Iris has a little cold, which is very cute and pathetic. Yesterday I convinced her to go for a walk to Trader Joe’s. The whole way, she kept weakly pointing out patches of snow in a squeaky voice. Being sick has made her uninterested in food in the same way I am when I’m sick. If she’s really like me, when she starts feeling better she’ll suddenly get a craving for peperonata.

Once we got to TJ’s, two things perked Iris up. First, she got to ride in the cart. Second, they had a free sample of corn cakes with pumpkin butter. Iris liked them so much that I got the ingredients (a box of cornbread mix and a jar of pumpkin butter) and made them for the whole family for afternoon snack.

There’s nothing to it. Get a box of cornbread mix–Joe’s has corn kernels in it and is pretty tasty, but I’m sure Jiffy would work fine too. Mix it up according to the directions on the box, with a little extra milk. Heat a nonstick skillet and brush it with a little vegetable oil. Pour out small cakes, cook them like regular pancakes (they’re more fragile, so flip carefully), and spread them with pumpkin butter, apple butter, regular butter, or whatever you like.

Oh, we were at Joe’s buying a bottle of Barolo for making *brasato al barolo* (beef braised in Barolo), which will be dinner tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it turns out. On the way out of the store we were entertained by a woman at the customer service desk complaining interminably about the fact that she left her wallet at home and the store wouldn’t let her just punch her credit card number in manually. The way she was telling it, you would think John Ashcroft got a new job as manager of the Capitol Hill Trader Joe’s.