Food, Glorious Food!

My astronomically long pregnancy-induced hiatus from the kitchen is so over with a vengeance. I have spent the last three or four days just happily browsing through my cookbooks and bookmarking recipes I intend to make - like, sometime this week.

Part of the problem is that my regular lunch parnter Jamie has been on lunch hiatus for an astronomically long work-induced time, and so I've been spending my lunch hours with Carol, who is great company but doesn't eat out (she's one of these healthy vegetarian bring-a-sandwich-and-yogurt-to-work types), so we spend our time wandering around Mothercare (hurray!) and Morrisons (grocery store?) and for some reason we've both gotten into a baking craze and just walk around the baking aisle thinking of things to bake when we get home.

On my list of baking To-Dos are peppermint pinwheel sugar cookies, chocolate covered cherries and strawberries, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter balls and fudge. And maybe some Aztec brownies and shortbread.

I'm so interested in making these things, but so aware of the fact that I can't or wouldn't even want to eat them all, that I've been trying to think of people I could invite over for a Candy Eating Party, but I realise that the truth is, no girl is going to actually go to a party called a Candy Eating Party because it's just too open and honest about what would be going on - something like a swinger party maybe - to be justified. They'd all say, 'Oh, I shouldn't I'm trying to be good' when you know darn well that they're just - okay, they're right, it would be a horrible idea, but maybe if I called it a 'Popcorn and Movie Party' and then just served loads of cakes and candies I could get away with it. Hmmm... I have some popcorn...

Caramel popcorn balls! Rice Krispie treats! Oooooh yum!

(I suppose not all of the above-mentioned falls directly into the 'baking' category, but it's definitely kitchen-based.)

I'll just have to satiate myself with making an Evil Jungle Prince with Thai noodles for dinner tomorrow night and those no-bake cookies that I promised to bring to The Haven* Open Day tomorrow afternoon.






*The Haven is Kilmacolm's 'Teen Challenge' even though it's not officially part of Teen Challenge, but it is still a Christian drug rehabilitation centre which our church is heavily involved in.