Momma's homemade banana pudding with a mug of Saint Brenden's Coffee...mmmmmmmm yummy!!!

Berry cobbler from my grandmother's handwritten notebook - it's not too sweet, rather biscuity and not pretty - but it makes me feel so happy and 'home' inside. With ice cream it means someone loves you too!!

I was having a craving for sweets at 3am so I foraged and found Chips Ahoy cookies and Jell-o chocolate pudding. I dipped the cookies in the pudding. Heavenly!

I made some wonderful improvised dishes for dinner tonight, Iron Chef "battle leftovers"-style in full effect....

1) Something like spicy paella - leftover chicken, chunked and shredded by hand, leftover rice, onions, chopped cloves of pickled garlic, capers, Spanish olives, raisins, crumbled bacon (and bacon grease, waste not want not...), dash of salt and pepper, olive oil, cumin and Tapatio hot sauce... mixed up in a deep skillet, adding water to rejuvinate the rice as needed, covered and let simmer, stirring occasionally. Not bad. Actually, in-fucking-credible.

2) Cabbage, carrots, raisins and tamarind... cooked with the remaining grease in the pan I used to fry the bacon, added water and ingredients, cooking down and mashing the tamarindo pods to release their flavor into the simmering juice. Wonderful, with a mild natural sweetness and no trace of offensive boiled cabbage odour. Totally made this up on the spot with whatever I had at hand. Gotta' remember this one, another definite winner.

I do so love it when my own cooking impresses me.