Despite my humble beginnings this morning, I’m proud to announce that I have finished my casserole.
Its name and ingredients and amazing yumminess degree of yumminess will remain a mystery until after tomorrow night’s event.
I told Dad about it on the phone tonight. (Sunday seems like the Universal Day to Phone the Folks, no?)
“Hotdish,” he said. “You have to call yours hotdish! You’re from the Midwest.”
I will reveal that my creation not involve cream of mushroom soup.
Books (and book clubs) are great and all, but sometimes–during a busy subway commute or late at night– reading a full page of text (and then turning the page and doing it all over again) aggravates A.D.D. or exhaustion.
At these times, captions and blurbs of text are more manageable. Especially if they’re interspersed with pictures.
My first nomination for Book Club Lite: Gourmet Magazine. Fancy ingredients and innovative techniques, but straightforward recipes. And for people who’ve always preferred pictures to words: the photographs are BIG.
I’ve decided to make several of this month’s holiday recipes in advance, to give you a heads up in case you might want to use some of Gourmet’s recipes at your Thanksgiving table.
Tomorrow night I am going to a party. A party with a lot of rules. But also prizes.
I’ve got my casserole dish washed and ready two-thirds full of bacon cornbread, leftover from last night.
I’ve got my recipe perfected vaguely sorted out in my head, though I’ll inevitably change much of it as I cook.
I’ve got the ingredients lined up on the counter shelves of the grocery store, where I am going now.
Wish me luck.