One of the ways we know the seasons are changing is that seasonal food becomes available. I’m not just talking about eating fruits and vegetables in season (although that’s an excellent strategy) but also what luxury foods are available. We know it’s fall because pumpkin spice everything is available everywhere. Lattes, milkshakes, ice cream, baked goods…it’s truly everywhere.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

      “To talk of many things:

Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —

      Of cabbages — and kings —

And why the sea is boiling hot —

      And whether pigs have wings.”

I can’t remember why my mother and I decided to try the combination, but for Thanksgiving some years ago, when we were making apple pies, we decided to try adding cranberries to them.  As a sort of experiment, we added fresh cranberries to the sliced apples in one pie, and some jam to the other.  I had wanted cranberry jam but couldn’t find any, so I had to settle for Lingonberry.  My mother did say at the time that she thought cranberry sauce would work, but as I recall, I scoffed at that notion and went ahead with my jam plan.

I know, it’s tradition to cook a whole turkey, display it triumphantly to the family on the table, and then return it to the kitchen for carving.  Okay, maybe some people carve at the table but my family switched to kitchen carving many years ago.  Cuts way down on the hassle and mess (and also, the public embarrassment if something goes awry).

As Thanksgiving draws nigh, I thought I might share a couple family favorites, among them my special cranberry sauce.  It doesn’t have a fancy name…yet.  It doesn’t have a fancy name yet, but I’ll take suggestions in the comments section.  This recipe was gifted me by a co-worker at my old job.

As my favorite sister-in-law’s birthday approaches, I had set aside a few things to send her that I thought she might enjoy. Amongst the pile of items to be mailed to her were a couple bars of my favorite soap “Shea’s All That,” made by a lady who runs an online business called Goodies Unlimited.

As a child, I did not much care for meatloaf. My mother did make it regularly, and I did eat it (because she made us eat everything she put on our plates; even broccoli; and sauerkraut; and fish) but I did not enjoy it. As with many things in life, my culinary tastes have evolved with age and I now think my mom’s meatloaf is absolutely delicious.

You’ll want to read part 1 first, naturally…

Some folks (my non-knit-worthy brother, for example) might question why anyone would hand knit socks in this day and age “when you can buy six pairs for $10 at Walmart.” (Walmart! Walmart? Seriously?) All I can say is that a pair of socks custom knit to fit your feet is a sumptuous luxury. Try it and see for yourself.

When I was a child, my mother regularly made two kinds of cookies from recipes handed down from the grandmothers. There was the classic Peanut Butter Cookie, of course, and then there were my maternal grandmother’s Molasses Crinkles. Both recipes were originally made with shortening and butter, but since shortening (and hydrogenated fats in general) are against my religion, I’ve tinkered with the recipes a little and now make them with butter only. They aren’t quite as fluffy as the original, but they are still delicious. And a lot less bad for you.

I like hoods. Not the hoods you find on your average coat or sweatshirt…I mean, I like those hoods just fine, functionally speaking. But what really catches my imagination is the more fantasy-style hoods; elven, medieval, Robin of the Hood’s merry men-style hoods.

Regular visitors to the blog might remember that I am a fan of “quick and easy” when it comes to cooking and baking.

I grew up without a television. No, I didn’t grow up in the 40s…I’m not that old. But my parents made the decision that their children’s lives would be richer (and less contaminated by popular culture, I suspect) if we had to find ways to entertain ourselves other than watching a screen. So, I read books. LOTS of books.

I believe I spoke in a previous blog post about a lovely cinema I used to frequent, often for midnight showings of new movies. Among the amenities of this now-defunct theater was an in-house restaurant, which meant you could order off their menu from inside the auditoriums. In addition to the delicious Seven Layer Bars which I couldn’t get enough of, my other favorite of theirs was a spinach artichoke dip, served either with chips or with grilled flatbread. Forget the chips…I ordered a double portion of bread every time, called it dinner, and went to town.

Have you ever been reading a really good historical novel and as you’re busy inserting yourself into the narrative so as to really immerse yourself in the world, you think “This time period would be perfect if I knew how to make penicillin so that I don’t die of some deadly infection”…?  No?  Just me, then?

Approximately a century ago, when I was working a night-shift job, I naturally kept drastically different hours from my family and friends.  This meant I was awake late at night, looking for things to do.

It interests me how much my taste has evolved since I was a child.  I assume this is true for everyone.  Of particular interest for today’s post is the fact that as a child, I did not like legumes.  Well, except for peanuts.  And peanut butter.  But my mother’s split pea soup?  I could choke it down but I certainly didn’t like it.  Chili?  Not only was it full of beans but the spice profile was also not to my taste (that hasn’t changed…cumin is nasty).  And my mother also occasionally made a vegetarian dish she called Cheesy Lentils.  Like the split pea soup, I could eat it, but I had to force it down.

This post will not make much sense if you haven’t read part one.

In addition to watching a lot of YouTube, I also like to look at Pinterest.  And over the last few months, as I was wandering around looking at Pinterest images, a project idea started to take shape in my head, helped along quite a bit by a few images I found.  The general idea was of a globe with terraforming machine embedded in the surface and clear geological activity visible.  How to do it was the question of course…

When I decided to review the Invisible Library series for the blog, I had about two weeks to get everything done, and since there were eight books (even for me, that’s a lot of books to read in two weeks), I put myself on a daily reading schedule, based on the number of pages in each book.  This allowed me to plow through all eight books in my (arbitrary) time limit, take notes, and write the post.