Old favorites to fuel you through Black Friday

Around here it'll be a day of old favorites.  Foods that we can make in our sleep.  Food that's fast and simple so we can focus on the important stuff, like shopping.

Normally I don't subject myself to the craziness of Black Friday, but my daughter wants to go.  Her one street college town has very few shops...the campus co-op, an overpriced drug store, North Face, and a clothing boutique where inexplicably every single item carries a three digit price tag. 

And anyway  this year it really seems like the patriotic thing to do. 

We're starting with warm Pumpkin Streusel Muffins, supersized in the jumbo tins to fuel us through the mall and beyond.  (Just bake the muffins for 5 minutes longer in the 6 large tins.)

Rather than resort to mall grub we'll make a pit stop at home for a quick bowl of soup.  I used what was around the kitchen, chopped up some onion, shallot, garlic, fennel, fingerling potatoes, butternut squash, a few cremini mushrooms, and the last carrot in the bag.  I threw them in the pot with olive oil, and after they sizzled for several minutes I threw in a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a quart of chicken broth, a couple of bay leaves and 1/3 cup of yellow lentils.  After about 20 or 30 minutes simmering on the stove, we're ready to eat.  I always grate cheese on top of vegetable soups, I just grabbed the first nub I found in the cheese drawer...Gruyere. 

We'll be exhausted by dinner.  We'll grill some extra sharp Vermont cheddar with ham on New York rye.  

What are your Black Friday plans--- going out?  Staying in?   I'm curious about my fellow bloggers in Canada and across the pond...do you guys have a Black Friday?

Don't forget about the Williams Sonoma giveaway this week, 

just become a follower to enter...details top right.