I certainly haven't kept up with this very well, but will try, try again. Today was the tail end of a snowstorm, complete with shoveling driveways and wishing cars ran better in the cold. We started the day with a big pot of Del Sol coffee and some aging peanut butter bars. Brian took two liverwurst sandwiches with mustard, mayo, pepper jack, spinach and yellow and red peppers to work, and probably had to survive without Shin cups - he's fresh out. About 1pm I started a kettle of cabbage soup with the big half of an organic white cabbage from the co-op, a couple of tablespoons of "Better than Boullion" chicken stuff, three quarts of water and the rest of the mirepoix Brooke put together for me on Thanksgiving - I guess anything stays good in a butter stasis. At about 4pm some potatoes went in, and at Ben's urging a browned polish sausage sliced thin. Delicous at 6pm with French bread right out of the oven... I did the Joy of Cooking bread recipe for the second time this afternoon. Yummy, good for more than a day, but not really French bread since it has milk and butter as well as the standard ingredients. Ah, well.

Yesterday, with the storm looming, seemed a good time for the Frugal Gourmet's Polish pot roast idea. I browned a four pounder in my cast iron Dutch oven, and then added chopped onion, chopped dill pickle, peppercorns, dried mushrooms and some white wine and beef broth. Put it in the oven about 10:30 at 300 degrees. Added a bunch of small russets to the top of the pot at 3:45 or so, and put a covered casserole dish with half a big buttered butternut squash next to it. Went on a snowy two hour driving expidition to get everyone home that included a detour to Kiev foods for a bag of potato pirogies and half a pound of Hungarian salami. Home again, removed the potatoes and roast from the oven, threw some freshly sliced cabbage in a pan with water, chicken stuff, and a bit of milk, and thickened the remaining pot liquids with Wondra, cooked a bit and blended (including the onions, pickles, mushrooms, etc.) with some sour cream for gravy. So supper was pot roast, potatoes and gravy, cabbage, squash and a quick spinach salad with prefab vinaigrette, dried cranberries and feta. Hoo-ya!