Umm, About That Meal Planning Stuff ....

I don't seem to be doing such a great job of it this week. 

~~~~~

I'm doing better with the fun stuff. 

Ramona recently spotted owl-shaped baking pans at the store (I had totally passed them by, but she's not one to miss a tool that will make baking more fun.) So, we made pumpkin muffins. 

Tomorrow we're planning on some flower-shaped cookies in honor of St. Therese of Lisieux. 

But since pumpkin muffins and sugar cookies aren't exactly dinner, anyone have favorite, go-to, EASY autumn dinner ideas to share? 

I'm Back!

Yes, I dropped off the face of the earth for a bit. I was in the final days before a manuscript deadline, so I was ignoring the outside world (although I did throw the occasional dinner at my family.) But now, the big work is done and when the time is right, I can't wait to tell you more about the upcoming book!

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Besides finishing a book, I've been adjusting to the fact that Atticus returned to work on August 10th. Umm, excuse me, school system, but next time I'm writing a book do you think you could time the beginning of school to coincide with my deadline? Because losing my dinner chef three weeks before I turn in a book is not cool.

Now that I'm cooking (I use the term loosely) again, we are having lots of quinoa, black bean, and tomato salad.

My culinary point of view remains, as it has always been, "How to cook using the fewest possible pots, pans and utensils." Yes, it's true: if I had a show on Food Network, it would be called, "Lazy Food."

~~~~~

Sometime in the blur of late summer, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to Ramona and we are now 500+ pages into Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I love these books. I love that we have been able to keep significant plot twists from Ramona. I love the way my college girls watch Ramona for her reaction when something big happens. I love everything about the way Harry has been part of our family, including the fact that Ramona was Dobby (for a book release party) long before (how many years ago was this??) she knew who Dobby was: 

(Next up: must dig up the best pictures of Anne-with-an-e as Professor Trelawney and Betsy as Luna Lovegood.) 

Random Instagram Instances

Ramona made me a "Book Writing Encouragement Jar."

Keeps everything in perspective. 

~~~~~

I love that Ramona and I completely nailed the fail when we tried to make cookie cups:

Though a couple of them turned out satisfyingly well:  

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Last month, I discovered this portal to another dimension in Ramona's closet: 

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We stole this puzzle from my sister. The only reason I gave it to her for her birthday last year was because I wanted to borrow it. (Well, not the only reason....) Doesn't it look nerdily fun?

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Sometimes I just want to be a cat. 

Just Call Her Anne-with-a-Ron-Swanson-On-the-Side

Anne-with-an-e: What are you planning for dinner?
Me: Vegetarian fried rice.
Anne-with-an-e: Oh, I'm sorry ... you're planning to feed me the food my food eats?

Sorry Ron-Anne.

I May Not Be Starting Off On the Right Foot

I sat down today with a piece of chocolate cake and this book: 

Year of No Sugar: A Memoir by Eve O. Schaub

I'll keep you posted. 

A Photographic Representation of My Meal Planning Since Atticus Left the Kitchen ...

That is all I have to say for now. 

In Which I Am Once Again the Cook

photo thanks to freeimages

Atticus has gone back to school which means I am forced to head back to the kitchen.

Can you say, "Sad Woman"?*

Atticus is more the Chef variety of cook than I am. I am quite often the Get something on the table at the end of the day -- something which I hope approximates a meal variety of cook. And the dirty as few dishes as possible kind of cook. I do like to bake, but you can't have cookies or Lucia bread every night.

My first day back in the kitchen looked something like this:

"What can I make for dinner tonight?
Hmmm, lemme look in the freezer.
Oh! Atticus's leftover grilled chicken.
And, oooh! A couple pieces of his fried chicken.
Chicken salad, here we come.
Ah, look! His red sauce. I can make pasta soon!"

Yeah, we are living off his spoils this week, but soon I'll have to get serious and pull out some pots and pans.

~~~~~

*Of course I'm sad for other reasons, too, like missing my husband. It's not just the cooking and the never-having-to-think-about-what's-for-dinner. But today, I have chosen to kvetch about cooking, okay? So we'll leave the mushy part of missing-him out of it.

Things That Made Me Happy This Week

Monday: 

Atticus and the girls were supposed to take off for a Daddy/Daughter day. The weather, however, was frighteningly unstable. I was very happy that Atticus didn't indulge his storm chaser instincts and head out of town anyway. They stayed home, we all stayed in, I got loads of writing work done. I also got some internet browsing accomplished, as evidenced by this tweet:

Karen Edmisten @Karen_Ed · Jun 30

I have a writing deadline. So NATURALLY I am on the hunt online for the perfect new bookshelf for my living room.

The weather calmed down, and since her older sisters had plans with friends, Atticus and I took Ramona out for Mexican food. Then we stopped at the craft store to stock up on fun foam (because who can live without fun foam? Oh, wait. I can. But Ramona can't.) We topped the night off with a milkshake.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday:

Atticus and the girls took off for the previously postponed Daddy/Daughter day. They were gone from roughly 10:30 a.m. till 8 p.m.

I was very happy to be alone in my own home.

I puttered. I read. I ate. I listened to music. I made Spotify playlists based on a pile of old cassette tapes I recently unearthed. I made a slapped-together version of Molly Wizenberg's Bread Salad with Cherries. I watched some Dr. Who. I puttered some more. I recharged.

I was very happy to be alone and then very happy to have them come home. And very happy to find they had brought me this:

~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday: 

Made time to work out in the morning. Got to spend the afternoon with great friends, which brought about further recharging. Very happy. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday: 

I was very happy that I made time to work out again. Got caught up on laundry. Made a number of remarks to Atticus to express my great appreciation for his taking Ramona to the pool. Made approximately 115 cookies for a family get-together. Ate some peanut butter M&Ms. Did not have to turn on the air conditioning because it has been a gloriously cool-warm day. 

Sat side by side with Ramona, on my bed. We both read Betsy-Tacy books (and stopped to read bits to each other) while Atticus made pasta for dinner. Very happy-making.

Recent (Eclectic) Reading

The latest stack of stuff on my bedside table (or piled in the living room, or on Kindle, or wherever....)

~~~~~

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

This is a charming little novel that my friend, D., recommended. It's about a brilliant scientist who appears to have Asperger's syndrome (read here and here for more from the author about how he approached that and why.) He embarks on a project to find a wife who is perfect for him, convinced he can do so using a perfectly designed questionnaire. The fact that Don Tillman doesn't know he is a fine candidate for a diagnosis of Asperger's (not even after he delivers a lecture on the subject) makes for first person narration that is touching, amusing and insightful. Parts of the story veered into territory I'd not predicted, and I'm happy to report I was happy with the book's twists and turns, both expected and unexpected.

Angels and Saints: A Biblical Guide to Friendship with God's Holy Ones by Scott Hahn

I received a review copy of Scott Hahn's latest from Image Books. It's a beautiful book that is a reminder that we are really -- truly, madly, deeply --  surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who care about us, and that our relationships with them are personal and peculiar, unique and intimate. Just like family should be, no?

Best part? The story about Assisi.

That's what it's all about.

(Image has a blog tour going on this week -- some of the hosts are doing giveaways, so be sure to check out the line-up.)

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg

My friend D. recommends the best stuff. She's the one who introduced me to A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table (which introduced me to THE CHOCOLATE CAKE) and my love for that book led me to order my own Mother's Day present read this one, too.

Delancey is a memoir recounting the creation and opening of a pizza dream -- namely, Wizenberg's husband's restaurant. Initially, it was to be his restaurant, but it inevitably and painfully became a joint effort. The book delves -- but does not delve too deeply -- into the friction that the business generated in Brandon and Molly's marriage. But to be honest? I'm kind of glad it didn't delve any deeper. The points were made -- subtly and gently but honestly -- that marriage can be hard, that enormous changes early in a marriage (such as opening the type of business that has a frighteningly high failure rate) can be terrifying and stressful. I've read a couple of reviews of the book that criticize Wizenberg for not going into more detail ("Marriage is in the title! We're entitled to the dirt!") but I say hurray for Molly for not putting brutal honesty above her most important relationship. There is plenty of humility and personal revelation but I don't need every detail. (Memoirs are funny and tricky, I think. When I consider writing a memoir -- about my conversion, what Atticus and I have gone through ... I usually just ... shudder. Too many hurtful, painful things in the past. Anyway....)

I loved reading about the process of opening the restaurant. It fascinated me -- Brandon's obsessive investigation into pizza, his road trips to test pie here and there and everywhere. I loved that when he and Molly first dated, he took her to his favorite pizza place and confided that he'd once taken a date there and decided he could never have a relationship with that woman because she'd hated the place, she just didn't get him. (I find that incredibly cute.) Molly, however, got it.

I was also interested in seeing an intriguing and kind of sad dynamic at work: two people who love to cook, had loved cooking together at home, open a restaurant and find that they have lost (because they are too consumed by the business, and by cooking at work!) one of the things they've shared and cherished, one of the things that brought them together. I'm not sure that was (or ever will be, as long as they remain restaurateurs) resolved, but it must be working out, as Delancey is still thriving in Seattle.

But that's just sort of the way life works, isn't it? None of us seem to end up becoming the thing we once thought we'd be.

Which leads me to my next recent read....

Jennifer Fulwiler's Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It 

Yeah, I can relate.

Grew up atheist? Check.
Circuitously ended up on a quest for the truth about existence? Check.
Horrified to find that quest pointing to Christianity? Check.
Quoting C.S. Lewis? Check.
Even more horrified to find the quest dragging one in the direction of Catholicism? A hundred-thousand checks.

I had to laugh at the opening -- so great, because I, too, had an altar call-ish sort of experience in childhood (Jen's was at summer camp, mine involved a friend in seventh grade repeatedly dropping notes in my locker that read, "Jesus Loves You!" I was annoyed -- with my friend and with Jesus.) The parallels outwardly end there, as we had vastly different experiences before conversion, but many inward parallels remain and had me nodding my head: endless questions, intellectual struggles, wrestling with doctrine, embarrassment at the possible outcome of the hunt, dismay (for better or for worse) at explanations and answers about the Catholic faith and all of its implications. And finally? Assent and sweet relief.

If you've ever read Jen's blog, you know that her book went through several incarnations before this -- its final, poignant, lovely, and funny form -- and I think it's clear that she found the story arc of her life.


And finally...

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goleman


I'm only halfway through this one and I'm having troubling staying focused on it. I keep getting distrac

Nah, not really.


I love reading about how our minds work, and the many, many things that interest me about this book will probably require a separate post.

An absence of dust? Or chocolate cake in the freezer?

I voted for chocolate cake over the feather duster.

It's not just any chocolate cake. It's Molly Wizenberg's Winning Hearts and Minds Cake.*

There are six of them in my freezer right now. They are safely out of my clutches awaiting Betsy's graduation party. Go check out the recipe. And the picture. I'll wait.

Did you look at that cake?

If you didn't, go look. I mean it. Now.

You're back?

Does it not look delicious?  It is delicious.

Actually, the word "delicious" fails to describe. This cake is really beyond words, so I'll stop. Just make it. It's so easy, and so good.

Another thing I love? That post about the cake is ten years old, and it still gets comments. And she still answers them. It's lovely, all around, that's what it is.

(And I just remembered that I forgot to order my Mother's Day present. Wizenberg's new book, Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage is next on my reading list.)

And I will get around to more cleaning. The bathrooms will get done before the party. I think. And the vacuuming will happen, so that our more allergic guests don't wheeze through the festivities courtesy of our dog and cat.

But the food? Must have that done. Chocolate takes priority over all.

{Lots of thoughts, too, on having my second daughter graduate, but those will have to wait for another post.}

~~~~~~~~~~

*P.S. Thank you, Danae, for introducing me to Wizenberg's first memoir/cookbook, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table. The words, "Mom, will you make a chocolate cake?" have been revolutionized around here.

Who Needs Bacon, Anyway?

So, Atticus and I gave up meat for Lent. Last night I made waffles and bacon for the girls, and since bacon can have a siren effect on me, I needed something more tempting than waffles to get me through. So, I made these Hot and Cold Sesame Noodles.

I first got this recipe from my friend Bridget and then found Rachael Ray's version online when I wanted to send the recipe to my sister. I always tweak according to what I have in the house -- I never have sesame seeds, use whatever soy sauce I have, add less than two tablespoons of hot sauce (I just throw in a few shakes so it's a little different every time), never have bean sprouts, sometimes have scallions, sometimes not, sometimes throw some peanuts or cashews on top. You can also throw chicken into it if you want to carnivore-it-up.

It has a vegetarian version of the siren effect on me. It is delicious. I don't want to stop eating it. As a matter of fact, there's nothing penitential about shoveling this dish into my mouth, so I may have to go back to grilled cheese or something.

But I didn't miss the bacon.

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: My cooking (sort-of-cooking), Next Food Network Star, and Ramona

First it was Atticus. Now, Anne-with-an-e has started classes, too. The rest of us are sitting back, taunting them cheering them on, and planning for the coming school year.

More to come soon about plans for Betsy's senior year, and Ramona's last year of elementary school.

(I was in a mild state of shock, however, when I realized that after this year, Ramona would qualify for various church/community activities that cover "junior high/high school, grades 7-12." Ummm? Eeeekk?!)

~~~~~~~~~~

With Atticus back to work, I've reclaimed my kitchen. In the first few days all I could handle was Little Caesar's, then tuna salad, and then I progressed to egg salad. (The egg salad totally counted as cooking because I had to boil the eggs. Heat and/or a dirtied pan = cooking.) 

This week I've managed to pull together teriyaki chicken with rice, and a Nikki Dinki-style taco salad (i.e., mostly veggies and beans, with a wee bit of meat) that got rave reviews from my former cook. Today I'll be making homemade pizza dough and freezing batches of it.

I'm adjusting, people, slowly adjusting. And on the up side, Atticus still likes to cook on the weekends. (I know. I have nothing to complain about.) 

~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of Nikki Dinki and Next Food Network Star, I forgot to blog about it this year. We were stunned by the final three. Sputtering, really. We thought it would be/should be Stacy, Nikki, and Damaris. I'm sure Rodney's a great guy but his charisma must be one of those magical, in-person things. I just wasn't affected by it through the screen, and did not feel Giada's crushiness (i.e., I would not "follow him anywhere.") And Russell -- also a great guy, but I'm trying to eat healthier, buddy! Your culinary sins will not assist me in advancing to the next round! 

The girls and I were out of town, at my sister's house, when the final episode aired. Kathy is a NFNS fan, too, and this was the first time we'd ever been together to watch an episode. But Ramona could not bear the thought (too sweet!) of watching the finale without her daddy. So we did the next best thing -- we watched as he watched, and we did play-by-plays over the phone, right down to the finger-crossing before they pronounced Damaris the winner. We were happy, y'all.

~~~~~~~~~~

We like to eat cupcakes celebrate baptismal birthdays.

We recently celebrated Ramona's. So hard to believe that eleven years ago, she looked like this:

Scan of an eleven year old photo ... sorry. 

I love baptisms, love to cry at baptisms, love to remember my own baptism, and I really love chocolate cupcakes. (So much for healthier eating. Ummm, Russell?)

Happy-Making

~ A picture book about Julia Child.

~ This chocolate syrup recipe from Alton Brown. 

~ Finishing The Prairie Thief with Ramona (review to come soon.) Looking forward to the book club meeting and the prairie-themed, thief-themed, brownie-themed, horseradish tea-themed luncheon that will accompany the discussion. Loving the way Melissa Wiley's writing inspires Ramona's creative writing.

~ Tumblr page sent to me by a friend: Murmuring Cottage. (I hide in the cottage whenever I need a respite in my day.)

~ And this one, found through Murmuring Cottage: Caught In Another World.

~ Reading Little Women to Ramona. Receiving a note from her that says:

Dear Mrs. March, 
You have been randomly selected out of 10 to write an article for The Gazette. 
Sincerely, Beth March

~ Hearing the tapping and whirring of our old electric typewriter as my Beth March pounds out edition after edition of her Gazette.

~ Autumn brilliance.

~ Reading Quinn Cummings' book, The Year of Learning Dangerously. (Amazon review here.)

~ Art class this month. The sweet and wonderful Magical Mrs. M. made Ramona our artist of the month, displaying her artwork and sharing one of Ramona's ideas with the group.

~ Showing this to my daughters today (because their Aunt Kathy and I played Mystery Date....):

Did I Really Say, "I Can't Find My Candy Cane Cookie Cutter!"?

I did.

There was a time in my life when, had you even hinted I'd one day own a candy cane cookie cutter, I would have snapped, "Is your brain made of candy canes? This is me."

But me is a mom, and moms metamorphose into all manner of things they pledged they'd never be. Like bakers of gingerbread for homemade houses.

Two years ago, I made homemade gingerbread houses for the first time ever in my entirely long life. (I think I have Magical Mrs. M. to thank for this new tradition though I use the concept of "thanks" loosely.) I got Gingerbread Back, remember? That year, I used paper templates like these and cut the pieces out by hand, thereby mangling them upon transfer to the cookie sheet until they mutated into something like this:

(Photo of the Krzywy Domek, thanks to Wikipedia.)

Then I got smart  and bought this cookie cutter set and at the same time, due to some perfect alignment of the planets, discovered parchment paper. (Previously, I must've labored under some delusion that parchment paper was something only the Alton Browns of the universe could afford. Or perhaps it was willful ignorance. Who knew it was parked next to the foil?) Thank you cookie cutter people, and thank you parchment paper, and thank you red wine (note to self: have Atticus pick up wine on the way home tonight.)

Moving on to 2011:  I can honestly say this is actually getting easy ... or, um, -er, anyway. Easier. Time consuming, yes, but no longer excruciating. (I'm sorry, beloved daughters-o-mine, it's true -- the first year was excruciating. Excruciating but fun? Yeah, that works.)

Last week we baked two houses and froze the pieces, and this week we baked one more, along with a couple of pans of gingerbread men (but no candy canes ... I cannot find my candy cane cookie cutter. There. I said it again.)

Ramona originally agreed to to do a graham cracker house, along with several of the other younger kids in our homeschool group. But then she asked if she could do a gingerbread church to add to our gingerbread village, and how could I say no to a church? It seemed like something I'd have to go to confession for. ("So then, Father, I told her no to the church, and she started to cry ... ")

So we baked a church. And more gingerbread men. And a noticeable lack of gingerbread candy canes. (But if anyone mutters so much as a word I'm going to resign my post.)

Other helpful links I should mention:

Here's a great photo-filled how-to for constructing graham cracker houses. (Scroll down for photos of completed projects ... I love the four-year-old's house. Perfectly cute and gloppy.)

Royal icing (aka sweet cement) recipe.

Alton Brown (nothing to do with gingerbread houses, just long-standing obsession with admiration for the man with whom I share a scorn for unitaskers.)

Overcooked and Underappreciated

Yesterday I:

Roasted a chicken (Granted, I did tweet this, but we won't go there right now....)
Roasted the last of Atticus' homegrown potatoes
Baked a double batch of pumpkin bread
Made an apple crisp
And there were still some chocolate chip cookies lolling around from the day before.

In the evening, Ramona surveyed the kitchen and pronounced, "All this baking, and not a homemade granola bar in sight."

(Photo thanks to Stock.xchng)

The Trumpet of the Swan: A New Book Club is Born

In a fun coincidence, it turned out that all three of us Catholic homeschooling moms were doing The Trumpet of the Swan as a read-aloud.  One of the moms suggested a tea party for the  five children ages nine and under who had been the beneficiaries of the  reading.

So, that's what we did.

The menu included:

• Watercress sandwiches (with lettuce ably standing in for watercress) 
• Slates (chocolate graham crackers on which Hostess Mom had written the children's names in frosting) 
• Chalk (string cheese) 
• Trumpets (Bugles)
• Medals (miniature rice cakes)
• Money bags (fashioned from tissue paper) filled with coins (chocolate, of course) 
• Swan nests (no-bake cookies with peanut M&Ms nestled in for the eggs) 

I just now asked Ramona if we had anything else at the party and she said, "We had juice boxes. But that's not symbolic of anything." 

Right. 

So, Hostess Mom asked the children a number of most excellent questions about the book. They answered in a most excellently cute manner (between bites) and a gastronomically, literarily good time was had by all. 

I highly recommend all of the following: E.B. White, reading aloud, my friends, and whimsical foodstuff.

Side notes: 

You can read John Updike's take on the book here. (Though I must point out, dear NYT, that Sam Beaver is an 11-year old boy, not 1.) 

You can listen to an excerpt of the book, read by E.B. White, here. 

Will I Have Time to Write a Post Today?

I hope so. I've been thinking a lot about homeschooling methods, ideals and realities.

But we're so busy here celebrating the Octave of Easter, downing Easter candy, polishing off the last of my extraordinarily chocolate birthday cake, and finishing off the Easter dinner leftovers (including this delicious sweet treat that masqueraded as a side dish) that we may be prioritizing Sugar Comas today.

We'll see.

Feast of the Archangels

A devil's food treat on this angelic feast day. Ours turned out wonderfully. The recipe is here.  (We had a slightly smaller brownie mix, so threw in a little extra wheat flour and we used a homemade frosting.)

St. Michael the Archangel, defend me from this cookie.

I've always thought of cooking as an art

... and over at Faith & Family Live today their guest blogger -- Jeff Young, The Catholic Foodie -- mentions that chefs are artists.

I completely agree. My husband is a culinary artist. He dabbles, he experiments, he creates and delights. Alton Brown is a modern day da Vinci -- the perfect blend of science and art. I have friends, too, who conjure beauty in their kitchens in ways that take my breath away.

I have enormous respect for kitchen art. I love to experience it, much as I love seeing a Van Gogh face-to-paint. Take note: I said, "I love to experience it." Drink it in, so to speak. But not necessarily to create it.

My artistic abilities, you see,  lie elsewhere. So, why didn't it ever occur to me to ask a simple question:

"May I please be excused from art class? Cuz I need to go to the writing lab. Pen and paper and keyboards await me, and I do so much better with those than I do with a spatula."

Oh, wait. I forgot: As a mom, my life is a liberal arts education, not an opportunity to pursue advanced training in a specialized field.  I am therefore forced to take Kitchen Art even though I don't want to and will spend the rest of my life moaning, "Wheeeen will I ever uuuuuse this stuff?"  (Please don't point out that I use it every day to feed my family.  I'm trying to prolong a weak metaphor here. Cuz I'm in the writing lab. And that's what we do.)

In all seriousness (I am serious in all of the above, by the way, but I am also pathetic, so I'm trying to change the subject), I loved Jeff's piece today, and especially loved this:

Cooking is work. But it is also an art. You have to practice. And when you practice an art, you are really just playing intentionally.

This is quite apt, because I always feel that I'm merely playing when it comes to my time in the kitchen. Playing at being a cook, playing at being a grown-up, playing at being a mom. But I play intentionally, as Jeff says, and intentional play leads to improvement in one's endeavors, so much so that sometimes I feel like a real cook, a real grown-up, a real mom, a real artist.

And on those days, I'm glad I took the class.

Just grade me on a curve. 

What's Been Working Around Here, Re: Food

Hmmm. I see -- from this post, at this time last year -- that I often get a handle on meal plans and cooking this time of year. It's all the planning that goes into kicking off another school year, I guess. My organizational skills spill over into the kitchen, at least for awhile. I'm sure I'll fall off the food wagon again, as I always do, but in the meantime, I'm happy in my autumn kitchen. Isn't this one of the loveliest times of the year to cook and bake?

Stuff we're enjoying:

Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes -- Atticus found this recipe.  If you've been overrun with tomatoes and are tired of them, this recipe will revive your love. Delicious. I roasted some yesterday and will be roasting more, and more, and more ....

No Bake Oat Peanutty Oat Treats -- Who doesn't love a no-bake cookie?

Shrimp Pasta  -- I use about half the olive oil and twice the shrimp. Everyone but Ramona (who is a vocal non-fan of shellfish) loves this dish.

Southwestern White Chili -- I leave out the green chiles and throw in a (drained) can of red kidney beans in addition to the white. Atticus and I have loved this for years and now the girls love it, too. (Except Ramona ... are you sensing a pattern?)

Hot and Cold Sesame Noodles -- Thanks to Rachael Ray and my friend Bridget, who gave me the recipe. (Ramona doesn't like this, either. Did I say this is the list of stuff that's working? Well, for four out of five of us.)

And, one more Rachael Ray recipe I love: That's Shallotta Flavor Spaghetti.