Downsizing

I grew up and learned how to cook in a house with nine people (and one bathroom, no less!), so whenever I make meals in my head I'm always thinking I need a lot of food on the table. It's always been tough to adjust that mindset to the much smaller household I've had as an adult. This year our Thanksgiving dinner was for two, which is the smallest holiday meal I've ever made. The leftovers lasted us three days.

Cooking for two is sometimes even more of a challenge, and I'm trying to be mindful of food waste these days. For our Thanksgiving dessert I made about a dozen of these cream puffs instead of my default apple or pumpkin pie, which turned out to be a good choice. I shared two with our neighbor, but otherwise we ate them all with no problem.

For Christmas it will be just the two of us again, so we're planning to barbecue, because that's what we like. I think for dessert I might make eclairs, which is just long cream puffs filled with custard and topped with a little chocolate icing.