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Maida Heatter's Mexican chocolate icebox cookies

Brussels sprouts with bacon... yum!

Maida Heatter's Mexican chocolate icebox cookies... keep a log in the freezer, and perfect warm, spicy chocolate cookies are never more than 15 minutes away.

Devilled eggs... yum!

This time of year, just about anything roasted: brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, sweet potatoes, winter squash... Oh, now I'm hungry!

In the Seattle area, Dixie's is my favorite.

The darker the better

Today? White stilton with lemon peel

Crisp just around the edges, and pliant (chewy!) in the middle.

ham, brie, cornichons, country dijon, crusty baguette

Sesame bagel, toasted, cream cheese, lox,
red onion and capers in winter, a thick slice of ripe tomato in summer.

And a double tall latte. (I'm a Seattleite.)

Since I love vegetarian food, it's hard to pick a favorite, so I'll choose the most recent: Deborah Madison's Mushroom Flagstaff, from The Savory Way. They're a lighter take on the Vegetarian Epicure's Mushrooms Berkeley, which was a favorite in my college years.

My mother is the devil in my kitchen, not because of her cooking, but because she "reorganizes" the kitchen cabinets when she cleans up in our kitchen. I have spent days trying to find kitchen items that she "put away" in some (to my mind) unlikely place.