holidays and stuff

Halloween was quite pleasant. We didn't get many trick-or-treaters this year but hey that is how it goes. The kids enjoyed walking about and collecting a little bit of loot. Miss Biscuit earned adorable points by saying, "Trick-or-Neat". Senor Onion declared that next year he is going as a super-hero. Not just any super-hero. No, he is going to be on of his own making. That's right. Super Senor Onion. One neighbor did their yard up so well. It was amazing. He also gave the kids a lot of candy. He made me think of my Uncle Craig, who has spent weeks working on his costume and display. I think Halloween is like Christmas for some gay men. Though Uncle Craig has been posting on FB about how he has serious plans for the light display on his house. When I was a kid and lived across the street from him -the man was soooooo into his light display. Now with assorted technological advances he is in heaven.

Now it is November. It is absolutely chilly out. And I am thinking about Thanksgiving. This is my special day. I figured out the menu, friends and family will be bringing/making things and I warned everyone to wear clothes with an elastic waist-band or no waist at all. I even wrote out the schedule for cooking everything. Yes. It has gotten to that point. The upside is that everything flows in a rather smooth manner and it makes the day rather relaxing. OMG so excited.

I am in such an ambitious mood that I am slowly putting together the menu for Christmas. It may end up being epic and super decadent. I need to research a few things.

forkgrabbers FTW

I rode out the funk that was the Summer of 2011. I think I am on the other side. I have a few projects I am working on. Though the one thing I have been wrestling with is the cooking stuff. I was feeling pretty apathetic about my kitchen. This horrified more than a few people. My damn identity has been tied up in the kitchen for better part of um... 15 years. Damn. Yeah.
It wasn't like I wasn't cooking dinner. I was as people need to be fed. But the lack of inspiration was definitely felt. Thinking of things to cook was hard. Making simple stuff was boring and vaguely irritating. I suppose some of it has to do with having small children. You have to get dinner on the table, half the time they are kind of assy about what you present. You try and overlook it for the most part. (mostly so you don't create food issues later on down the road) Nothing was really wowing me. It was a kind of fatigue. So I am trying to find my feet. For awhile I was fighting it and getting mad at myself. "COME ON DAMMIT GET UP AND MAKE THE FUCKING DINNER". After awhile I decided to just concentrate on making dinner everyday and not beat up on myself when it wasn't pheasant under glass every night. (Not that it ever was)

I sort of think that I had to let out the last remaining bits of depression out of myself. For far-fetched analogies it is kind of changing the oil and letting all of the old gunky stuff out. I made a lot of pasta.

So right now I am slowly feeling my way back into the kitchen. I am keen on Thanksgiving. I decided to perk up the pasta con sardine with some artichoke hearts. Yeah that isn't wild stuff but it is a start. I am also working on making some bread. A few different kinds. I think I can lose myself in that for a bit. Along with the other projects. After observing some of the foodie world up close, I think that if it was a religion, I would be more inclined toward the monastic approach. There is something really satisfying about the contemplative approach to the creation of food. Lord that sounds pretty wack-a-doo but there is some truth to that. I am finding more creativity out of certain limitations and I can see how others do as well. It is kind of inspiring some other stuff I am working on.

As for dinner tonight there will be the pasta con sardine and a salad with spinach, roasted delicata squash and chevre. Dessert will be a bread and butter pudding. It will be good.