# 3 - Letter to Aunt Joyce

I have been woefully behind in my correspondence though I do keep up with some friends and family over the phone and with email. However, I believe that there is still something tangible and special about writing and reading a letter you get on paper. I am so used to composing my thoughts in a text editor and then editing the writing before anyone else reads it, that it is hard for me to write letters like this by hand. So when my father's oldest sister, Aunt Joyce, wrote us a nice card talking about some of the things going on in her life, I took that opportunity to type her a reply and mailing it to her. I know Dad keeps her updated when he talks to her, but I know she doesn't read our family blog, so I took this chance to tell her about Becky and the boys and all the things going on in our life now. My goal of writing these letters is to get me into the pattern of writing letters to family and friends, so I plan to send her more in the future.

# 69 - Chicken Tangine

I got a new cookbook the other day that I love, by the people who produce America's Test Kitchen on PBS and edit Cook's Illustrated magazine - The Best 30-minute Recipe. As you can imagine from the title, they've selected a variety of their favorite recipes and tested ways to cook them in 30 minutes or less. I've found that my actual time is greater because of my cooking skill and prep time, but the methods have still resulted in making some tasty meals. The other thing I like about this book is that they've come up with several recipes from different styles of cooking and different cultures. Several of their Indian recipes use a spice blend called garam masala that I assembled from cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ground cloves, and coriander. Today I made Chicken Tangine which included garbanzo beans and dried apricots. It was quite tasty. I may make it again someday, but I want to explore some more Indian recipes before I come back to this.