silenzio.

On the one hand, it's nice to get a full night's sleep. On the other hand, I think I can safely nominate "Witness Protection Program" as one of the Least Relaxing Dreams Ever. Someone poured a fifth of bourbon into my laptop keyboard through my broken windshield while riding on the hood of my car during a high-speed chase. And of course, while wrestling the assassin's rifle barrel away from my face, all I'm thinking is, "when was my last backup?".

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That you? Yeah, that me. Hopefully exiting a bit of a silent period, not just in these esteemed pages, but in general. Maybe when it got real cold a few weeks ago, my bear-like personal dimensions thrust me into a sort of automatic hibernation. If you look at it that way (which makes perfect sense, no?), then it wasn't really such a long time, was it.

Here's what I wanted to make for lunch today. Below is the compromise.

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vegetarian garbure (i'm kidding! it's just cabbage soup).

3 onions, chopped into bite-size pieces

3 carrots, diced

1 sprig of thyme or 1/2 tsp dried

1 clove

1/2 tsp celery salt

freshly cracked black pepper

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 head of green cabbage, core removed and chopped into bite-size pieces

4 cups vegetable broth

3 or 4 drops liquid smoke

salt to taste

Gouda, Emmenthaler, or Gruyere, for grating

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