Total miscellany

Holy cats in pajamas, kids! It’s going to drop into the teens in sunny Colorado tonight, which probably doesn’t sound kuh-RAY-zee to anyone who doesn’t live here. I mean, it’s almost November, right? Except it was 84 degrees at my house yesterday, so today’s chill feels a bit chillier than it otherwise would. The weather forecast says we reached our high (52 degrees) early this morning and it’s only gonna get colder from there. And guess who wore a dress…

All that cold nonsense aside, I’m awfully glad for autumn’s arrival. Sure, the pool still hasn’t been winterized (turns out I’m a procrastinator – who knew?), and there is raking to be done in the yard, but all these reds and golds and browns on the trees, on the ground, and in the flowers in my gardens make me want to snuggle up with a latte and a plaid blanket to read. Nothing wrong with THAT, right?

In the spirit of autumn-and-pending-winter, I’ve started doling out my Thanksgiving invites. I have quite a few people to reach out to yet, but shopping lists are in progress, serving dishes are already being assigned to mains/sides/desserts, and I’m trying to find some sexy vegan cheeses to serve alongside the meatless sausages, roasted veggies, oil-cured olives, and figs on the critter-friendly “charcuterie” board. The goal here is to make everything sneakily vegan, with the exception of the turkeys (which someone else will have to make this year, if anyone wants to eat them – it won’t be this gal, ever again). I am adding more menu items (beet salad with grapefruit – WHAT??), and planning my BIG REVELATION, so it’s all got to look and taste fancier even than normal, if I’m to convince people that the vegan “stuff” is more delicious than the turkeys (so hopefully at some point we can skip them entirely). Last year, the only non-vegan items at the table were a few sticks of butter and the birds (a secret I’ve kept to myself up until now, since my family is hella persnickety like that).

What is it about fall that makes me feel so motivated to DO stuff?? But not today – today, I’ll be at the office until the snow starts to fly, at which point I will hop in my car and make the long, long, long trek home to warmth, safety, and “almost weekend.”