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the past several weeks have been a blur. my dad is visiting from australia and work has been insane. we've been making a little bit of headway on the yards and inside, but still have a long way to go. it's been busy, but good. i feel laziness approaching, though, and need to work on maintaining some sense of motivation to keep up the momentum.

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well, i clearly haven't done much but cook lately. and eat. mostly there's been eating. i never liked thanksgiving much until i was an adult and was responsible for some cooking because then i could make and eat whatever i liked. this year, that included:

rice krispie treats. that's right. this was a few days before thanksgiving. we had to get our stomachs prepared for the food to come.

the most amazing apple crisp; recipe courtesy of a friend's mom, who seems to do no wrong in the kitchen from what i've seen.

this barley and mushroom pie. smitten kitchen (who also can do no wrong in my book) was right - it needed a tiny bit of something, but was still very, very good. why don't we cook with puff pastry more often? it's delicious.

and there were all the things we don't have pictures of, like the fantastic stuffing the husband made, or the post-thanksgiving gathering with friends that is always one of my favorite parts of tthe holiday. we also worked on the house this weekend and are going to look at appliances today. and, i found a treasure trove of artifacts from my childhood in some boxes my family brought to me a few weeks ago: pottery i made in high school, old tapes and cards, and a page from the script of the play i was in that brought me to meet my husband. it was pretty sweet to reminisce.

of course, there was also the debbie gibson collection.

4

amateur chocolatiering for a local ice cream social and craft faire:

dark chocolate with almonds



peanut butter dark chocolates

next up are attempts at vegan caramel and vegan milk chocolate.