Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving
I must say a pleasant day, it's been too long since I've had the opportunity to cook for such an appreciative audience. Marcus and his mother were quite lovely and I will cheerfully cook for them whenever I can. Marcus brought two beautiful pies, and his mum did the sweet potatoes. It was a lusciously-lazy afternoon with the lot of us snoozing in front of the fireplace after dinner.

Once upon a time I wanted to be a chef. That was before I discovered that there is a world of difference between cooking for a living and loving to cook. I tried to work in a restaurant for a time, it was great fun until I killed a prime rib (it made a lovely pot roast) and made my boss cry. For food mangers out there a bit of advice - never leave a vegetarian in charge of an expensive cut of meat without very explicit instructions. So my cooking career went the way of my vegetarian diet - gone but often looked back on with fondness and a vague sense of longing.

I still love to cook, and love feeding people. Since I don't have a family to feed my friends get pressed into fulfilling my inner Grandmother tendencies. Come on over and the first words out of my mouth are, "Can I get you a cuppa tea?" Tea usually comes with whatever nibbles I have on hand, fresh fruit, cheese, and gluten-free goodies.

Speaking of nibbles I made the most amazing scones on Friday. Pamela's Baking Mix has been a sanity-saver and on the back of the package I found a recipe for scones (I love scones - and missed them terribly when I gave up gluten a couple of years ago), to which I then added a couple spoonfuls of cranberry-orange relish to the batter. Yum...I was in heaven. Try it with your own recipe, it rocks.