The comfort of cooking

On a personal note, I just want to thank my friends and blog readers who extended their sympathies or lent a shoulder to cry on or made me laugh and kept me company in the days and weeks after Jerry’s death. It really helped to feel as though I had plenty of places to turn when I needed to not be alone with my thoughts.

I realized last weekend that I hadn’t been in my kitchen for a while, thinking that I didn’t have the time or the energy or the presence of mind to cook myself anything.  I ate a lot of burritos and take-out pizza, and cereal, and managed to get through the last month.  But then when I thought about it, I knew I had made a mistake in cutting out my time in my kitchen.  

Frenemies Forever

Does anyone want to start a band with me called “Frenemies Forever” ?

Applesauce & Thanksgiving

This was not the easiest year.  It was my first full year without my grandfather, who was hugely important to me. The hole in my life is a big one, its hard to pass a day without feeling the effects of his not being here.  People close to me experienced painful losses in their families.  I lost my job, and so did some friends and family members, and we watched as many others also did.  I know only of a small handful of people who have been able to find work since being laid off, so I know I’m not alone in my frustration.  Its very hard to keep my head up and not feel very defeated or hopeless, but I know if I keep looking and keep applying something will work out.  

That said, I’m pretty thankful this year.  I’m thankful that I have my health and so do the people I love.  I’m thankful that I have a roof over my head and food to eat.  I’m thankful for my wonderful boyfriend and his fantastic family.  I’m thankful that because I’ve been unemployed I have been able to travel to see my closest friends who are scattered across the country.  I’m thankful for their support and friendship.  I’m thankful that Obama won the election, because even though I’m a skeptic, I still have hope.  

I was originally going to make a post about turkey, and how most meat eaters I know tell me that they kind of hate eating thanksgiving turkey, and don’t really like turkey very much as a meat.  Having never eaten turkey, I can’t sympathize, but I can tell you that generally speaking that makes me even more sad for the senseless and cruel raising and slaughtering of 45 million turkeys for this holiday.  I mean, I can understand people saying “yeah yeah I know that the meat industry is pretty bad but I love meat too much to stop eating it.” (even though I disagree), but its almost insulting that people would think so little of the animals they’re eating that they continue to support the industry even when they don’t like it.  Have you ever driven by Jandl farms?  BDs mom lives right by there, and let me tell you that place looks like hell on earth.  Anyway, I decided that I won’t dedicate my whole post to this topic, so I’ve said my piece and now I’ll move on.

In my family, our thanksgiving tradition is making applesauce.  My dad is the one who always makes it and my sister and I would help out.  Now I make my own, and this is our recipe.  

veggie haters

BD’s brother is a notorious vegetable hater.  I asked BD if we could invite him over for dinner tomorrow before bar trivia and he said, “well, he doesn’t eat anything we eat…” which, from what I know of him, is true.  That said, I feel as though I am up to the task of making a vegetable dish so delicious that even the most stubborn of vegetable haters would ask for seconds.  I don’t know if this blog has any readers yet, but just in case some readers show up sometime, I was wondering – do you have any “no fail” veggie dishes?