Risottoed

Nigella did say that this risotto was a dinner in itself and frankly, it did have enough cheese and butter and heavy cream and chicken stock (hey, you only live once, right? who cares if it's not for very long?) to make it a starchy-but-proteiny dish, but Guy pointed out that we had five chicken apple sausages about to expire and that we'd best eat them.

Oy. I was so full from my one chicken apple sausage (the kids weren't with us last night. Guy expected me to eat 2.5 sausages. Guy was dreaming) and half a bowl of risotto that I couldn't even eat a single one of the cookies I had made earlier. Cookies which consisted of the rest of the butter we had in the house.

Guy, you'll be happy to hear I'm contemplating a salad for dinner this evening. Or perhaps soup, since it is quite chilly out. Post your preference.

Soup would take longer, which wouldn't be a bad thing, although with this cooking mania I haven't gotten nearly the amount of Christmas knitting done that I'd hoped to. Still a month and change to go, plus a long plane ride. And a long drive to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. I'm cool.

But I haven't finished complaining about the risotto. For one thing, the picture was way more attractive than the reality--which is often the case, I realize, since I don't have a professional food photographer in my house making sure of the things food photographers make sure of, but it's risotto. Surely there isn't much that can be done there? Also, one quart of chicken stock was not enough. I had to add half again as much water (which made the dish a little blander than it was supposed to be, I expect) and the rice was still a little too al dente for my taste. But then, I'm from a culture that likes its rice as soft and sticky as possible.