T plus one

You know, every December since, well, since I can remember, the retail industry has wrung its collective hands and lamented that this year the cash registers will be empty except for the occasional raggedy moth flittering out... And every year has been better (sometimes much, much better) than the last.

There were even a few when rabid parents haven't put one another in hospital while fighting for the toy must-have (remember Tickle-me-Elmo? How about Cabbage Patch Kids?).

But I wondered how things will be this year, what with even the children of banking and auto CEOs having to cut back on their expectations (probably from 3-carat D, F1 princess cut studs to 2-carat F IF marquise cut; or only two weeks at Gstaad instead of four).

So, since I live within walking distance of a mall, I took a stroll down to Bellevue Square this morning, around 0800. Now, keeping in mind that Macy's had been going strong for three hours at this point, and the rest of the mall was opening up at a speed of knots, the mall didn't seem that full to me.

There were people, of course; and plenty of them. Just not cheek-by-jowl, which is what you expect on Black Friday. (Not that I've been in a mall on the day after Thanksgiving for, well, since the 80s; but I have watched the occasional news report in that time. And reporters at the airport the day before and reporters at the mall the day after Thanksgiving are as predictable as the sun rising in the East.)

I was pondering this as I left through the parking garage (it had started to rain, quelle surprise, so I wanted to stay covered as much as possible before hitting the open streets). And there the folks in SUVs and Lexus sedans restored my confidence: there was a lot of honking and fist-pounding on steering wheels.

Ah, the holidays are indeed upon us.

Sidebar:
I went to brine my chicken yesterday and realized that all of my big pots are packed away in the shed. Along with the file folders with my brining recipes. (Trying to find the carton that contains them is just a non-starter. The packers marked boxes "bags" when the contents might have been shopping bags, purses or gift containers. God only knows which of the approximately 80 unopened cartons might hold those folders.)

Fortunately, it was a small chicken and I managed to get it into a four-quart pot with the brine.

And thank God for the Internet, because all I had to do was Google "Chez Panisse brine" and up popped about 47,173 references.

But, um: those file folders? They also contain all my candy recipes. So those of you who are expecting the 17 types of candies I gave last year are going to have to recalibrate your expectations.

I'm just sayin'...