Stuff I Like.

It's getting on towards the holidays and, while I'm not huge on traditions, I do love the food. The absolute best part about Christmas, for example, is that I get to have people over which means I get to buy party food. I get to buy really fancy cheeses and make dips and stuffed mushrooms and mulled wine and cookies. Lots and lots and lots of cookies. And cheese. Did I mention the cheese? There's always a ton left over and there's nothing better than a lunch of nothing but cheese and crackers with a little wine on the side and then cookies for dessert. Oh, and cheese wafers! Shit, I love those so much.

For Thanksgiving my mother insists on doing the whole turkey thing and I think her head would explode if we tried to take it away from her. It's not even worth it. My sister and I both provide sides and often confound our mother by insisting on mashed potatoes even though her people always had rice. (I mean, seriously. Who wouldn't rather have mashed potatoes? Screw the ancestors, I say.)

A few years ago a friend of mine who lives in Pennsylvania sent me a few boxed of John Cope's Corn:


It's dried sweet corn from which you make the most incredible and delicious corn pudding. It will make you delirious with corny joy. I've not had it for a few years now because you have to mail order it and that just annoys the crap out of me. Surely some local store can humor me and order a box or two? Sheesh, we can get bananas from Chile but nobody can order dried corn from Pennsylvania? Anyway, I order it this year if it comes to that because I NEED IT.