I'll have a picture of the gingerbread house up soon. To alleviate what I'm sure is your overwhelming curiousity, I'll say this for now: it looks as if I gave a three year old access to frosting and candy. No structural engineer would ever sanction the building itself, but it's sweet, colorful and charming and the boy is wonderfully proud of his achievement. Good enough for me.


Last night's advent dinner was kind of a cheater: stromboli and cheese fries from the local pizza place. It was fabulous! We're trying not to eat out as much in order to 1) save money and 2) save money, but sometimes you just really want a stromboli, you know. My mom makes a great one, but she's 500 miles away which seemed a little much for a Sunday evening's drive to dinner. I'm going to have to get her recipe, 'cause now I think I'm developing a stromboli thing. What's not to love - cheese, pepperoni, veggies, and sauce all wrapped up in a bread envelope. Oh man...might have to have another one for lunch tomorrow.


Dinner tonight is a roasted chicken stuffed with preserved lemons and garlic. I wish I could transmit how amazing this smells to you (coming soon to a kitchen PC near you: the Smeller-Net, by Al Gore). It has got to be one of the most amazing scents in the world. Anyway, it came about because I was poking around the basement and saw a box that hadn't been opened from our move back in March. Inside were three pints of applesauce, two quarts of the lemons and some mango jam. Yay! I felt like I had won the lottery. Don't know how these got mis-packed in the first place or mis-laid in the basement in the second, but who cares, really? So I ran right out to buy myself a chicken to roast. To go with: a potato gratin (another thing I'm big on these days) and crusted carrots.


My mom taught me about crusted carrots - they are a great side dish because they retain a carrot's natural sweetness, but make it also richer (and they taste great sprinkled with the lemony-garlicky cooking juices from the chicken). Plus, they're super easy to make - much more so than a pudding or even glazing. To make them, peel and julienne however many carrots you want. Dip them into a raw egg that has been lightly beaten and then in seasoned flour (I season with salt and pepper, and usually an herb or two: finely chopped rosemary is great, as is thyme). Place into a buttered or sprayed shallow baking dish and dot with butter. Cook at oh, say, 350 or so for about half an hour, until the carrots are heated through and the flour mixture is golden. Some of the coating will fall off, revealing the deep orange underneath.


Newsflash: I have just been alerted that we have lost our mailbox to what looks like a game of mailbox baseball. Looks like another trip to Lowes is in the offing.