Preparing for Christmas

I haven't had a cigarette in almost two weeks. The only time I want one is when I go grocery shopping with Mother. And yesterday was the big, buy-everything-for-Christmas-dinner shopping trip. I really wanted a cigarette. But I maintained.

Today, I am doing early prep - making the pound cake, fudge, cranberry relish, and cornbread for use later in making the dressing. I cannot rely on Mother's memory for any of the recipes. She forgot that it took three sticks of butter or that mace was one of the 7 ingredients in the pound cake she has made every year since I can remember. She looked it up on her copy of the recipe, since I was working off one I had copied from hers. She reminded me to grease and flour the cake pan. I told her I had made cakes before. She said, sarcastically but not being mean, just responding to the irritation in my voice, "Really?! I didn't know!" And then called me a smart aleck. I am aggravated by the fact that she doesn't want to do any cooking, baking, anything, but she wants to supervise my doing of these things.

After she mentioned that she didn't remember the pound cake having mace in it, I double-checked the fudge recipe on the internet. Her handwritten recipe calls for three packages of chocolate chips, but it doesn't specify what size package. She told me it was three small packages. But the recipe on the net closest to the one I have calls for three 12 oz. packages, whereas the small ones are 6 oz. each. I decided I would get more chocolate chips because if that is an error, then it will be an error on the side of more chocolate rather than less, so it won't be too bad a thing.

I am typing this while waiting for Steve to return from the grocery, as I was in the middle of making the pound cake to realize I have no flour. And so I decided to start on the fudge while he was gone, only to decide that I also did not have enough chocolate chips. *sigh*

And in the background there is the unceasing sound of back-to-back old western shows - first Bonanza and currently Gunsmoke. I really miss being in a quiet house.