i need two or three strapping teenage boys...

...because my little family doesn't have a big enough appetite to satisfy my need to cook.

i LOVE to cook, and honestly there isn't a lot of cooking that needs to be done in our house these days. on an average weeknight, two chicken breasts and a vegetable will feed us all. cooking any more will result in a snowball effect of leftovers.

that's why i love days like today, when i know i'm having a few people over to watch the game and i can make a Big Pot of Something and probably not have to freeze half of it afterward.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

fact: i have at least three gallon-size ziplock freezer bags of vegetable beef stew (home-grown pasture-fed beef and organic veggies! says this kate gosselin fan!) from three separate cooking sessions in my deep freeze. and i'd rather make a fresh batch on any given sunday than thaw one out. not because it tastes better, but just because I WIKE IT. (kitten's burgeoning language skills are a[e]ffecting my annunciation, even in print.)

i'd make and donate LOADS of food if i had an appropriate outlet, but a) it's understandable that a food bank is probably going to toss a random freezer bag of homemade stew; and b) i'm a frugal cook. i try to use ALL of what we buy, often by reinventing last night's dish into a new dish. i really despise waste. do you even REALIZE how easily any cut of leftover meat becomes an amazing shredded barbecue sandwich? maybe not fish, but chicken/beef/pork for sure.

*****

all of this cooking nonsense brings me around to this important point: I LOVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

when the leaves turn, and jake starts bringing in firewood to take off the evening chill, and i see the first pre-black-friday pre-presale final clearance advertisements, i start thinking about the following things:

1. recipes from last year: which ones to reuse, which ones to improve upon, and if so, how;
2. events: where, when, who, and how to avoid overlapping dishes;
3. ingredients: what dishes require speciality ingredients that i'll never use up before they go bad; what dishes require ingredients that aren't popular*; will there be butter; and
4. friends/family/neighbors: which ones have the largest appetites and/or teenage boys.

*i really, really love cranberry sauce. i'd rather have a bowl full of cranberry sauce than a bowl full of ice cream. so when i show up to seven different thanksgiving events, each time with a gigantic bowl full of cranberry sauce made with fresh cranberries and grand mariner** and garnished with orange peel, and i'm miffed that everyone takes only a spoonful or two--well, i've learned to cut back on my estimated per-person serving. apparently bitter fruits just ain't for everyone.

**grand marnier never goes bad so you should buy the largest bottle available and use it in absolutely everything.

*****

fact: my favorite spices are cinnamon and cumin.

fact: the only time cinnamon and cumin should ever be combined is in lebanese dishes, specifically: cabbage rolls.

fact: cabbage rolls are my FAVORITE FOOD! coincidence? does The Dark Side of the Moon correspond directly with The Wizard of Oz??? i'm just sayin'.

*****

i think i'm close to perfecting my chili recipe.

is it difficult to make good chili? absolutely not - chili should be in everyone's basic kitchen repertoire.

is it difficult to make perfect chili? incredibly.

i got a little closer today by adding a little masa de harina for the first time. thank you, pioneer woman, for that suggestion. but my recipe (yet unperfected) is still better than the one in your cookbook. on the other hand, i won't be able to perfect my recipe until the kids are older, because a truly perfect bowl of chili has just a teensy bit of spiciness, and my kids will tolerate somewhere between .01 and .02 Scoville units of heat before i hear whines of "mama! no wike it dat chili! nee wah-tour!"

*****

last year i gave all my neighbors a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls for christmas, baked from scratch from the pioneer woman's recipe. princess and i walked around with them, still warm, from door to door, and offering "with nuts" and "without nuts" (you must be allergenically conscious, y'know).

upon information and belief, i have an even better recipe coming to me TOP SECRET for use this year.

watch out, pioneer woman. i may be silent for months at a time, but i am deadly.