Let's tie up some loose ends tonight.

1) Julia has asked for a tutorial on how to begin canning, something I am delighted to provide and upon which I am working feverishly. When Julia made the request her week had been, shall we say, difficult but things are looking up and I, for one, cannot think of a better way to be one with the looking up than to discuss the finer points of jar lifters. Stay tuned, you little minx.

2) Recently I mentioned the unlikely possibility of getting my hands on black currents and the fact that I had never seen salsify, let along cooked one. Well, shut me up because the other night Brainiac and I went to dinner at a lovely BYO not far from us and found on the menu both black currents and salsify, the latter of which I enjoyed immensely in a pureed form. So there you go.

3) I remembered what it was I forgot when I made my canning list for the year - mushroom ketchup and pickled mushrooms (the recipe actually calls them "marinated mushrooms" but let's call a spade a spade, o.k.?). I am so psyched about the ketcup, just thinking about that dense mushroomy flavor makes me imagine eating a good amount with a thick rare steak, single malt scotch and maybe a little dense chocolate for dessert. All those strong, assertive things all at once - decadent!

O.K., that's all for now. It's only 10:30p but I am feeling very weary for some reason. Maybe it's the glass of red wine I've been nursing for the last hour, maybe it's Entropy Girl's newly rediscovered enthusiasm for not sleeping through the night. Whatever the reason, this girl's going to bed. Night all!