I’m sleepy already, and it’s only 8:30 p.m. I was planning to bake tonight, but I’m not sure I’ll get to that. I did make a simple dinner of ciabatta topped with tomatoes, Gruyere, salt and black pepper, toasted in the oven and served with a simple red leaf lettuce salad. I realized today that I’m completely overwhelmed with cooking. There are so many things I want to make! Old favorite recipes, things I saved in Evernote months ago, things from cookbooks and blogs and ideas in my head. It’s hard to pick out which things I want to make first.

So! Here is what I’m thankful for on this lovely October day:

• Justin’s amazing ability to listen to me talk about Life’s Great Mysteries every night
• Sleep
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Coworkers who are just really great people
• Brunch plans with the boys
• Cool autumn weather
• The sound of high school football games from the stadium a few blocks away
• My cameras
• Finishing the book
• The public library
• Nigel Slater
• My cookbook collection
• A haircut that at first I wasn’t sure about but now I really like
• Pumpkins
• Having a friendly, well-stocked grocery store just a block or two away from home
• The man who bags my groceries and is always so friendly and offers to carry my bags out for me
• That Justin took the time to keep researching audio players so that on Music Mondays, I can upload our music rather than look for youtube videos of the songs. He found one! And I immediately uploaded one of my current favorites:

Josh Rouse – Flight Attendant

Happy Thursday, everybody!