Last night's menu:

Chicken stir fry
Vegetable sauté
Steamed rice
Iced tea
French bread with garlic oil
Pumpkin pie with hand-whipped cream

That's right; for $18 and one hour's teamwork, we fed seven people the best dinner I'm sure we've all had since we've been home. While I was surfing yesterday morning, my hallmate Elizabeth went shopping. After I got off work, we hiked down to Young Hall with our supplies and took over the kitchen there (which, I might add, is completely open, all the time, to anyone who happens to waltz in- if only I had know this when I was writing that column!). The boys and girls we were feeding joined us; we chopped, measured, and mixed, and finally ate jovially, thankfully, giddy with commiseration.

"Soooo good," was the general rejoinder. I didn't realize how much I missed making dinner at home, having my hands smell like garlic and onion, filling a tableful of people. And, as Elizabeth said afterward, "I don't feel sick to my stomach like the Caf makes me sometimes."