The Month of March

Although most of us (in our own little corners of this country) can still expect to experience the blustery, sometimes biting winds of March (if not some snow, sleet, hail, ice, slush, rain or combinations thereof), it is technically the birth month of Spring.

In a way, March is akin to the first of the New Year in that it has the felling of a new start, fresh and wonderful things to come.

Some people might suggest it's a good time for cleaning, reorganizing and generally spiffing up your home environment. Others of us will try to avoid such outlandish activity and cling to indoor exertions more along the lines of sewing, quilting, knitting and snuggling under a quilt on the couch with a good book.

Each year the month of March reminds me of something I did (in March) way back in the 1980s. We were living on our first homestead here in Minnesota, a ways farther out of town than we do now. Hubby and daughter went off to school every day leaving me as head of the homestead and all that entailed. I'm imagining this particular March was during a time (there were a few such times if memory serves me correctly) when we had only one working, reliable (reliable being the operative word) vehicle and unless I wanted to go to town with the troops first thing in the morning and wait until they could come home at night, I stayed on ye ol' homestead for weeks at a time.

Since we ate a lot of soups (still do, always have), I decided I needed some new recipes to add to my repertoire. So the first of March I sat down with some cook books and made a list (a long list) of new soups I would make a concentrated effort to try out during the next thirty-one days.

No, I didn't make a new soup every single day, but I did cook, stew and simmer my way through that whole month of March. And do you know what? I ended up with a nice bunch of soup recipes added to my recipe box that I still make frequently to this day.

So, I ask myself, why haven't I embarked on the same kind of adventure again since then? Not to find more soup recipes, but think of the possibilities. A month of trying out new breads. Casseroles. Main dishes with eggs and/or cheese. Sandwiches. Of course, I could always concentrate on cookies, pies or other yummy desserts, but in the name of trying to be a smidge bit healthy here, let's stick with those first categories that came to mind.

Yup, my little experimental culinary adventure during the month of March so long ago is worth repeating.

Maybe next year, I'll look back on . . . say, the month of April . . . and remember it as the month I found that perfect rye bread recipe. Or . . . could it really happen? . . . the month I learned to make a good sourdough!