Fresh Direct accidentally gifted me with a branzino. A whole fish.

Um, I've never cooked fish before, let alone a whole fish. I'm both mortified and intrigued.

- Am very disappointed with Starbucks. NO I WILL NOT ABIDE 2% MILK IN MY LATTE. It's like drinking diet coke. Makes my face squick in disgust.

- Have commenced the Harry Potter reread. On Prisoner of Azkaban, which I think will always be my favorite. One of the myriad of things I love is how fully she envisioned the four Marauders and foiled them with Harry's crew.

- Bought the Fresh Direct President's choice cheese - La Tur, and I highly recommend it. It's deliciously light and creamy and not sharp? as a Coach triple cream goat cheese. Note to self for next party: serve it with fresh raspberries and prosecco.

- Am tempted to buy more sundresses. But my bust line is annoyingly hard to fit. Damn the advair. Too many of the v-neck spaghetti straps leave me spilling out, or if they provide adequate support up top, the rest of the dress is so full that it might as well be a maternity dress . . .

- Waiting for the muse to come back from his sabbatical. I think he has been shamelessly soaking up the sun somewhere on a nude beach in the Mediterranean. Maybe I can tempt him with repeat viewings of Paint!Sex.

- The fire escape herb garden is growing nicely.

I'm woefully behind on the new year's update. I have real life sex, fic smut, and much more to report from the 2 1/2 week Texas holiday, but I guess I will start with the Sunday night dinner:

Being single, and being a Taurus, I like to cook elaborate things. So I tend to chose a recipe and cook it on Sunday and freeze part and eat leftovers throughout the week. This Sunday's recipe: Giada de Laurentis' Linguine with Chicken Ragu. And yes, it is a marinara from scratch recipe. But what other things do I have to do on a Sunday night? (Obviously BSG has not resumed.)

Recipe Report: Very good. Worth the cost of doing the marinara from scratch. And, I have learned the beauty of thigh meat! It's cheaper and has more flavor! Why did I ever try a soup with chicken breast? Oh, the naivite!

Of course I do think I will need more wine for the rest of the week. Cause Italian food needs Italian red wine . . .

Inspired by a fabulous Fresh Direct Heat-and-Eat dish and Rachael Ray, I fixed Moroccan spiced lamb with dates and coucous tonight.

And I think I have discovered that I like everything in it, except the lamb. It's just rangy. I do remember two wonderful lamb experiences - one spiced lamb kabob at an Indian restaurant and one spring lamb cooked with rosemary and garlic by my friend's gourmet Dutch mother. But this lamb isn't living up. Very glad I opted for only 1lb of lamb instead of the 2 1/2 lbs the recipe called for. I have also discovered that coucous grows exponentially better with each add-in. Next time I will add carrots and raisns to the pine nuts and opt for chicken.

Gasp! I think I just might be able to declare that I have finally taught myself how to cook.

A few things I have learned along the way:

- the years before I had my microwave really were the dark ages

- deglazing a pan is fabulous cooking secret which sounds fancy but isn't

- fresh vegetables are the maxim. only exception is that canned tomatoes are probably better unless it is summer. frozen and canned veggies are probably why I hated them growing up.

- the two most essential kitchen ingredients: olive oil and garlic

- nothing beats real Italian parmesan, aged so it is partially crystalline

- Fresh Direct is a godsend!

- i don't like tarragon

- wear latex gloves when cutting up jalapenos

- frozen blueberries rock! (okay, that isn't cooking)

I also think I finally found a cookbook I like - Giada di Laurentiis' EVERYDAY ITALIAN. Tonight I made Chicken Saltimbocca. Very delicious. Note to self - improvising is good, but it is time to buy a meat tenderizer.