I did not cook anything yesterday, but cleaned my oven and stove. I can see through the window into the oven again! People were still eating the roast, soup, and bread, so I did not feel bad. Made Brian the tuna sandwich on french bread with hard boiled eggs, etc. for lunch. Anyway, now I can do some catch up writing.

I did not host the Thanksgiving dinner this year, but did prepare the spinach dip, bread for that and dinner rolls (first crack at the Joy of Cooking French bread recipe), cranberries (from the Farmer's Market, cooked briefly with brown sugar and maple syrup), and candied yams. The yams are baked first, not too done, and then sliced and sauteed for 45 minutes or so in butter, brown sugar, a little water, salt and a very small amount of vanilla flavoring. Attention intensive, which is probably for the best so one doesn't make them very often. Once or twice a year is enough.

I left town for four days after Thanksgiving, and made a fair amount of food for the guys to eat while I was gone. On Wednesday there was a Thai chicken curry for dinner, with some leftovers for the next day. We ate that with eggrolls that Brooke and I made this summer and froze for just such occasions. The curry is pretty much exactly as directed on the jar of red paste, but I substitute half the fish sauce with soy. I also add a big glop of peanut butter and some unsalted peanuts. It's chicken, onion, green beans, spinach added at the end. I usually put in potatoes too, but forgot them that day.

I did three or four quarts of turkey stock with legs and wings, roasted first with the veggies. I usually make a turkey soup after Thanksgiving with the carcass, but figured we could snag some turkey at Steven's for this year's batch. I also pulled together a big vat of chili and another of spaghetti sauce, so they could just cook up a couple of pounds of pasta and switch off while I was away. Brooke chopped and sauteed a bunch of carrots, celery and onion in butter and olive oil on Thanksgiving just before we went to dinner. We did bring home turkey, but I had no cooking left in me that evening - only packing and drinking beer. Brooke did a brilliant job of making the soup on Friday evening after I was gone, to rave reviews from Brian and Ben. She hid a little for me to try when I got home, and it was great.

I spent a lot of time in my step-mother's kitchen in Indiana, but most of it was sitting down. Wonderful! There was a huge ham dinner at my sister's on Saturday that I didn't cook anything at all for. Wonderful! I did stand close to Jane while she made deviled eggs so I could try to write down what and how much of what she was putting in them. Results still pending.

After I returned home last week I made a Martha Stewart meatloaf recipe and set my oven to come on to have it ready right when Brian came home on Wednesday while I was teaching. Potatoes next to it. It was still nice and warm when I zipped home between students and rehearsal, and came out very well. I'll use that oven feature often in the future.

Once that was gone we dove into the crazy hell of an Advent musician weekend - all rehearsal, concerts, masses - no cooking.