it was about 38 degrees and raining the snow into slush all weekend, which meant it was a good time to hunker down in the kitchen. the following was accomplished without having to leave the house for ingredients:

– made chicken stock out of the carcass from the chicken i roasted last week
– completed the croissant experiment by defrosting, proofing, baking and consuming (with B’s help) the remaining croissants i made a few weeks ago. it turns out that that freeze beautifully when assembled but uncooked. hooray!
– turned week-old bagels into bagel chips
– turned a bag of stale bread into seasoned bread crumbs
– baked a loaf of rosemary wheat bread for this week’s lunches
– baked Laura Ingalls Wilder’s molasses cookies. they were a bit of a disappointment, but I can’t really blame her, given that 1) i made a handful of substitutions that might have damaged the flavor, and 2) she grew up in a world where the ultimate treat was getting to roast and eat the pig’s tail like it was a meat popsicle.*
– made black bean and quinoa salad with chipotle lime dressing for sunday dinner
– made a basic pie crust (rolled out, then layered in wax paper, rolled around a rolling pin, and frozen for future use)

finally, i sat down with a cup of ginger tea and game-planned dinner for valentine’s day. i’m making chicken pot pie for my man, because there are few things he loves better than from-scratch chicken pot pie, and there’s nothing i love better than him.

* should you decide to make them, my advice is: go all out with the orange zest, as the vanilla substitution is boring, increase the salt by 25-50%, don’t cut the molasses in half just because you don’t have enough and it’s raining and you don’t want to go to the store, and finally be prepared for a texture cookie. it’s all about the whole oats and coconut chewiness. though you’d be straying far from historical accuracy, some very dark chocolate chips would go into this nicely.