Four days left

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with a little heavy cream. Some EXTREMELY fatty bacon. In fact, I couldn't even really eat it. I ended up cutting it up into tiny pieces and adding it to the very bland leftover bean soup in hopes it improves and makes them both useful. Coffee.

Lunch: Turkey and the last of the gravy. Although I am sad to see it go, as gravy is wonderful as a rule, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment to polish off whole items from this odyssey of Thanksgiving leftovers, I feel like I have crested the mountain and am on the downward road now.

Tea: Yes, we had tea today at 4pm. We are very civilized. This was really an excuse to eat two shortbread cookies in the afternoon... I still have a ways to go here, if anyone wants to come to tea tomorrow.

Dinner: Salad, the same one from last night. It is a very winter vegetable salad: cabbage, celery, apple, red onion. The dressing is from the beet salad recipe. We also finished off the stuffing (Hooray!) by heating it up and throwing some chopped up turkey in with it.

I am planning on going to the store tomorrow now that I can see around the leftovers in my fridge and am noticing things like we haven't had milk in four days. (We have 3 containers of heavy cream though). So while I was looking around and making a list I decided to make provisions I can with what is here. I am getting much better at figuring out how to work with what I have, adapting recipes or making things up completely on my own. Before this project began I was very recipe dependent, running to the store when I didn't have the thing I needed. Now I feel like I understand the basics of food so much better and can make substitutions more easily and confidently, and I almost never look around the kitchen with a feeling of hopelessness sighing, "There is nothing to eat here!" In fact, this weekend's gluttony aside, there has actually been a lot less food here than at almost any other point in the last several years, yet I can always figure something out.

Right now I am simmering a pot of chicken stock, waiting for toasted oats to cool to make granola, steeping fennel seeds in warm oil for a salad I am going to make tomorrow, and I just finished making mini-meatballs. I'm going to watch the Biggest Loser while I wait for the stock to finish. Good day.