sometimes the obvious eludes me

For example, if you knew that saffron was the dried stigma of the crocus flower, wouldn't you expect it to emit a floral scent? You would, wouldn't you? Yeah, I didn't.

Tonight, I made Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew and it was my first experience cooking with the much exalted spice in the title. I mentioned in my menu post that I have substituted turmeric for saffron in the past. Why? They are not even remotely similar, aside from them both imparting a deep hue to whatever food they are sprinkled upon. Turmeric is a bitter spice that turns things (like scrambled tofu) yellow. Saffron is red, turns things red, and stinks. It has an inescapable and very strong floral odor that really made it hard for me to eat my stew. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of it!

Dinner was very pretty, though and Mister and I managed to fill our bellies, with the help of some salt and a serious effort to ignore the fact that our dinner smelled like a spring bouquet.
Today has kind of been a day of nauseating scents. Dinner actually didn't taste bad, it just smelled weird, which was distracting. Earlier, I made more scrambled tofu and although it tasted as good as it did yesterday, I absolutely could not stand the smell today. I don't know if I did something different or if I just wasn't paying attention to the smell yesterday, though that's not likely. Moving on...
1. I am grateful that I have just spent 5 days relaxing and ignoring almost any sense of responsibility.

2. I am grateful for my sense of adventure when it comes to selecting my menu, even if it backfires sometimes.

3. I am grateful that I can see clearly out of both my eyes now that I got rid of that flawed right contact lens.

4. I am grateful that today is the first day of the Advent season, officially marking the beginning of Christmastime, my favorite time of year.

What are you grateful for?