Eating Season

The whole month of December seems to be eating. It is one luncheon or dinner after another. In between times, the oven goes full steam and nibbles occur daily. Every magazine has some delicate recipe or an artistic presentation made from edibles. Thanksgiving opens the food door with pumpkin pie, Christmas coconut cake and spicy pecans rush in.

This has not been a good cooking year for me. I seem to have one failure after another. Even my old standbys are less than stellar in looks and taste. I really do NOT need to buy any new magazines for recipes or decorating ideas. I have limited space for the lovelys shown in magazines. The recipes are often the same ones with new names or slight variations.

A new magazine on the market is The Cottage Journal. The pictures are elegant and inspiring, worth dreaming over with a cup of hot tea. The Winter edition had some good recipes worth trying…despite my track record this year! I made the Parmesan crackers; they turned out well but too strong a taste for us to “love” them.

However, last night I made the Lemon Chicken Soup with Spinach. It was easy in that it used rotisserie chicken and enough lemon juice to give it a citrusy kick. I knew DH would balk when he saw green stuff in his soup, but I did it anyway. He has had a virus for five days and I convinced him he needed the iron! Even he liked this simple and light soup. Instead of a holiday soup this one will become a steady favorite I think.

There is another soup recipe waiting to be tried and that is a Creamy Leek and Onion. It takes eight cups of onions and then two more of leeks. I think I will wait a few days to cook that one up…I was pushing my luck last night with a pound of spinach!