On the up: Cooking
On the down: Ingesting all those extra calories from food-tasting

I have been cooking

and cooking

and cooking

and cooking.

Guru devotion makes you do the strangest things you didn't even think you could do before.

When Ben and I were put in charge of preparing Rinpoche's meals, we decided that the most efficient thing to do would be to spend just one day a week cooking enough meals to last the whole week.

So this means cooking

and cooking

and cooking

until your feet feel like they're going to drop off from standing at the stove all day.

So today it's all been about salads and stews and casseroles and soups and everything that makes you so want to stuff your face with food all day long.

And they're all super healthy, super-low-fat and so delicious you wouldn't believe.

Suddenly, Ben and I have discovered untapped domestic potential within ourselves. We are domestic angels - we've found that our new place in the world is in the Kitchen: Spirituality Through a Wooden Spoon and Saucepan.

And I tell you what - I am SO marriage quality now. I have met the Kitchen Time Requirements needed to ensure that a girl of Marriageable Age is domesticated and knows her place in the Home.

I love this 1950s-Casseroles-and-Kitchen-Glove thing. It's so becoming!

Bonus: Rinpoche actually likes what we cook, and hasn't gotten any sort of stomach illness yet.