I Can Learn From Heidi

I slow-cooked chick peas (that had been soaked for 24 hours) in the crock pot all day today. I crushed garlic (lots of it for swine-flu protection) with salt in my mortar and pestle and added it to chopped tomatoes, fresh parsley, olive oil, mustard and lemon juice. Then I mixed in feta cheese and the chick-peas. I think rice could be added to this for the complete protein.

On a much more positive note than yesterday, I am going to praise Heidi. I am reading this lovely book with my daughter and it is so inspiring I feel like moving to Switzerland and becoming a goat-herder (well maybe not that inspiring). At each meal they relish the fresh bread with toasted cheese and fresh goat's milk. It seems that that's about all they eat. Oh, and some cured meat as well. Doesn't that just sound delightful? The beauty of it for me is that it is so simple, yet infinitely nourishing. And Heidi has such a lust for life that she appreciates it all and stands in awe at the simplest of things.

This is the kind of value I would like to see my children embrace. First, I suppose I have to embrace it. Unfortunately, living simply seems to be quite complicated.