Time for some Kismet cooking.  As you doubtless know by now, there's almost nothing I like so much as ingredients coming my way through seeming coincidence.  In figuring out what to do with them,  I know I'm on the right track when I having a niggling feeling of vaguely remembering something.  That's where my colossal book of clipped recipes comes in.  It drives Jeff bonkers,  because it's such an enormous overstuffed notebook that inevitably seems to be perched right in his way.  By now he's surely learned that any criticism of my notebook, boldly entitled "Clare" on its spine,  is rife with peril. I guess its title shows that I view it as an extension of myself, and dishing it is akin to answering "yes" when I ask him if I look fat in my new red dress.  In other words, its someplace he doesn't want to go. My trusty notebook sent out a virtual vibration recently when my sweet next-door neighbor appeared bearing the last butternut squash from her garden.  In looking around at my stash, nestled amongst my usual hoard,  was a loaf of sourdough bread that had somehow been left behind in its rotation and was surely past its prime.  I also had an abundance of Fontina left over from my stellar mushroom lasagna (more on that later).  That was enough to cause that familiar niggling sensation and send me straight to "Clare".  What was that recipe?  Well, it was for panade and I found two--one from the New York Times, and a more recent one from the Wall Street Journal. 

How in the world did that happen?  Suffice it to say, in a happy blur of family, friends and food, and oh my goodness, such food!  Even for me, I have to say, I spent rather a lot of time in the kitchen, being productive, yes; however, it seems to have rather kept me away from my trusty computer and letting you all in on the festivities.  This is a shot of my kitchen a few days before Christmas when I was thick in the throes of cookie-dom.  As you can see, it wasn't pretty, but take it from me, it sure was fun. Let me just say, here and now, I'm not into "resolutions." I guess it's the rebel in me that makes me immediately shy away from whatever it was that I had the best intentions of doing and instead, do just the opposite.  That being the case, I "intend" to blog more regularly in the coming year, and I think may circle back to some of the great things that happened in my kitchen over a prolonged Christmas cooking-fest.  The good news is that I took pictures and I most likely can figure out whatever it was that I did when I did it.

The other day, since Jeff was out-of-town for a speaking engagement, I found myself faced with the prospect of dining alone.  This was quite an opportunity, I realized,  to see if I was all talk and no action, and if in fact I was true to my word.

Last month I had the distinct honor of speaking to the James River Women's Club.  Their chosen topic was "cooking for one" which, obviously, isn't something I have very much call to do these days, however, like most things, it's something about which I have strongly held convictions.

It's still all soup,  all the time around here.  I got into a soup-making frenzy for this week's food section story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and by virtue of there having been over 14,000 views of my Oktoberfest soup video since it went up 4 days ago--it's just a guess, mind you--but I think you might be making soup, too.

So, assuming that you are --either one of mine, or one of your own favorites -- it occurs to me that what you may want right about now is a great recipe for gougeres or, what in English is known as cheese puffs.