The Knead Bakery

A bunch of years ago, my mother said to me, "When are you going to learn to buy desert?"

At the time I took it as an insult to my baking.

But this year I learned. I picked up 2 pies from the Knead Bakery Team. Born out of the womb knowing the perfect balance of butter and flour and sugar, these women are masters.

I got an apple crème fraîche pie and a pumpkin cheesecake.

OMG. Sublime. THANK YOU!

Mocktails

I am going on 9 months sober.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would make me a Shirley Temple or such drink so that I would have a special drink too at 5pm.

Seems like I still need that. And cuz I did not feel like drinking water all night, I brought my own mocktail fixings to Thanksgiving Dinner at my friends.

For starters:
- Italian peach juice, Pellegrino and a squeeze of citrus
Tangerine is great if you have it, but the lemon that my host had worked well too.

With dinner:
Pomegranate Juice and Pellegrino
Lime is really good in this and if you feel like being indulgent, pour a little cherry juice in too.

Pasta with Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes and a Lemon Creme Sauce

A while ago I mused about becoming a vegetarian again. I must have forgotten about bacon. And my therapist recommended against stopping eating meat.

Barbara Washburn would never make this. "Too much fatness."

1. Set a pot of salted water on a course to boil
2. Thinly slice a few slices (or more) of bacon.
3. In a heavy pan, like Crueset, render the bacon. When done, remove bacon with slotted spoon, leaving the fat.
4. Cut up 2 raw chicken breasts into bite size pieces and cook in bacon fat.
5. While chicken cooks, slice up some red onion. Mince a serrano pepper. Cut a package of Olivia's amazing sun dried tomatoes into slices. Finely zest a Meyer Lemon. Finely chop some Italian Parsley.
7. When chicken is almost done, but not quite, remove with slotted spoon.
8. Add more olive oil to pan if necessary, and add onions. Eventually add the minced serrano and sun dried tomatoes.
9. When onions seem to your liking, add some white wine or other liquid to deglaze the pan and help soften the sun dried tomatoes.
10. I added some turmeric for color. If Eric like saffron, I would have added that.
11. When water boils add pasta. Tonight we used our favorite noodle, Strangled Priest.
12. Add 1/2 pint of heavy whipping creme to pan. Stir and allow to simmer and thicken. Add chicken back in to allow it to finish cooking.
13. When pasta is done, drain and add to sauce. Stir in lemon zest and chopped parsley. Serve.

The pasta was really pretty and golden with flecks of red sun dried tomatoes and green parsley.