I know vanilla extract is alcoholic (Kitty Dukakis!), I don't think it counts in naming stuff. In my head at least. Like hard cider vs. cider.

Argh argh. I gotta go. Return shoes, finish and print paper, eat something, go to class.

2 dressy holiday parties this year. I am recycling my black Ralph Lauren dress cause I haven't found anything that looks as good on me as that does (Thanks again, meara for finding it and mkaing me try it on when I never would have chosen it for myself). So I am wearing it with this wrap [link] (minus the tacky black flower) and a pair of black chandelier earrings and I need a pair of black strppy heels to finish.

Pecans: spiced
Spinach: creamed
Apricots: macerating

45 minutes until I need to leave to pick the grandparents up at the airport.

t sits

I'm thankful this year for Peter Jackson, because Hubby and I have a movie to watch in a theatre on Christmas Day, ie, King Kong. We felt kind of lost the year after Return of the King. There's a really nice theatre one town south of us that's never very busy on Christmas but has one of the few Dolby-certified sound systems in the county.

Holidays are a trial when you're trying to watch your blood sugar.

I've had good luck with London Walks, FYI. They're very walky, and also informative. Not too lamely wide-appeal, not too snobby/boring.

Kind of sucks when it's raining a gale, but even so, I got a lot out of it.

Thanksgiving is a process, not a day. It is an acknowledgement that we're winter beasts trying to keep warm with extra calories; it is a time-marker for the shopping cycle; it is a football holiday; it is an event to plan your month around. All of the winter holidays, and all of their slightly-weird importance, revolves around the fact that winter sucks and we all need reasons to endure it. Presents and pie and racks of beef are reasons to endure a lot.

Okay, Martin Luther King day is not quite the same, but that is January, and thus well on the way toward the sun not setting at 4pm.

Spinach: creamed

Mmmmmm. Seriously. I'm such a spinach whore. Would you mind posting your recipe, or is it so simple and obvious that I'm going to feel like not just a whore, but a singularly silly whore?

It's Laurie Colwin's Creamed Spinach with Jalapeno Peppers, juliana. If there are any leftovers, it makes the ass-kickingest morning-after-Thanksgiving omlette filling ever.

[eta that I know "chop the spinach fine" was in the original recipe, but who are these people who do not have access to frozen chopped spinach aka Best Convenience Ingredient EVAR? Also, I skip the celery salt b/c I never have it around the house, and there's enough salt in the cheese and butter that it's not necessary to add more.]

Hard sauce is a blob of softened butter with a dash of vanilla and a metric buttload of powdered sugar mixed in and I eat the pudding mostly to get to the sauce.

What Jesse said. And although there's alcohol in the vanilla, I don't substitute by volume.

I mean, is there any such thing as a dash of rum? I think not.

Aimée -- would strappy heels include mine?

I'm going to be so disappointed this January when I don't have an excuse to go back to London for two weeks.