So many recipes, so little time

Tonight I was leafing through my file of "Entrees Tried," looking for my tried-and-true directions (mostly time per lb.) for roasting a turkey. (Jean reminded me by phone that it will take a lot longer at 9500 feet in Breckenridge.) But I found lots of things that made me think, "Oh, I haven't tried that in a while." One was Welsh rarebit made with stout--delicious! Another was my wine casserole that I always called Judy's Sloppy Joe. And there were others--sometimes it makes me long for the days when I cooked for five of us and could use those recipes and many more over and over. You just don't cook things like that for one.
So what did I cook for one tonight? I kept eyeing the leftover roast chicken in the fridge, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. Besides, I keep remembering that Christian found the cat nibbling at it. But then I remembered I had mushrooms and a zucchini, so I sliced some of the zucchini, drizzled it with olive oil and Parmesan (the good grated parmegiano Reggiano) and broiled it--found when I ate it I should have added salt, so rushed back to the kitchen for a pinch of Kosher salt. I wiped the mushrooms with a wet paper towel--my mom used to douse them in salt water and she did get a lot of dirt out, but I have since been convinced by those who know more than I do that mushrooms absorb a lot of the salty water. So I wipe them. Sliced them and sauteed in a mix of butter and olive oil, sprinkled on a bit of Worcestershire and poured them over toast. Mom used to serve both sauteed mushrooms and steamed asparagus on buttered toast--I've since been told that's very British. But it was a satisfying meal for a cold evening--and cold it is, down to 23 tonight. It's been cold for days, and I'm tired of it, but I know the rest of the country is really in blizzard conditions so I won't complain too much. Besides, by Saturday it is predicted to be in the 60s Here's hoping.
The other thing that made me think I want to cook so many dishes is a cookbook. This afternoon, there was an Amazon box on my doorstep, and I opened it--I order from them all the time, so couldn't remember what I'd ordered, but it was something I hadn't ordered, a Christmas present from John and Cindy: The Silver Spoon Italian cookbook, a humongous book of 1264 pages and who knows how many categories of food. The ribbon place mark opened the book to the chapter on anchovies. Now I love anchovies--lots of people don't--but there are wonderful recipes for frying, serving au gratin, with truffles, and layered with potatoes. Fortunately I have neighbors who also love anchovies. Last Sunday I found a bit of salad dressing in a jar in the fridge and decided to use it for supper, since Jay was coming and he doesn't like Jordan's traditional blue cheese dressing. The minute I poured the dressing on I smelled anchovies and thought, "Oh, oh!" Everyone else commented at the dinner table that the dressing smelled of anchovies, and Christian said I'd have to go back to my other dressings. It was a recipe Sue had given me, but it may have gotten a bit stronger sitting in the fridge. Not much salad was eaten that night, and I threw away about a head of lettuce. Hurts my Scottish soul at the price of leaf lettuce these days!
More about the recipes I find in The Silver Spoon to come. I'm glancing now at a chapter on shad--I'm not even sure what shad is, except that it's a fish.
Some days I really wish I could run a restaurant to fix all these things but talk about a foolish pipe dream! Neither my bank account nor my feet would hold out.