It’s amazing how much a place can mean to us—to me. I remember being a teenager and sending letters to a sibling living abroad about things that had changed in the house, also noting those that were still the same.

I also like that I’ve returned to writing, after taking an extra long break. The breaks I reward myself with after I finish writing a book, and while the breaks feel like a relief after so much creative output, their length makes the return of writing feel particularly novel and fresh.

Fat pants. It’s beginning to look a lot like fat pants. I’m kidding (not really), but we have officially entered the season of treats. Not only have I started baking my annual holiday loaves (this year’s flavor is Gingerbread), which naturally means I have to taste each batch, but I’m also receiving extra treats from others (this weekend I’ve been gifted a pack of Levain Bakery cookies…one of my NYC favorites). And then there’s the holiday events. Between holiday brunches and dinners and luncheons and parties and cookie exchanges, the calendar is as full as my belly will likely be ALL MONTH LONG.

Remember that book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter? Yeah, I never read it either. Supposedly it walks you through those things you're better off making yourself (nutrition-wise?, cost-wise?, complexity-wise?) and those you should just get at the store. Since I didn't read it, the only piece of advice I took away from it was what I gleaned from the title. Even that has taken years for me to implement, but among my list of culinary items to tackle in 2022 (including lasagna, bread pudding, homemade pasta, and a bakery-worthy layer cake) is to make bread.

What you're looking at is chicken. Vegan chicken, that is. It's a recipe I recently got from my sister-in-law that has become a regular staple for me. It requires ingredients like Vital Wheat Gluten and Nutritional Yeast (both of which I had previously never heard of), although what I can't get over is the way the recipe produces a dough...a dough that then gets steamed into a solid state and somehow becomes these, for lack of a better term, blobs. Honestly, when I'm making it I can't help but feel like I'm some kind of scientist in a laboratory, you know, just growing chicken blobs from dough. As you do.

Things I miss about fall: changing leaves, cool temperatures, sweaters, light jackets, the smell of campfire, rainy days, and baking sweet things. I also miss all the Ohio State crap in everybody's yard. But don't tell anyone.