2004-11-21 - 5:57 p.m. Let the Baking Begin! The craziest thing happened when I woke up on Saturday morning, after the first good night's sleep of the week: all of a sudden, I was infested with a festive holiday spirit. OK, so planning a visit to the valley to visit my childhood best friend, to include another tacky holiday light tour may have had something to do with it. I must warn you now though that if you are anti-consumerism or don't have a food loving bone in your body, this entry is not for you. Please go take the random survey that Allmadhere inspired instead. I called up my friend Rose, whom I had planned on meeting up with for some baking taste-testing that afternoon (I would bake and she owuld taste), to see if she'd be game for scrapping the baking for some holiday gift shopping. Since she had been going to pass on her standing saturday morning date with Target in order to hang out with me, she was easily swayed. We sped down the freeway to the much loved and rarely visited Target Greatland (as a non-driver, I never go to any of these ubiquitous big box retailers except on random shopping excursions with friends, like this one.) I held myself back from buying Hello Kitty in all her many product extensions, but convinced Rose she needed the Hello Kitty water cooler for her desk. I would have considered buying it, but the girl 1 cube over from my double wide* has one. While at Target, I bought my beloved a soft furry mouse with a velcro-sealed pouch for holding fresh catnip. So far, he likes this better than any toy ever. He bites it, flings it into the air, carries it around from place to place, and even brought it to me in bed like a present (as he used to on weekend mornings in San Diego, but with partially- or formerly alive critters). Other shopping highlights include finally replacing my hissing, dripping, messy coffeemaker; some amazing caramel filled ghiradelli chocolate squares at Cost Plus; and buying some amazing sugar wafer body lotion that smells heavenly (to replace my Philosophy "Be Somebody" which my Sephora is not carrying now). Pretty darn productive, and a good opportunity to catch up with Rose. I also got a lot of ideas for holiday gift giving of the pre-made kind. While yesterday was consumer focused, today was 100% all about food. Baked treats to make for holiday gift packages, and consideration of what to do for Thanksgiving. Unlike last year, when I had to babysit a boy with a newly repaired heart, and thus didn;t contribute anything to the feast other than my tired, dark-circled, drooping eyes, I am on deck for hors d'eouvres and a dessert, plus bringing wine. Historically, I also go over early with breakfast for the hosts, which has typically been bread pudding and mimosa fixings. After pouring over a bunch of cookbooks and food mags, I've narrowed myself down to: salt cod brandade with crostini, cheese crackers, brioche loaves with blue cheese and figs or fig jam, chocolate truffle cupcakes, cornmeal biscotti with cheddar cheese and dill, bread pudding with hard sauce; and orange scones. I don;t know that I will actually *bring* all this over, but I will certainly *make* all these treats and bring the cream of the crop to the dinner. This means being home Tuesday night for the grocery delivery (after going to the farmers market that morning for some special ingredients), and prepping/baking Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I am excited to have a nice big audience for my baking...and how lovely to have it line up with a new job that affords me the ability to splurge on these luxuries. All this food talk has made me hungry though. Off now to order some Indian food. xo P.S. The folks at work weren't quite sure what to make of my dry humor when I announced I was getting a "double wide" -- they made my cube 2-cube sized to reflect my grade level. This gave me room for a table and chairs. Pretty cool, but also funny to me. any comments? (1 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09