And God created zucchini fritters.

I also have a decent amount of salad, and soon will be string beans. But for now… zucchini.

Turkey loaf from an Oprah cookbook. Farmer’s market taters. My first zucchini!

How did I make this great dinner? Well, it helped that I declined a 6 PM meeting that I didn’t really need to be part of. This past weekend being so awesome has really convinced me to Step Away more. We had some serious issues to work through last week, but I’m tired of needing to act like our hair is on fire at all times. I want a 9-5 job.

Home after 3 days away. Slipping back into my life like a warm bath of oatmeal.

I offered to bring Xopher home some dark chocolate coconut halva, then forgot to go back and pick it up when he said yeah. Oh well he said, they probably ship. I said, they probably sell it here. There’s really not a hell of a lot you can’t get here anymore, but I still always feel the urge to bring Xopher home some little souvenir.

Winter is just effing relentless. We are very bored. We drove, what, two, three hours yesterday just to be in a slightly different place. Wantastegok.

The meal we had at T. J. Buckley’s of Brattleboro was worth a drive even further than that. I do not think you can dine like this anywhere in the Burlington area. It’s a tiny place. “Located in a restored 1925 dining car,” you can peer over at the one-man-band making your meal. And I did – my scallop dish was so phenomenal, I kept looking over my shoulder, saying, “Really? Really?” As in, this came out of that one guy and that little room right there? Somehow if there were a closed door and an undisclosed number of people and gadgets, it would be more believable. Oh gosh, I’m hungry just remembering it. I kept getting notes of vanilla. If there was vanilla in it, they didn’t disclose.

Oh, understand that prices were through the roof, and justifiably so. I’m so glad we went, though.

I’m feeling lots of negativity lately. But I want this to be a more positive space. A beer might help.

How about a bread machine fail today!

I had an inspiring thought today. Thinking back to my nervous-breakdown years during my father’s decline, you know something that I never, ever find myself thinking? “I sure wish I’d worried more.”

In-law time; it’s do-over time. Do it better this time.

I don’t take a lot of food pictures. I’m generally too excited about eating. Sometimes I feel I made something really pretty though. This was last night.

The long ones are called Napoli; the fat ones are called Red-Cored Chantenay, but they didn’t seem to me to have red cores.

At top is a “Long Pie Pumpkin.” The other is a Delicata. I only got a few Delicata this year, and that’s fine – they were really terrible. I don’t know why. They were so starchy. Meanwhile, first time trying this Long-Pie oddball, and baked the thing, and it was delicious. I always plant pumpkins in the manure pile in the goat pen, knowing I’m going to lose some to hungry goats, and this year was no exception. But there are a few that seem to be safely out of their reach. I picked a huge one today. They don’t seem eager to turn fully orange but that doesn’t seem to adversely affect the yumminess inside.

Everyday lunch: homegrown tomatoes sliced in half, drizzled with a bit of olive oil & balsamic and salt. Tear up a couple of homegrown basil leaves. Toast a piece of bread. Slice up an ounce of mozzarella. I had been throwing the mozzarella in the salad but decided I prefer it toasted on the bread. Enjoy… it’ll frost soon enough.