Good Eats

Leek and Potato Soup

We ate this for lunch. It was quite nice. The recipe is from the New York Times.

Black Beans

Recent lunch: black beans and tortillas dished up with my special Halloween spatula.

Halloween Dish Towel

Hanging on the stove handle near the soup pot.

Breakfast Treat

A bit sweeter than our mothers’ blintzes, but not bad. Len made sauteed apples to go with the blintzes.

Friday Lunch at Totoro Sushi

The restaurant is named for the film “My NeighborTotoro” and has themed decor.

Chirashi sushi bowl.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Reading

Much of this book is a repeat of the authors’ earlier works,
but I’m reading on hoping for something new.

What to eat?

Lunch Outdoors

Maybe the last time this year

Dinners and More Lunches

Shrimp with pomegranate-sriracha sauce and our frequent favorite: 
potatoes with oil and parsley.

Using up leftovers: A pot of soup with chicken about to be added.

Trader Joe’s Soup

Caprese salad made by Alice

Breakfasts

French toast with apples

Bagels toasting

Waffles toasting

Photos © 2026 mae sander for maefood.blogspot.com

Recent Photos

 

Pizza Dinner 

Corn Chowder

Bacon and eggs for breakfast 

Cereal with peaches IN SEASON

Another Swan

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Winter Quiet

 

Rereading an old bestseller — Foucault’s Pendulum.
Unberto Eco’s magnum opus is not as compelling now as it was when it was new. I may not finish it.

The first time that I read Foucault’s Pendulum, we were living in Paris, and we went with friends to the location where we could see the 1851 original. It hangs above the apse of the former church which is now the Musée des Arts et Métiers, located in the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. Of course this location is critical in both Eco’s book and the movie version of the book.

The pendulum swings…24 hours a day.
In the dome: a classic mural, shared with Sami’s Monday Murals.

What We Are Eating

Critters

Lobster Socks

Zebra Socks — shared with Eileen’s Critters.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Shared with the Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

What is Pumpkin?

An edible pumpkin about to be cooked in my kitchen a few years ago.

Thanksgiving is coming, and thus pumpkins have turned from a decorative/scary item into a food. Pumpkins that are grown for jack-o-lanterns generally have flesh that is stringy and watery — including, both big and small decorative pumpkins.  Small edible pumpkins are the ones you buy if you want to cook them — the stores label them as “pie pumpkins.” They would also make good pumpkin soup, roast pumpkin, or pumpkin stew. I assume that canned pumpkin also comes from this cultivar, though certain other types of squash are also used (legally) in canned pumpkin.

Decorative pumpkins wouldn’t poison you, but just wouldn’t make good food. After the holiday, the giant pumpkins in our neighborhood (as far as I know) are picked up by the same truck that brought them. I have no idea how the disposal is done, but I assume they go to some composting center.

Canned pumpkin or pie filling can legally be either
actual pumpkin or one of a few kinds of orange squash.
Details here: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/whats-in-canned-pumpkin/

Pumpkin Decorations

The pumpkin wall on Halloween night. It goes on much longer than this. (Alice’s photo)

The pumpkin wall on Sunday. Some pumpkins remain, others are gone.

Cooking pumpkin and squash

A pumpkin pie web image search.

An old spice container with pumpkin pie spice that my mother always used.

Some people confuse the “pumpkin spice” blend (allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves. and cinnamon) with actual pumpkin. The spice is used in many beverages and dishes at this time of year, sometimes with actual pumpkin, sometimes not.

Making soup in my kitchen this week: a squash that’s equivalent to pumpkin.

 

Stereotyped Thanksgiving image with pumpkins.

Our Leaders Enjoy A Meal?

Presidential banquet, starving masses. (Image from the Guardian)
Thinking about Thanksgiving forces me to consider how some Americans are being abused,
deprived of ways to buy food, and kicked around by our leaders.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Food: Fast and Slow

 Fast: Breakfast

Pastry from the freezer. Breakfast in 5 minutes.

Another instant breakfast. Once in the cereal aisle of the grocery store we were making a choice. I said “I’m tired of Life.” A passer-by heard me and was alarmed until I explained that we were talking about the product, not the process.

  

Fast: Lunch

PB&J is very fast!

Great to have one more chance to eat outside under the trees.

Slow: Dinner

Stock cooks for a few hours. On Sunday when I cooked this, my goal was not only to have stock, but to get the odds an ends out of the freezer. We strained out the over-cooked veggies, added some white beans, and called it soup.

The Crock-Pot is slow by definition. I cooked the meatballs along with the red sauce.
Saturday: I slow-cooked this and we ate meatball sandwiches.
Monday: I added red and white beans along with some salsa, and it was chilli. 
Some time in the future: there’s a box of the leftovers in the freezer.

Pretty fast: Trader Joe’s falafel. A jar of olives.
Not too fast: home made yogurt sauce, sliced cucumber, and baba ganoush.

Fast: Dessert

Sara Lee Cake with premium ice cream from a local dairy.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander