Wow

I have to say, I started this blog as a way to catalogue my own experiments with cooking. It's provided a great repository of recipes (and trials and errors) that I've returned too frequently. Towards the end of this past quarter though, things were getting crazy with school and grad school applications and all the extra cooking I wanted to do became more like a chore than a nice relief. I definitely plan on continuing my blog and hopefullyI can keep up with the "something sweet and something savory" each week eventually. After I get into the swing of things, I'll be happy to have regular, weekly updates for a bit though.

In the meantime, it's been a really long time since I updated last. Being home comes with it's ups and downs.

Ups

• large, warm, cozy bed and I don't have to pay the gas bill to keep it warm and cozy
• I get to see all of my friends from undergrad and get to see my family for more than a couple days
• I get to enjoy Lexington, Chinese places that deliver, and good pizza-and-beer places to eat.
• I don't have to work (first break in more than two years, though I haven't calculated how long exactly).

Downs

• No decent internet connection that lets me update or correspond with any sort of regularity. (Thankfully Danville is only a 20-minute drive from home)

I don't think I'll be able to completely update until I return to school, shortly after Christmas, but I definitely have some great recipes I want to log on here: starry starry night cookies from Confections of a Closet Master Baker, lime snowball cookies, cranberry bliss bars, and lemon drop meringues for starters. My dining room table (where all of the sweets are getting ready to be gift wrapped and given to friends and family) looks a little like a winter wonderland of Christmas confections - and I couldn't be happier with them :)

I also really want to try this dessert I saw on a some show or another. Basically, the chef made a large meringue snowman, half-baked it, scooped out the uncooked insides, returned the shell to the oven to crisp up, then filled the shell with chocolate mousse. TOO CUTE and I bet delicious as all get out.

My oh my oh, when I return to Ohio, great things will come :)