Meatless March

For the past year, my backup dancers and I have treated ourselves to occasional themed celebrations. Remember our Harry Potter "party" ? Our Mocktoberfests ? Our Not-Christmas ? The recreation of our wedding ? We try to keep ourselves entertained and avoid languishing, which is one New York Times author's shockingly apt diagnosis of a feeling I've had for months  - see the description at the end of my Feb. 15 post . Some weeks ago, my small backup dancer requested a Chocolate Party, so we did it this past weekend. We made a garland from fabric scraps and toilet paper rolls that was intended to look like wrapped sweets, and we dressed in brown. We watched some educational and some  entertaining  short videos. We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Brainstorming for the party We made "Rocky Road Brownies" from a Hershey's cookbook (using no Hershey products, which I disdain). The brownies turned out well.  To get that toasted look, I recommend cookin

If you live in my area, you are familiar with Arturo's , a mouth-watering pizza and pasta restaurant that supports all the other restaurants in downtown Maplewood, because people eat at the other restaurants when the line is too long at Arturo's. The owner of Arturo's has lately opened a bakery/cafe called The Bread Stand , which I visited today for the first time. I had a latte and a delectable pain au chocolat and read an interesting article about Rachel Carson in a year-old issue of The New Yorker. Once, when I was young and had almost no obligations, I was always caught up on The New Yorker. Now I'm thinking that when I retire someday and send my child off into the world, there will be an opportunity for me to again be current with The New Yorker. I'm sure everyone misses me starting half my sentences with, "I read this article in The New Yorker..." At The Bread Stand, I also bought a loaf of ciabatta to make tonight's sandwiches. The