It should be easy to remember after all these times that working in the kitchen is the surest way to calm me down and get me back on track. I wandered around the supermarket today on day 1 of marketing for meals for my guests. Dominick's is in the process of moving everything, seemingly on a daily basis. Back and forth, back and forth, up and down, cursing, swearing at myself, grumbling, arguing. $181 later, more of the same trying to figure out how to get it all in the refrigerator. Finally, at about 7 p.m. I began to make the soups - first the potato-leek, since the leeks had to be trimmed right away, then the squash-corn chowder, and finally the celery-blue cheese. The potato-leek soup is a snap to make and for once I had a light touch with the herbs, in this case fresh tarragon. Unexpectedly delightful! I hadn't prepared the squash-corn chowder since 1995, when chemotherapy robbed my enjoyment of this sweet comfort food. Of course, I didn't realize I had no thyme (I still don't believe it) or bay leaves, so I scrambled for the substitutions book - and guess what? You can substitute thyme for bay leaves! What to substitute for thyme, though? Savory. Finally something I actually had in the cupboard. When it was finished I cautiously took a spoonful. Damn it's good! Very, very good. The celery soup is a well-known taste, though it's far better when Mike makes it, which probably has a lot to do with his measuring everything and likely not eating a spoonful of the blue cheese before it goes in the soup. All three soups were in the refrigerator by 9:30 p.m. Record time. What's so hard about cooking?