Every day,we see higher and higher gas prices. Less than 10 years ago I was in high school and a gallon of gas cost only 97 cents. It's almost 4 times that now, and who knows when it will slow down.

Yesterday I came home from grocery shopping, deposited the bags on the floor and got busy with the arduous task of finding homes for it all. I have a fair amount of cabinet space and big, giant chunky draws are in abundance in my charming, if not old kitchen. However, my cabinets are packed full with who knows what; remnants left over from various recipe contest experiments and other foodie adventures that were abandoned for a night at the local Pizza Chef, and rightly so in some cases. My experiments sometimes border on sheer craziness, as do the ingredients I collect to create them.

It happens every year around this time; a full fledged promise to lose weight by exercising and eating right. It also happens that a large percentage of us screw this up royally in the first few weeks. I am guilty as charged with the offense of making resolutions that I can not stick to. Unfortunately every year that passes without committing to a weight loss program is only making the road ahead that much harder. At what point do we say, "Enough is enough. Today I am making up my mind to become the healthy person I was meant to be." I don't know about all of you but for me, the trek to lose weight has been fraught with denial and lots of it too!

Yesterday I was perusing the meat section at the Franklin Hannaford when a gentleman who works there asked if he could help. I explained I wanted a cut of beef to use for Beef and Broccoli. He pointed me in the direction of some wonderful sirloin tips that were on sale, yet I opted for the usual top round (which, when you semi-freeze; can be sliced paper thin) perfect for beef sauté. As this exchange was going on I noticed a sweet older lady listening with interest. While I wasn't sold on the sirloin tips, she was. The problem she said was that the packages were too big and she didn't need that much meat. After all, her husband passed away and she was feeding just herself. The wonderful Hannaford employee told her it was no problem at all to go and package her a couple pieces of sirloin. He was back in a flash with a parcel just her size and she walked off quite pleased.

What would any Thanksgiving holiday be without revisiting Arlo Guthrie's, Alice's Restaurant? I doubt there is a single person from any generation, who at one time or another doesn't find themselves mindlessly singing the famous line, "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant. Just walk right in; it's around the back, just half a mile from the railroad track. You can have anything you want at Alice's restaurant."  It's eighteen minutes and twenty seconds of pure talk-song, folk music with a twist; the story is true.