Synopsis 2...

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So, of course Thanksgiving yielded delicious leftovers. The turkey wing that I gnawed on for lunch on Saturday will stay with me for a long time: salty, crispy, briny, juicy, amazzzzzinnnngggg.

4)

::pause:: I just realized these will post out of order. If you are confused by the placement of the number 4, read the last post first. Ok. Unpause::

4, again) Secret Ingredients 1, at my house.

Actually, this one deserves its own post with pictures and tons of description, so I will hold off.

Basic idea: underground kitchen. people pay to eat, chefs get to experiment, and everyone goes home happy. more later.

5) Now at AP, there is a crazy amount of work with college applications. This is fine and expected. Last year I was at the office until 10 for two whole weeks. This time I've barely done it at all! So, that being said, I haven't done a lot of cooking. . . which is kind of ok. Sarah and I have gone shopping to stock up, so that we don't have to buy food out this next week before winter break. Some of our concoctions so far have been:

- super tomato and onion-y pasta sauce with fettucini and parm

- lots of salads with spinach, endive, lettuce, and other various veggies

- free pizza (both from an odd-job on Sunday, and from my school. hooray for parent night)

- Indian food (thanks, rob!)

-- ok, so those last two weren't concoctions. but they were free! --

- chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies.

p.s. we watched the movie Taken the other night and it gave everyone the heebie jeebies. We were all so scared, and chewed on roughly 20 cookies between the 3 of us, and lots of milk.

We also bought the fixins' for chili, white bean and kale stew, sandwiches (thank goodness I can eat sandwiches again), and lots of rice chex and fruit for healthy breakfasts. The only thing we are lacking is tea. Our tea has been seriously depleted.

6) Team Farell and friends potluck.

This was actually just last night! My supervisor from last year invited her current team and past team members over for a potluck. This was a seriously good potluck - everyone got it right! This potluck included:

- a soft St. Andre-esque cheese and apples

- a salad with homemade balsamic dressing

- arroz con pollo

- yams with andouille sausage

- baked little sausages inside of dough with cheddar cheese and apple (don't know the name of them)

- pecan pie

- berry pie

- wine and beer galore

- elephant ears

- a big fat bunny that ran around the house all night. this was not on the menu - just a pet.

I also played my first game of Settlers of Catan. Surprisingly fun. Now I can truly say I went to Macalester I guess.

7) Tomorrow night I am hosting another potluck at chez moi for Macalester friends who I have not seen for quite a while. Our dearest Kelly is leaving, so we need to see her before then! More on this later, since I don't yet know what people will bring.

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And thus is my month synopsized. (word?)

More on the Secret Ingredients later on. And fingers crossed for a more regular updating of this here bloggity blog.

Synopsis...

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1) Ben's Thanksgiving. Where I broke my gluten free experiment (thus ending the first monthly theme). Amazing turkey, vegetables, wine, stuffing, mac and cheese, pies, soup, yams, salads, cranberry sauce, etc... quite a feast, and we were all rolling out of the house on 2x4s.

2) Casey's potluck chez moi. Casey turned 25, and since he lives with his madre, he asked if we could host at our house. Gladly! we thought. It was a great chance to meet some of his local friends, and reconnect with AP friends. Unfortunately, this was the unluckiest potluck I've ever had. Food included: a tray of lasagna that Casey himself made. A cake that Casey's mom made. A cheese platter that Sarah and I put out. That was about it. Now, don't get me wrong. The company was great. We had a great time. Casey got sufficiently intoxicated for his birthday. But let's get a few things straight about potlucks:

- you cannot show up with only wine, unless the host asked, "oh, we're running short on booze, could you actually pick some up?"

- it is good practice to actually prepare something ahead of time. Lacking the resources to do so, at least buy something that could be assembled, so that it is still fresh and with some love in it.

- at the very least, bring something prepared that is still yummy.

Let's be clear, though. All of us have broken this formula at least once. That is ok. That just means you end up with an unlucky potluck.

At our potluck, though, the lasagna was amazing, and Sarah and I melted some brie and enjoyed it with a fresh boule from the co-op, and some fig spread. It was quite decadent. I think its delights were lost on our crowd, unfortunately. However there were no qualms about it. Also, everyone gobbled up the lasagna. And I was told a few times that the chocolate cake was the best cake anyone there had ever had. We then ate gummy bears and I got a stomach ache. Fin.

3) Actual Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite holiday of the year, except for my own / other's birthdays, because those are good excuses to do really fun things. Anyway. The big holiday was at my house this year. Since I flew home on a Thursday, we didn't host until Friday, which is mildly disconcerting if you are used to celebrating on a Thursday every year.

At least I was in the country this year! (Sorry Mom and Dad).

Highlights of this meal included: a deliciously brined turkey. Really. The best one we've ever made. Stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce. I recreated the squash and corn pudding, which I made wayyyy too many. Oops. Leftovers! There was some yummy "wait, that's not gluten-free bread?" bread, which one of my dad's cousins brought, thinking she was being very clever, but it turned out to just be bread. It's the thought that counts, right?

I was recovering from a bad flu/cold at this point, and so at approximately 5 pm I left the table and took a nap on the couch for 45 minutes. Ha! It was the best nap ever.

In terms of communal eating, Thanksgiving was actually fabulous. We had some of the easiest family personalities to work with, and everyone got along great! The main topics of conversation were: my dad's cousin being a new grandpa, (congrats!), jury dury, Twitter, surgery, immigration, and some people asking me about Somalia and if that's where all the pirates are. Oh, geographical separation. I love it.

Embarrassing

Ok folks, so it has officially been almost a month since my last update. Embarrassing. That means that many people have probably stopped reading altogether. It also means that I have neglected this past month's theme: which was communal cooking/eating/potlucks. There have been many, and they were kicked off by Ben Pierson's friend Thanksgiving, about halfway through November...

I think the reason I've put off writing is that once you are behind, a blogger is faced with a tricky scenario: catch up, or just keep going.

I'm going to try a bit of both.

Instead of elaborating on all of the month's cooking adventures (which there have been many), I am going to give just a brief, tiny synopsis. And hopefully I'll get around to uploading pictures, too. I will also try and stay much more on track so I don't have this dilemma again!!