The items you can find in my refrigerator are generally interesting looking things like the gravy from that roast chicken we had three weeks ago. You remember honey, don't you? Every few days I'll be rummaging through looking for that jar of salsa I thought I remembered having some where back here, and come across a piece of pizza from who knows when. Usually I will throw the greenish discovery away, but sometimes I don't and it continues to grow new sorts of cancer curing fungi.

I inherited this trait from my father's mother. My dad always said Helen discovered penicillin LONG before the rest of the world. I remember making Grandma a cup of tea when I was a teenager, but never having one myself because I was never sure of the state of the milk lurking behind that sealed yellow door.

Fast forward to my life today with a refrigerator that I am mostly responsible for, and you will probably find penicillin. (The milk is hardly ever bad thankfully.) Being good little homeowners we ate all the eggs and drank all the milk before we embarked on our two week holiday trip. We did not, however, worry about ANY thing else inside the fridge. About two days before returning we were anxiously discussing the things that might greet us upon our arrival home. Things like a mud covered couch and lots of dust and dog hair were not far from our minds, then like a bolt of lightening the fridge crossed our minds simultaneously and we stared at each other in the utmost fear. We both knew what I was capable of and we weren't excited to rush home to it.

Reluctantly the day we arrived, we opened the refrigerator hoping nothing would crawl out and climb up our legs. I put on the rubber gloves, Thomas grabbed the trash can and we went in head first. Dumping the contents of Tupperware containers, washing the shelves, we selected only first rate items to return to the inside.

In the deep dark corner, low down, behind six other sauces, salsas and leftovers, we discovered a can of lump claw crab meat, a lovely, yet odd, yarn store parting gift that a loyal customer gave me to enjoy. Surely it couldn't still be good, could it? I closed the store in April. We found the BEST IF USED BY date and what do you know? It said Feb. 2008! WHOH! WOW! YAY!

In celebration we made this amazing, perfectly risen, Crab Soufflé.

I seem to have taken an unintentional vacation from blogging and all things internet related. I've still be toting my camera around with me so at least the last few days have not gone by undocumented!

All the baking I did was so much fun. Here is the chocolate mousse, apple pie and pumpkin pie. The chocolate mousse was the best I've ever made!



My apple pie experiment went perfectly. I hadn't made an apple pie before Thursday, and I was very pleased with the result!



We had a great time at my cousin's home for Thanksgiving dinner, although we had a little accident in the driveway!



Then on Friday we just did projects around the house. I washed the dogs and took pictures in the yard.



Pink carpet:



Cactus blossom:



Angel's trumpet tree (that I nearly killed prior to planting, now it's blooming!):



Sassy Lola:



Saturday was completely lazy. I stayed in bed for a while and Lola came to join me. Thomas threw the covers over her and she stayed all cuddled up for a long nap.



All in all it was a much-needed, quiet, restful weekend. The morning will bring a busy week of freelance jobs.

I am excited to get started with my baking today! Maybe I shouldn't say baking, because both items I plan to make today are no-bake. I will be making the chocolate mousse I talked about here, and Russian cream. I can't start to early in the day because I have some work to do this morning and that really needs to be out of the way before I commence the mess making I call baking. Because the first step to cleaning up, as we all know, is licking every bowl, utensil and surface clean of chocolate mousse until the sugar rush is so intense you couldn't possibly engage your brain to do work at a computer because you're so cracked out you can't even sit down! Hooray!

I'm excited about Thanksgiving. I think its my favorite holiday. It doesn't involve anything but getting together, eating, drinking and having a good time. The first set of winter holidays after Thomas and I started dating, my family, all eleven of us, was invited to Thomas's parents' home. Pauline put on a huge meal for over twenty people serving all sorts of wonderful dishes I had never tried before. She had parsnips, leeks and little tiny onions in a fabulous gravy. We were stuffed to the gills and well beyond sated. Then she brought out the desserts. Wow! Pauline likes to put on a holiday just so she can make dessert, and more dessert and more dessert. There was apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate mousse, Russian cream and more. My family was dumbfounded with the number of sweet selections we had to choose from that day.

This Thanksgiving, I am not making the meal, hooray! We have been invited to my cousin's home in Orange County. When the invitation came in I quickly replied, "Sure! We'll bring dessert!"

I'm doing Thanksgiving 'Pauline style.' After all these years I now have a collection of my favorite recipes, my mom's pumpkin pie, Pauline's Russian cream and chocolate mousse. I am also going to try a new apple pie recipe, fresh crust and all.



Below is Pauline's famous chocolate mousse. It's an easy recipe, only six ingredients and so delicious. (My brother tried to horde the bowl all for himself on that Thanksgiving day nine years ago. I think he succeeded too, I have a very vivid picture in my mind of him clutching it tightly to his chest and giving other diners an evil glare.) Really you should try it. It's awesome.

Pauline's Famous Chocolate Mousse
8 oz semisweet chocolate
1/4 c butter
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c sugar
1 c whipping cream, whipped

In a medium saucepan over very low heat, melt butter and chocolate stirring constantly. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, combine 4 yolks and vanilla. Using wire whisk gradually add the chocolate to yolks blending well. In a small bowl, beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into chocolate. Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

Of the things I miss most from Pennsylvania, pierogies are number two. (Tastykake Kandy Kakes are number one.) Have you ever heard of the wonderful fried treats called pierogies? That's what I thought. Pierogies are a delightful Hungarian potato dough dumpling filled with fluffy mashed potatoes, boiled then deep fried. I then enjoy them salted and carefully drizzled with ketchup.

We have tried to find them in California, but nobody knows what we're talking about when we ask. We then commence the story about how our favorite hot dog restaurant, Yocco's, offers these little fried bites of heaven, and oh how we're craving them. We just can't go on living without them. Yocco's sells the Doggie Pac which includes a dozen dogs, buns and all the fixings. My dad has been keeping us filled with Yocco's dogs for the last few years by air mailing a Doggie Pac on Thomas's birthday or whenever he thinks Thomas has a hankering. Yocco's does not, unfortunately for us, package their pierogies!

A few days ago, I received a cryptic email from my dad. "Expect a package on Thursday." We speculated what it could be, one can never be too sure when dealing with my family. We waited and pondered some more.

Thursday came and here's what arrived:



Pierogies! Six DOZEN pierogies to be exact. He split the order into different varieties sending us potato and cheese, plain cheese, and potato and onion. I dropped a dozen in the fryer and they turned out perfectly!

: :: ::: :: :

Millie's Pierogi, get some for yourself, here.

Last week I picked up an issue of Fine Cooking magazine that had arrived a few months ago. At the time of its arrival all mail that was not incredibly important or ridiculously threatening went into a large pile in some hidden corner of my house. So now I have started going through all the back mail and life that had been put on hold while we planned for our wedding.

I discovered a recipe that is sure to be a household if not family favorite. Lemon cheesecake topped with, an already family favorite, lemon curd.



It was easy to make, not messy, no cheesecake water bath, fast, and best of all... delicious.

Well, making a mess is one of my favorite things so therefore baking fits right in to my life. Somehow, though I manage to dirty every surface of the kitchen whenever I bake. I don't mean a little flour here and there, I mean every mixing bowl, every measuring implement, the mixer, blender and oven. It is an amazing skill that I am honored to posses. My husband thinks otherwise.

I think Susie Ghahremani is one of the best illustrators I've seen in a while, and I'm going to pick up some of these to inspire me to make even more fabulous messes in the kitchen.