Last year I had a few co-workers over about a week before Christmas for a night of cookie and candy making. I made some french onion soup and we had a quick dinner followed by a frenzy of cooking and baking. We made the toffee over on my recipe page, chocolate dipped pretzels, majic cookie bars (aka 7 layer bars), potato chip cookies that didn't turn out that great, fudge, peanut brittle, and I think there were a few other things too. Everything was really tasty and we were all working at a different project at once, so we made a ton of stuff for one night's work and it was fun. This recipe for Chocolate Caramel Candy looks like it might be a good candidate for this year's holiday bake-fest. Thanks go out to FuckCorporateGroceries.net for posting the original link.

For about ten years I've been missing the chicken salad pita sandwich from Aladdin's Natural Eatery in Rochester, NY. Back when I lived in Rochester, my apartment was right around the corner from Aladdin's and my roommate and I would eat there at least once a week. The chicken salad was delicious and the super fresh pita was packed with cucumbers and sprouts. Aladdin's was the first place that hub and I visited when we were in Rochester earlier this year and the chicken salad pita was just as good as I had remembered. So today for lunch, I fiddled around with my own version which I found quite satisfactory. I made a dressing of plain yogurt, tahini and lemon juice and mixed in chicken, pecans (out of walnuts) and some green onion. It needs some finely crumbled feta and the apples next time, but it really has potential. Can't wait to get home and have another bite of it.

Mead update: It's getting better, but is still pretty bitter when the bottle is first opened, and I don't know what the alcohol content is, but it will kick yer ass! I really would not recommend having more than two bottles of that crazy stuff. I still stand by the assumption that if I made it again and didn't use the hops that it wouldn't be so bitter.

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Rome, we attended an Italian cooking class on Saturday. It wasn't so much a "class" as it was a social gathering. Elsa, the instructor, gets someone to volunteer their home for the get together and a bunch of people sign up to come and bring a bottle of wine. Elsa demonstrates each recipe and everybody gets a little plate of each menu item.

Saturday nights event featured a stuffed bread antipasti - like a little sandwich actually - a ciabatta bread with tomatoes and cheese and another one with anchovies and cheese; a primo of spaghetti w/red sauce and sauteed zucchini followed by a Segundo of chicken cacciatore which veered far from any chicken cacciatore I've ever had. This one featured chicken legs sauteed with onions, carrots, garlic and olive oil, yummy, but very different from what I expected. We also had tiramisu for dessert. All the food was very good and there were a lot of people, probably about a dozen couples!

We met some nice people, including a sweet young couple, Betsy and Eric, recently transplanted from Washington, DC. We exchanged phone numbers with them and hope to have them over for a Soprano's night sometime soon along with our friends Jen and Rob.

While looking for something completely different, I stumbled upon this site today AdventureGrrl! Building a Boat & a Dream and really enjoyed reading about some of her adventures in boating. There looks to be a lot of material here and I haven't even gotten through reading about the first trip where they took their 23' boat from Florida out to the Bahamas. It's interesting stuff so far and makes me a little envious of such an adventure.