Kristen's RM, that chicken sounds wonderful.

Matt, I really wouldn't add either of those, sorry. If you can find dried sour cherries, I've had apple pies with those that really worked nicely. But those add a hit of sour, which works for me with apple pie.

Speaking of cooking, I recreated my mom's venison mincemeat successfully today. It trashed my kitchen and took pretty much all day, but I now have 12 quart jars (whose lids went concave nicely as they cooled) full of high-calorie goodness. It's a taste from every Thanksgiving and Christmas I can remember, and I'm glad it'll be staying in my life.

"Dissipate," sara. Sorry about that stink. It put me off popcorn for a while,it did. I'm obviously back on since I had three bowls yesterday, but burnt is a bad migraine trigger for me.

Holy crap do i miss you, lady.

You better be talking to me, because I miss you too.

I would like everyone to take a moment to thank Polgara for getting herself out of bed early on a Sunday morning to take me home from the ER since they wouldn't release me under my own recognizance. Friends are too good to be true.

Fresh cranberries go very well in an apple pie. Also a hint of orange works well, too, like orange peel in the crust or orange juice tossed with the apples: something sharp to cut the sweetness. I wouldn't ever dream of strawberries.

Kristen's Roommate (oy that's long), that sounds like a fabulous meal! I'm making a very time-intensive set of dinner rolls for Thursday, and for dinner I'll bake some chicken breast in TJ's green curry sauce. Should be edible, anyway.

I made a big pot of vegetable-lentil soup today. Mostly a stone soup to clear out the fridge but it came out fairly well, if a little weak. So I'm breaking down and adding some turkey ham and cannelli beans to 'beef it up.' It's cold, yo. Time to break out the comfort food.

I should consider cooking a real meal for myself this week. I don't usually bother with anything complicated or time consuming.

While we were discussing my holiday travel plans, my sister just asked me what I was planning to do for my birthday. And I said, "Um. Probably nothing?" And now I feel kind of sad and lame.

We could have a club. That's what I did on my last birthday (which was a multiple of 10).

K'sR's dinner is very tasty sounding. I think I will be doing baked potatoes stuffed with broccoli and cheese for dinner tonight. We have a yummy smoked cheddar and broccoli from the farmer's market .

Reason 4,572 I hate living in Jax-- no farmer's market or even reasonable facsimile anywhere nearby.

sumi was the dissipated one.

Me, I'm just the mildly annoyed one. T is supposed to come over to get the keys, once she's done folding her laundry. It's been almost 2 hours. Now, I know she will come, and her dad warned me this is a task at which she's inclined to dawdle over. And I am well familiar with her time management issues . I just want to cross this bit of trip-to-do off my list because I get unreasonably anxious pre-trip.

We can just shorten it to "K's R" (technically she'd be Die Kaiserin then, IIRC).

sumi was the dissipated one

You lower case esses look all the same to me (yes, that's a word, kat). Uh, what I meant to say was "oops, my bad."

I am so freaking stuffed. I bought Polgara breakfast to make up a little for rousting her, and just half a serving of pumpkin spice pancakes has me still full.

Maybe Kristen's Roommate shortens to KRM?

Just went to the supermarket. Krazy! I wish I'd remembered to get steel cut oats, because that way maybe I wouldn't have to shop again until after T-day.