Domesticated

I have been baking up a storm lately, and I feel like I should record this streak, since it rarely happens. I've been inspired by the holidays and by the coziness of a warm oven when it's cold outside. So far, I've made:

• Pumpkin pie and lemon meringue pie! Who knew pumpkin pie was so easy? And lemon meringue was fun to make. I had no idea that the filling had so many egg yolks in it. 
• Maple nutmeg butter cookies. Made them to go along with my old stand-by, oatmeal scotchies, for our highly successful neighborhood cookie swap. They were tasty, and our swap was a great way to meet some people in our 'hood. We have way too many cookies in the house now.
• Matzo ball soup. Just because. 
• Chicken pot pie. Again, just because it was cold outside and warm inside. Very hygge. 
• Chili with bulgur wheat. Kyle is not a fan of bulgur wheat or garbanzo beans, and I included both ingredients in this dinner. Maybe tweak that next time around. 
• Zucchini bread and pumpkin bread. As a gift for the women at daycare and for us to enjoy.

We also received word that our quarter of a local cow has been slaughtered, packaged and frozen at a butcher in Plain. I will pick that up sometime in the next week or so and then go searching for freezer space in which to store it. I'm excited to have many packages of good beef to use through the winter and next summer. If you have any great ideas about how to use beef in recipes, I'd love to hear them, as I have cooked very little red meat in my time.