Retail therapy: I now own an electronic food scale (Salton, very pretty, exactly the degree of precision I want, metric/English conversion, automatic tare function and less than half what a similar scale cost in a housewares store) to join with the chinois, the skimmer and the whisk. Plus I have flour and yeast and a container, and I've located my KitchenAid. I will be making sourdough, and with it, bread. The scale is key for this.

Cooking therapy: I made a vegetable stock. This also used the scale, as the mirepoix was determined by weight - two parts celery, one part each carrots and onions. I'll be using the stock tonight - some for the mashed potatoes and some for the sauce I'll use for the chicken breast fillets - fillets I cut off the chicken myself and froze. I feel very proud now.

Except I read the instructions wrong and I used too much celery.

Ah, it still tastes fine, and I'll do better next time.