Thank you, Darkover lovers!

I appreciate your feedback...and your encouragement. I'm saving your comments for those dark authorial moments when I feel like I can't write my way out of a wet paper bag and what's the use of trying...those moments that come to us all. Now I have ammunition to use against the literary-gloomies!

Food discovery: Polenta in the rice cooker!

I love polenta but hate standing over a simmering pot for 45 minutes, so I gave this new approach a try. The result is not quite as creamy as the traditional method, but soooo much easier. I suspect that if you make it in advance and let the rice cooker keep it warm for a bit, you won't be able to tell the difference.

Use 4 cups of water for 1 cup dry polenta. Add a little salt (what's a little? depends on your taste; I don't care for overly salted foods, so I suggest 1/2 tsp.) and some olive oil (the recipe I followed called for 3 T; I used 1 T, and suspect it may not be necessary except for taste) and any other ingredients you care for (parmesan, herbs, you get the picture).

Throw it all in the rice cooker, set to Normal/Basic White Rice. You can stir it from time to time if you're nervous. That's all!!! Then you can pour it out on a platter, let it set, cut it and fry it or whatever you like to do with polenta.

Anticipations of spring...

The calendar may not know it, but the miner's lettuce sure thinks it's spring! We use it as a wild cover crop, and it has erupted everywhere. Some of the leaves are well over 2" in diameter. I gathered a bunch, washed and dried it, and served it dressed with raspberry vinaigrette and topped with defrosted blackberries from last summer. Whatever endorphins are released by fresh greens after months of winter slog are currently flooding my system.

Dave says there's some baby arugula, too. It's naturalized in our garden, so it's everywhere, but I have to pick it when it's small and tender, so as to be not-too-bitter. Spring salad, part 2, coming up!