triscuits and the end of a hiatus

man, who invented triscuits? why are they so addictively good? they're like healthy potato chips - fiber replaces the potatoes but the salt is still there, so eating one means eating about twenty. ok, maybe not twenty - there's a limit on how much fiber one can eat in one sitting - but still...i wouldn't be surprised if there are huge triscuit boxes in my dreams, urging me to eat more triscuits.

as i sit here thinking of all of the wonderful food-related things i am going to do - like go hunt down a good butcher in the north end, finally find that russian food store from my childhood, make another pilgrimage to formaggio kitchen - i can't help but realize that i only have four weeks in which to cram about a semester's worth of food exploits. hmph. i have grand plans for weekend brunches at 24 - but there's only 4 weekends! perhaps some of those weekend brunches will have to come on weekdays. and the most amazing thing about this statement is that some of those weekend brunches actually could come on weekdays, since i will technically be on vacation.

regardless of how much of my list of food things to do that i get through - and based on how much of it i got through during the summer when i lived at 44, it won't be much - i am determined to make up for last semester's dearth of things food. well, ok, not really a dearth, but every morning that i wake up, i'm amazed that i'm still alive. the semester was really just a very lovely, intense blur that passed in the blink of an eye, and the contrast between that and the wonderful nothing that i'm doing right now is as stark as it gets. i enjoy being at home, but (brace yourself for another outpouring of love for knives) i can't wait to get back to my knives, poor neglected things. i feel like i've only been flirting with them, and january is for actually getting to know them. i will finally stop being slightly afraid of the mac, with its ability to cut off my digits without a second thought, and learn both knives so that i know exactly when to use each one. mmm....

i've also come to the conclusion that i will never be a professional chef. i might have a bakery at some point, but when it comes to professional ambition, i know i'm really just not good enough to be more than a better-than-average home cook. ah, reality. i also don't really care to be good enough to be one of those famous, cutting-edge cooks - i'd rather generate large amounts of comfort food with a little experimentation on the side. i would like to have that neighborhood bakery where everyone lines up for bread in the morning...

on the list of food exploits:
- restaurants to go to : family restaurant in brookline, taberna de haro near nora's,
- food places to go to : russian food stores in brookline/allston/brighton, formaggio kitchen, butcher's shops in the north end, trader joe's, whole foods
- food things to make : bread....lots of bread, brunchy things on sunny-but-cold sunday mornings, banana cream pie with a graham cracker crust that has been brushed with chocolate, cheesecake, carrot cake, i freely admit that i have a sweet tooth the size of california, a wedding cake (yes, i just said "a wedding cake"), butternut squash anything, salt-roasted chicken, clay-pot-chicken...