a thing of cream and stars

Right, carrots. I promised I'd explain the carrots.

The carrots became this



and they were delicious.

The recipe is here: Creamy Carrot Casserole. I suggest changing two things: first, reduce the quantity of cream to 1 cup. Second, halve the breadcrumbs. One and one-half cups of buttered panko is in fact a completely ridiculous amount of buttered panko.

I also suggest that if you cannot use cream, that you make something else instead of trying to 'lighten it up.' Do not change the cream to skim milk, or worse, soy or almond milk. It won't work. The chemistry is all wrong. The balance of fat and moisture is different in skimmed dairy, or the vegetable 'milks,' and you will wind up with a thin, watery, ungenerous dish if you use them instead of the cream. I cannot think of any time when offering your guests and loved ones deliberately pinched, mean fare is at all appropriate, but the holiday season seems a particularly poor time to do it.

Richard Siken