Cookbooks are for reading or for reference. For actual cooking my two primary sources are old Eating Well magazines - I've never had a recipe from them not turn out great - or web searches. I usually google and take a look at three or four similar things and then wing it from there.

If buffistas here need assistance, I am happy to share some thanksgiving recipes I uncovered when I did my first thanksgiving. It was only for 2, but the recipes serve more!

I don't have turkey recipes, and apparently cooking dinner rolls is not in my skill set, but I do have a good recipe for stuffing (with meat), and collard greens (has meat, but could be done without).

I am happy to share my recipe for wasabi mashed potatoes too!

I got the recipe for the Earl Grey Chocolate Cake from Real Simple, Erin. It's SO good.

S. does the bulk of the cooking. And when I used to do it, it was really workmanlike stuff, most of it from my mom. Lasagna or a roast chicken or chili, stuff like that.

I'd like to get back to cooking, and I should. By the time S. gets home, it's late to start a meal.

My mom had an eternal subscription to Better Homes and Gardens. When it was in the large format, she'd clip the recipe pages (two recipes per page), cut them in half, hole-punch them and clip them together with clip rings. She never had the BH cookbook, but she gave me one as a shower present, along with all her clipped magazine recipes, which filed neatly into the looseleaf binder format.

A complete novice in the kitchen, I used the heck out of that cookbook for all the basic dishes. Once I had those down I started playing with ingredients and combinations, modifications. And then started collecting cookbooks. Encyclopedia of Cooking was an absolute hoot--pre WWII, I believe, it listed the sets of linens, flatware, dishware, cooking pots, pans, and utensils every kitchen pantry and dining room breakfront needed to be complete, plus the "standard" weekly grocery order for a well-run household of five, with or without servants.

My favorite non-ethnic cookbook, though, has always been The Bread and Soup Cookbook. Nummy stuff.

And I just got off a short Skype videochat with my eldest niece, who is in northwest Spain for a year. It's 10 PM there and she was just getting ready to go out. Apparently the clubs there don't even open until after midnight... Yikes.

Just re-upped my lease for another 15 months. When I got the notice that it was time, the renewal price they were offering was a good $100 more than what I'm currently paying. After talking with the property management, my renewal rate is now only $40 more. Woot!!! This is the second time I've been able to negotiate a lower rate.

It's 10 PM there and she was just getting ready to go out. Apparently the clubs there don't even open until after midnight... Yikes.

Yeah, they do the siesta thing and then go out late and stay out until 5 or so in the morning. I spent a few days in Madrid in the 90s and exited a club at 6 am to see people queued up for voting. It was kind of surreal.

Apparently the clubs there don't even open until after midnight... Yikes.

Well, that's why they have a siesta nap in the middle of the day.

I think I'm going to have to go coat shopping this weekend. My mom gave me a great wool pea coat that fits me really well, but it won't be enough when winter really kicks in and the temperature's in the low teens for days at a time. I'm looking around online, and it looks like I'll have to splurge for a warm coat, probably at Lands End. They're having a sale this weekend (25% off), so I might have to head over to their store at Sears and see what they have in stock.

I was in a traffic jam in Seville at 4 am.