Between my cooking, my mom’s cooking, and the mountain of leftovers, I don’t think the oven has been off for more than 10 minutes all day! At one point, I went into the freezer to retrieve some frozen turkey carcasses for mom’s turkey soup, and I happened upon these little treats:

When I was visiting over the summer, I found a bottle of lavender syrup left over from a family trip to Canada when I was about 16 (over 10 years ago!). Thinking the syrup might be stale, I simmered it a bit and then spooned quarter-sized drops onto wax paper to make little lavender candies. Apparently, they’ve been sitting in the freezer for the past six months, layered in their wax paper. I snacked on three today, and they taste as good as new!

While waiting for lunch to cook, I also snacked on quite a bit of the batter and ingredients for these muffins while mom was hard at work on them.

For lunch, I scanned the fridge for anything nearing the end of its lifespan, as usual. I came up with these:

wrinkly peppers, eggplant, carrots

Which became this:

Roasted at 450 for 40 minutes with olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper:

Steaming, on top of lettuce (the very very last of it!), and sprinkled with feta and toasted walnuts:

With three more “latkes” on the side:

PHEW! The oven and I are going to take a little rest now. Check back later for a very exciting dinner!!