currently {1.23}

I always loved joining currently over at anneinresidence. But, the timing was tight. Anne’s wordplay was the first Wednesday of the month, which made for a pile-up of posts on my end. After she had baby no. 2, life piled up on her end, so she let the link party go.

This year, I’m revisiting currently. Just for fun. Same game — ‘5 verbs’ prompt — mid-month this time, when it’s quieter in my corner of Blogland. I’d love to hear what you’re up to…currently…in comments, below!

Here we go. What are you…?

{trying}

…new recipes from More Mediterranean: New Plant-Forward Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen. For the record, I don’t love beans…so I’m passing up most of those. But there’s no shortage of other great recipes here. (And this *is* trying, after all!)

I’ll try a half-dozen+ recipes while I’ve got this checked out from my library, including:

pasta e ceci (a favorite of my old Sicilian landlord in Somerville, Massachusetts)

ultracreamy hummus (because store-bought hummus is meh; homemade hummus is yes!)

garlicky wild rice soup with artichokes (great soup is one of the few horns I toot. How can you go wrong with garlic, leeks, artichokes, asparagus, white wine, and anchovies, anyway?! )

brown rice salad with fennel, mushrooms, + walnuts (I’ll add charred chicken thighs to that.)

earmarking for spring: fiddlehead panzanella (foraging for fiddleheads has been on my radar for years! Now that we live near wet, wild woods, we can scout out Ostrich fern during their teeny tiny window of spring unfurling.)

earmarking for summer: grilled tomato gazpacho (my favorite peak season tomatoes are always the ones with a scar. I seek them out.)

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{planning}

With two school breaks coming up, I’m planning —

Broadway Market then…

…and now. (photos: onlyinyourstate)

: : a February staycation (use our ski passes, explore haunted Western New York with the book I gave Troy for Christmas, visit a TBD museum and Buffalo’s legendary Broadway Market…)

Then —

photo: wvtourism.com

photo: shutterstock

: : a scenic April road trip, wending our way through West Virginia and the Monongahela National Forest, landing in Charleston, South Carolina. While we’ve explored some of the West and the West Coast, a little bit of Texas, and the Midwestern US, the farthest south our kids have been is D.C. If you know Charleston and have a suggestion, please share!

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{watching}

red-bellied woodpecker (LEFT); red-headed woodpecker (RIGHT) photo credit: Shutterstock

…my feeders. To our winter roster of blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches, purple finches, titmice, chickadees, a Carolina wren, white- and red-breasted nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos, and sparrows (of course), I’m adding the red-bellied woodpecker who visited last weekend. He’s not a regular (yet?), but I was thrilled to see him at the suet cake. (I’ve never had luck with suet–darn squirrels!–’til now.) That pinkish red head, just a little softer and sweeter looking than its cousin…well, I was glad to be watching out our kitchen window at just the right time!

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{celebrating}

Twelve new One Worders! (Thank you for coming, if you are one of them!) The workshop went great. I was inspired by the curiosity, vulnerability, and enthusiasm these folks brought to the table. (I had no idea how it’d go over!) The concept was new to mostly everyone — and embraced. So much so that we’re checking in again mid-year and next January. Some words in the pool: Appreciate, Dare, Risk, Simplify, Lighten, Nourish, Create, Focus, and even another Ask(!). Speaking of which —

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{asking}

Since it is My One Word and all, I think this verb ought to show up in every month’s currently post this year. So — here’s one random question I asked today as I squeezed out my last little bit of Skin Food.

The top of my [favorite] tube of moisturizer doesn’t unscrew. Why is that?

I called Weleda to ask them.

Turns out, they’re not trying to rob you of your last penny’s worth of cream! It’s to minimize oxidization. Oxygen degrades quality, consistency, and efficacy; it also leads to rancidity. (Ew.) And a removable top is an open door for water — which leads to mold, bacteria, fungi. (Triple ew.)

So, pretty much? Product integrity.

Good enough answer for me!

(She suggested I cut the tube with clean scissors to see what’s left…like I do when we’re out of toothpaste. So I did. And I bought myself 2 or 3 days! Fungi and mold won’t grow that fast…)

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{and a postscript}

Vote Forward dropped this PSA in my inbox. In case you didn’t catch it, here’s what stamps are up to…currently!

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What are you trying, planning, watching, celebrating, or asking these days?