We’re going to rise before dawn tomorrow, roll out of bed, try to get everything into the car and hit the road. And then G. puts his big brain to work earning his degree and I…well, you know how there’s this phase of writing a novel when you’re trying this and fiddling with that and pondering and mapping and discovering and you’re thinking hey, no rush here, it’s all about the process? Then the day comes when you seriously have to get down to work and produce a book. It’s time for that full-on NO FEAR attack. I’m scared. Oh wait, I said no fear.

So just as G. goes into “study” as his default setting during grad school summers, I’m going into “book” as mine. I might go to more photo blogging and less text for the next couple of months, or something. We’ll see. I did dig out my old Canon T-70 and have it loaded with actual film, old school, and I’m taking my zoom lens and tripod. Hopefully I remember how to use all that stuff.

It’s also time for summer vegetarianism! It started on Sunday. Last summer we were all vegetarian when eating in, but I did sometimes eat meat and stuff when out. This summer I’m going to try to be a bit more thorough. Even though I promised I wouldn’t buy any more cookbooks, I got one more teeny tiny (okay, it’s massive) one as my sole reference for the summer.

I love Mark Bittman. I have two of his other giant books, and really I could get rid of the rest of my collection and with his three I’d be well covered for life. I love his approach to food and cooking because he’s a home cook. He’s not like a restaurateur or a B&B proprietor a Food Network star. In his books, every recipe has variations in case you don’t have all the ingredients, or you have different ingredients. It’s all very approachable, but at the same time he knows his world cuisines and he doesn’t shy away from or discourage home cooks to do dishes that are a bit more complex or unusual or time-consuming, and he only uses real food. His cookbooks don’t just make me want to eat, they make me want to cook. Which is the point.

See you in a couple of days, live from New Mexico!