The new improved Patricia

Working from home this afternoon so I can watch the crockpot as the chili cooks away (as a professional paranoid I won't leave the house while it's on.) Had a mini-meltdown at grocery store when I realized they were out of ground bison which is what I normally use, and there was much dithering before I finally decided the all-natural ground angus beef would be an acceptable substitute.

I still buy ingredients for one recipe at a time, so the contents of my pantry is limited to a few cans of soup, pasta, rice, saltines, and whatever I plan on cooking that night. But I do indeed cook, which makes a remarkable change from the years when dinner was invariably a frozen box with a picture on it.

I cook so I can eat well, but I don't enjoy it. What I did love was baking, but I rarely do so any more. Partly because there's no one to share it with (when you work in a building that's mostly deserted, you can't count on coworkers to devour the extras), and partly because I've changed my diet so that cookies, cake and brownies are rare exceptions, no longer every day snacks. But the holidays are coming up, and one of these days I'm sure the flour, sugar, chocolate chips and etc. will spontaneously leap into my cart and force me to take them home.