Cooking finally returns again with prep for Friday night dinner

I made a bigly pot of pumpkin soup, some of which will appear on the table tomorrow evening, and there will be fish cakes made with fresh flounder and various spices, with green peas and roast potatoes.

And then I thought idly, since a friend made noises about coming over for a cup of tea in the next day or two, she having been way under the weather, in the hospital, and struggling to get back, I should make a little something to serve her with a cup of tea.  It won't be a whole meal, like my usual afternoon tea invitations, she's not up for that, but a nice little something is good.  And I need a dessert for tomorrow evening.

Leafed through Martha Stewart in search of simple, quick cookies.  Found quite a few, and bookmarked them studiously, before being totally led off the straight and narrow by finding a recipe for lemon bars...far from simple and quick, but oh well, it's been a hard week and they're so good.  So this happened.

I will be freezing a lot of them, partly so that I don't plow right through them, and partly so that a visitor will in fact get something edible with a cup of tea.  Some will cross the street to friends, too.

There was a tense moment when the dish, with the pastry crust in it, was in the freezer for a few minutes, and then had to go right into the hot oven.  I was fervently hoping the glass would stand up to this, though it claimed it would, and to my amazement, it did.

At this point I think I have had the last of builders trotting about inside the house fixing this and that for me, and though I plan on replacing all my windows at some point when the HOA gets some contractors lined up, that will be another noisy dusty passage, still, just for the moment, I have the place to myself.

Except for neighbors dropping in, four in one day this week, a landspeed record, it's what the renovation does. Breaks down barriers..but they all needed to talk, so I guess that's okay.  It's been a tense few days, and the roof noise hasn't helped with anyone's calm and accepting spirit. Not to mention the problems the roofers have uncovered in various houses, largely relating to wiring and squirrels, a bad mixture.  I was lucky in that nothing in my roof was written up and declared a danger to civilization.

So, Sayers' Clouds of Witness going in audiobook this evening, all's well, and another bunch of handwarmers under way, too. Several local friends are thinking of wearing the safety pin, now that they've seen me with one and asked what on earth I was up to.  

One was worried that I would be a target, and I said, well, already been criticized about it, by someone who was determined to be mad at me, never mind.  Important to stand up even in this quiet tiny way, or the bullies will have won.