shira said they were better than the original.

so i made cheez-its, following this recipe in readymade.
just butter, cheddar, flour, and salt. delicious.

taco night.

it was all i wanted. all i could think about. and on the bike ride home, i passed don jose, the only place i know that sells homemade tortillas in carrboro.

yes. taco night: freshly-made, still-hot, corn tortillas. black beans with onions. jalapenos. tomatoes. avocado. monterey jack cheese.
and a genuine, overpriced mexican coke. with real sugar.
always the best.
(with many more tacos to come in the remainder of the week.)

lucky kid.

i am making casey's favorite food for his birthday. cheez-its. he's got a young palate. and it's the easiest birthday treat i have ever prepared. i promise to let you know how they turn out.

baked late. whoopie!

this week's baked project was red velvet whoopie pies. as mentioned earlier this week, i decided to make them on thursday, not sunday, so i could bring them to lisa's birthday party.

the recipe was super easy and not time-consuming and completely delicious. renato + matt really know how to write a recipe. no wonder they get so much press.

this was the third time in my life making whoopie pies and i would totally make use this recipe again. courtney and i were remembering how ahead of the curve i was the first time--10 years ago in tracy's teeny efficiency!
on another note, maine is trying to figure if it wants the state dessert to be blueberry pie or whoopie pies. such pressing problems in these times. so much pride at stake in this battle.

all week.

all breakfast tacos this week, kids. delicious. more to come. i am in school hell.

don't worry.

i am baking my "baked" goods this week. however, i will be late, as i am making the red velvet whoopie pies for lisa's birthday friday night. oh, yes, yes. yes.

the soup. the SOUP.

let me tell you a story. about the night of january 22nd.

shira and i had been fantasizing about making bess feigenbaum's cabbage soup; before we had moved to pleasant drive, i was reading about it and she emailed me and told me she wanted us to make it as soon as we lived together. (are we a match made in heaven, or what?)

agreed. items were purchased. in the car. cabbage is heavy.
we started cooking. but, there's this part where one has to BLEND the hot soup. what happened, you ask? the blender blew the soup through the top! all over me. all over the kitchen. it was as if i had murdered someone in here. it was absolutely everywhere.
i had to get undressed in the kitchen. i thought i was being burned through my shirt, but luckily, no such thing was happening. it was just a total mess.
most of the soup was still in the blender and the pot. and we got to eat it. for a week.

naturally, it was delicious. but if you make it, skip the blending part. it's unnecessary. and potentially threatening to your kitchen.

dumber than nails.

a new study has shown that kids who eat loads of junk food have a lower IQ. FOREVER.

from the daily mail,

Children who eat more chips, crisps, biscuits and pizza before the age of three have a lower IQ five years later, a study showed. The difference could be as much as five IQ points compared with children given healthier diets with fruit, vegetables and home-cooked food. But even if their diet improves, it could be too late as the ill-effects can persist for a lifetime.

there's no going back? shit. shit. shit. i can't believe my fears have materialized.

last week.

last monday, to be exact, i came home to a meal. cooked by shira. when was the last time i came to my house and someone had made me a meal? i have no idea. but it's been a while. a long while.
vegetarian chili with black beans and butternut squash: recipe from the february 2011 bon appetit. she used dried chili peppers and fresh jalapenos. and i got to eat it all week long. awesome awesome.
and this, my friends, is our new kitchen. it's always the 197os here.

a shot in the dark.

jello shots last night. amy's birthday took me back a decade, at least. i had more than my fair share.

sure did.

lisa made me an apple-nut-caramel cake for my birthday. it's a pile of sugary goodness.

i am going to have to do something big for her birthday in a couple of weeks.