One good reason for doing your dishes immediately after eating is so that when you learn on wednesday at work that you will, in fact, have company over for dinner on thursday, you don't have to scamper to figure out when you'll do the sink full of dishes between now, the bonfire you're going to tonight, and work tomorrow. However, that does mean I get to turn my old hen that's been sitting in the freezer into stock and make some thai-style winter root veg curry (I'm making up the recipe - leeks were too expensive and pathetic-looking) with lemongrass (cheaper than leeks!) and black soy beans (my new favorite bean for asian-style meals - they absorb flavor so well!), add into that some kraut-cum-kimchi (I'll be adding chilis, ginger, garlic, and thin-sliced turnips to some of my kraut and letting it all sit in brine overnight so the flavors can meld), and some spiced peach cobbler, I say we'll have ourselves a dinner. Whether or not the kitchen will survive, that i don't know.

In other news - I ran out of my lovely local onions yesterday. I probably had 10 pounds or so for the winter, and they were perfect, little single-serving onions. Moral of the story: I'll need double the onions for next year.

I'm also on a mission to have more dinner parties so that i can use up the rest of my winter storage veggies as spring comes upon us. Anyone have some good winter veg recipes you want to share?