Q: How to know you've probably done too much baking in one day?

A: When you reach out for something with your left hand and are horrified to realize that you're using all four of your fingers together, as one, to oppose your thumb. Just like you would, if your left hand was in an oven mitt.Yes, indeed, the holiday baking is done at last. The final tally of destruction: two batches each of fudge, Boston cream candy, gingerbread, chocolate chip cookies, peanut brittle, and one batch of blondies.

As if I needed more proof that it was time to document recipes, I got another reminder last night. I hadn't been able to find my (Shirley's) peanut brittle recipe, and I made plans to copy it from her after Thanksgiving dinner last night. Except that—true to how things have been lately—we rooted through her recipe books and couldn't find this particular recipe to save our souls.

Perhaps I should classify this as Official Cooking Week on domesticat.net. It certainly seems to be what's occupying my waking time. Today, especially; I think I've finally conquered gingerbread. I tasted one of the gingerbread-humans I baked, and they're yummy. Dark, spicy, but soft.

This fudge is dangerous—and useful.

Back before Jeff and I got married, I had a lot of friends who were from northeast Arkansas. I wanted to see all of them, but I also didn't want to wear out my welcome. Thus, I would pack about two changes of clothes and move from house to house, staying only a night or so at each place and washing my clothes upon each arrival.

I'm now about to do something that I've never done before—radically change an entry after it's been posted.

This entry originally appeared on 11/17/2001; today is 11/21/2001. Originally, I ranted about how the Moving Fairy seemed to have discovered my January 2000 issue of Fine Cooking and taken it for her own. The problem: that magazine contained the Boston cream candy recipe I loved dearly.

I tore my house apart looking for that magazine. I believe I must have loaned it to someone and forgotten to ask for it back.

Since I've been torturing you guys with long entries lately, I thought I'd throw in something a little more whimsical. Some of these answers won't surprise you at all; some will.

4 things you would eat on the last day of your life:

1. Nigiri sushi (guess I'd better die in Vancouver)
2. Real vanilla ice cream with dulce de leche on top
3. A few squares of super-dark, bittersweet chocolate (Valrhona rocks my world)
4. Linguine with asparagus and cream sauce

4 CDs from your collection that you will never get tired of:

1. Jonatha Brooke, Plumb
2. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam
3. Underworld, Beaucoup Fish
4. Anything by Tom Lehrer

4 movies that you watch over and over:

1. Say Anything
2. Anything by Steven Soderbergh
3. BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
4. Casablanca