Good morning! I am thrilled that you read my blog and am grateful for each and every one of you. Please bear with me while I think about other things than just food. I am sitting in the kitchen drinking my morning coffee and musing.

Today it is snowing and I had thought winter had been on its way out! Son has returned from his travels in Vietnam. He is now watching those Vietnam War movies that were top hits back when. I have never watched any of those movies. You may remember Apocalypse Now, Deerhunter, Platoon. It was a troubling time and heartbreaking in a lot of ways. That was the era when I turned “Peacenik”. Just listening to the horrors is disturbing. My kitchen is wired with speakers so that we can have music throughout the house, but today it is the sounds of war!

My Dad served in the 101st Airborne in World War 2. He did not talk about his war years very much when we were young. After the fall of Saigon in 1975 he opened our home to a family of refugees from Vietnam. He told me at one time that this was to atone for the actions he had to take in the war, as well as to serve God by helping others since he survived the war intact. He found that people, especially young men, of my generation seemed fascinated by War. He thought this was because those men did not serve and did not experience War, just “Hollywood war”. My son’s father was one of those. And it looks like he passed that on to our son.

(I did not even know what Army division my father served in until my first husband got to talking with Dad and was totally impressed!)

So son got up early this morning as his body clock is out of whack from the 12 hour time difference. He made muffins using the Bittman How to Cook Everything Cookbook. He added dried apricots, almonds, and used vanilla almond milk. He thought they were a little dry. I think they have a nice flavor.

For dinner I am making a shepherd pie. Son had to excavate through the downstairs freezer to find the ground turkey I will use. I cook that up with onion and garlic and add a bunch of frozen mixed vegetables (one could cut up carrots and celery) and top it all with the leftover mashed potatoes from the steak dinner earlier this week. Maybe grate a little cheese on the top.

This week I have cooked and baked. I just did not take pictures or notes. I made a no-knead banana bread that is keeping very nicely and is wonderful toasted. This was from my Fleischmann’s Bread Book. I used this book most of my adult life for bread baking. I hadn’t thought about it for awhile. And I think they have a website! (put smiley face here)

I also made chicken and dumplings almost exactly like the recipe in the Soulard Market cookbook. I stewed the chicken, drained the broth, thickened the broth. Made the herbed dumplings. The only addition was a half bag of frozen vegetables to the broth. I usually don’t follow a recipe exactly!

It is still snowing. I think I’ll send the boy out to shovel after he finishes with his war!

Happy Friday and have a glorious weekend.