Paul and Tom are both home this weekend, and cooking for them has been a such a pleasure. On Saturday I soaked kidney beans and then made soup with a base of corn-cob broth (frozen in August during corn season), my own canned tomatoes, dried Mexican peppers that Baron gave me last time I saw him, and a topping of cilantro (which is hanging on in the garden despite the frost). Paul asked for biscuits, and I also made a salad of garden arugula, hen-in-the-woods mushrooms (picked on last week's hike), and baby peas (frozen in July).

Then yesterday I went honey-mushroom picking in my own woods and found enough to flavor lasagna. I fried them with garlic, a fat garden leek, and a handful of kale that the deer forgot to eat. Then I layered that mixture with lasagna noodles, ricotta, goat cheese, mozzarella, and a spicy tomato sauce I froze in August. For a salad I grated raw beets and raw carrots and tossed them with salt and rice vinegar. And finally I made a raspberry cobbler with the berries I'd saved from the summer.

It was lovely to cook, and lovely to have such cheerful eaters. We listened to playoff baseball and we watched a Steve McQueen movie and we teased the cat, and it was exactly like living in a happy family.