YUM.

Nooch Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 T butter
• 4 T flour
• 2 C broth
• 4 T nutritional yeast
• <1 T salt
• crushed black pepper

1. Melt da butter
2. Stir in da flour
3. Cook for a couple minutes, and whisk in da broth
4. Bring to a simmer, and stir in everything else

Good for a dipping sauce or a pouring-over-food sauce. I also suspect if you substitute oil or margarine for the butter you could use it to make a damn fine vegan grilled cheese.

The year’s off to a lovely start.

The interns’ New Year’s Eve party was very fun and somewhat grown-up. Nyte joined us, as well as three of Melissa’s friends and one of Julia’s. Rigo and Pedro came out too. Andrea hosted, for the most part, and made three kinds of ravioli and three kinds of sauce. I made lentil soup and Julia made amazing (and colorful) beet latkes with yogurt sauce. We had tirimisu and quite a stash of Christmas candies for dessert while we opened our Secret Santa presents. (Andrea and Julia had wrapped up cabbage and squash in newspapers and ribbons so that our guests would have gifts too.)

A minute before midnight we lit the bonfire that Andrea had set up earlier — a mountain of curly willow branches and a broken chair, that Andrea assured me was tiny compared to a true Italian bonfire. It was ablaze as we did our countdown, and then screamed, banged pots and pans, drank champagne, and ran and skipped and danced around the fire.

Yesterday was a singularly lazy day. It started with mango mimosas and tiramisu at a quiet breakfast table. Nyte stuck around for most of the day. Jeff and Andrea worked for a few hours, helping Bob refinish the big wine-tasting bar at Jacuzzi Winery.

Today’s starting with the same laziness. I made pancakes after chicken duty, and am just now finishing some oak-leaf/rose-petal/lemon verbena/oregano (for cramps, on Melissa’s advice) tea while we wait for Bob to show up. It was raining hard earlier, but it’s mostly stopped, so we’ll be sheet composting around our house and maybe learning about pruning some more.

I couldn’t be happier. Our fellow interns are all such fun, warm, and smart people. I can’t imagine a better place to find myself at the start of a new year.