended to educate and entertain. Today, the authentically ethnic and American regional cookbooks have a certain charm as the “exotic” ingredients introduced are readily available in supermarkets today—things like chorizo, tahini, hoisin sauce, fresh bay leaves and jasmine rice.

Since the ingredients are available today more and more people are turning back to these old cookbook standbys and a new generation is enjoying them all the more. I don't plan to make many of the recipes, but I like seeing the write-ups, the photos, and the nostalgia factor. My mother had the set, or at least, most of them that I remember.

I hope you enjoy your day whether it's cold or warn, in or out. Whatever you're doing, remember, time goes quickly and soon the kids will be grown and gone, the day will end, the bad circumstance will resolve, the Monday will come! Capture every moment and enjoy in the Lord.