Chili Mac!

A couple of weeks ago I was cooking up some dinners to take over to my brother and sister-in-law's house - they are the proud parents of Liam, the most beautiful baby boy on the planet. He is almost a month old, how time FLIES! Anyway, they are just a little tired, and I was cooking up a few things for them, including a batch of chili mac. When who should wander into the kitchen but my OWN baby, who usually only eats things that are perfectly plain and where the ingredients don't TOUCH each other. (Did I mention that my baby is 16 years old? I keep telling myself she will grow out of this. Maybe not.)

Anyway, she looked into the pot and said "Wow, this looks great! When's dinner?"

Hello? Who are you and what have you done with my picky child?

After I broke it to her that her new baby cousin was already getting the upper hand on her and this batch was going to his house, I promised that I would put it on the Jackson menu for the following week. There are about a million or so variations on this recipe and you can pretty much customize it the way you want to, but my approach is the non-bean/cheddar cheese variety: ground beef, tomatoes, cheese, spices...and creamed corn. There it is, my chili mac secret is out. It's all about the creamed corn.

I was describing this elegant meal to a friend and he said, "so it's basically Hamburger Helper, right?" Well, um, yes. Without all the chemical additives. I am pretty sure he meant that as a compliment...because who doesn't love a little Hamburger Helper every once in a while? Here's mine:

CHILI MAC

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 diced onion
• 1 17 ounce can creamed corn
• 1 16 ounce can stewed tomatoes
• 2 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pound elbow macaroni, freshly cooked
• 8 ounces shredded cheddar

1. Cook beef in heavy large saucepan over medium high heat until brown. Remove meat and drain.

2. Cook onion in same pan about 5 minutes. Return beef to pan and stir in everything except macaroni and cheese. Stir until heated through.

3. Add macaroni and cheese and stir until cheese is melted.

4. Serve immediately. Serves approximately one army.

Shrimp Salad with Baby Red Potatoes

By now you are probably catching on that shrimp is something we have a lot at the Jackson table. Besides the fact that they are Delicious and Nutritious, I've psychoanalized the reasons why they show up on my menu as much as they do and here's what I've come up with.

They are quick and easy and versatile and they aren't as fickle and unreliable as other fish. They won't fall apart on you, they won't stick to the pan, you can pretty much tell when they are done but not OVERdone. And they are just so pink and adorable.

COSTCO. They always have them and they are always great. I know I sound like a broken record, but I am a true believer and there you go.

But I think one of the main reasons is a sentimental one. My romantic Southern husband grew up in Georgia, and if you ever catch him on a day when he is a little tired (like YESTERDAY, when we stayed up until 2am waiting for a certain teenager to come home from the Green Day concert) his alluring Southern accent comes through loud and clear...but he was actually born in Jacksonville, Florida. (Isn't that perfect? Jackson? Jacksonville? Yes, I am easily entertained.)

His grandfather was a shrimper, and I have heard stories that sound like they are straight out of THE PRINCE OF TIDES (the happy parts!) about when he was a kid on his granddad's boat, and the many different shrimp dinners his granny would make from the day's catch. I just get this great picture of a little tan barefoot trouble-maker with the same grin he has today, tracking sand into the house and eating a shrimp supper that his granddad brought home and his granny cooked up. And so maybe that is one of the other reasons shrimp shows up on the menu so often.

Okay, now I feel all warm and fuzzy about my amazing Southern husband, and so here is a song that is one of my favorites because it reminds me so much of him.

There You Are

Sigh. Where was I?

This particular recipe comes from one of the many "community cookbooks" my father-in-law was always giving me when we came to visit. He was an enthusiastic cook, heavy on the hot sauce, and he had a whole collection of those comb-bound cookbooks that church groups are famous for -- the ones where everyone contributes a recipe. All of them were packed with variations on recipes for grits and okra and crayfish (man, do I wish we had good crayfish up here in Yankee territory)....and shrimp, in every possible configuration. This recipe is a great one to put together on a muggy summer evening -- just make sure the shrimp are good ones, and that both the shrimp and potatoes are chilled down well in an ice bath before you mix it all up.

SHRIMP SALAD WITH BABY RED POTATOES

• 1 pound shrimp, boiled, peeled and cut into pieces
• 3 boiled eggs, chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons relish
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 cups boiled baby red potatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size

Cool down both shrimp and potatoes in an ice bath. Combine all ingredients. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Can be made 6-8 hours ahead and chilled before serving.

Beef Stir-Fry with Sugar Snap Peas

This recipe falls into my "life is short so always use the best ingredients, even if that is not what the recipe tells you to do" bucket. This is a delicious stir-fry with just a handful of ingredients, and front and center is the beef. Obviously. The original recipe, found in Everyday Food Magazine says to use sirloin, which I am sure would be perfectly okay. Just fine. Totally acceptable.

However.

In a dish like this where the meat can make it or break it, I always choose to use a tenderloin filet. Yes, I know how much they cost. But in the great scheme of things, I think an amazing-tasting dinner is always a worthwhile investment. And trust me, using the filet will take this from a perfectly okay dinner to an amazing one. And you're worth it!

So, now that you have your tenderloin, make sure you get really nice sugar snaps -- none of those frozen ones. The original recipe calls for white rice but I actually like it even better with brown rice. And of course with brown rice, you get that lovely, angelic feeling of being incredibly and responsibly HEALTHY too. Last but not least, I serve this one with some lime wedges on the side. I think the lime juice is one of the things that makes this dish stand out from the pack, and it's nice to have a little extra dash of lime to squeeze over the top just before you dig in. After all, if you have splurged on the tenderloin, might as well go all the way, right?


And with that, here you go...delicious AND nutritious. Yum.

BEEF STIR FRY WITH SUGAR SNAP PEAS, adapted from Everyday Foods

• 2 cups cooked brown rice (or white, if you prefer)
• 1 pound tenderloin steak, thinly sliced crosswise
  
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 12 ounces snap peas, strings removed
• 5 to 6 scallions, white and green parts separated, thinly sliced diagonally
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from about 1 lime)

1. Ten minutes before rice is done, place steak in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch, and season with salt and pepper; toss to coat. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Cook half the steak until browned on one side, 1 to 2 minutes (steak will cook further in step 3); transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining beef.
2. Add snap peas, white part of scallions, ginger, red-pepper flakes, and 3/4 cup water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook until snap peas turn bright green, 1 to 2 minutes. Return steak to skillet until cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and mix in green part of scallions and lime juice. Serve with rice and lime wedges on the side.

Original recipe link: Beef Stir Fry with Sugar Snap Peas

Summertime Tuna Salad

Got tomatoes?

Yep, me too. It's July in New Jersey, and they have us surrounded.

If you don't grow them yourself, they practically tackle you whenever you walk into your local farm market. They are gorgeously red and shiny and alluring, and they are only sold in giant bushels-full around us, if you want the home-grown New Jersey ones. Which you do, trust me. So this is not the season of using one tomato at a time - right this second I have a multiple-tomato bolognese sauce cooking away on the stove (four tomatoes!), and I am planning a tomato mozzarella salad for later this week (three more tomatoes!). This tuna salad is only a one-tomato number, but it all helps.

We all know and love the tuna/mayo/celery salad, but this one is a little different. First of all, you MUST use tuna packed in oil. Must must must. Don't worry, you get to drain most of it off, but it is essential for the flavor (and you are not using the mayo, remember, so they cancel each other out. Isn't it great how that works out?) This is also not a sandwich-filling type of tuna salad, although I guess you could if you really wanted to. It's more of a salad-salad, just mounded on a plate and served with bread or crackers or something else bread-ish. We had ours with flatbread -- our favorite kind is the rosemary and sea salt flatbread from Margaret's Artisan Bakery. Until recently I have only been able to find it at JK Adams in Dorset, Vermont (don't get me started on JK Adams. That will be its own post after I make my next visit late next month). But recently I saw that Fairway has started stocking it. (Love you, Fairway. Will you marry me?) Here is the website for this great flatbread - if you don't live in Dorset Vermont or near Fairway, maybe it will tell you where you can find it in a store near you:

Margaret's Artisan Bakery Flatbread

Anyway. This salad is quick and lovely, and so long as you use the tuna in the oil you have my permission to mess around with the other ingredients, especially the herbs. And don't forget the tomato, of course.

Uh-oh, here comes my mom with a giant bag of string beans from her garden.

SUMMERTIME TUNA SALAD

• 1 six ounce can of tuna, packed in oil.
• 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers
• Salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped herbs (basil, parsley, thyme are all good -- mix them up!)

Drain the excess oil from the tuna and mix up with all other ingredients. Serve with crackers, bread, flatbread, etc etc etc. Happy summer.

The Way Life Should Be

 

I really wish I had kept the original New York Times article that this recipe is based on. It went something along these lines: the writer had a summer house somewhere in New England, probably Maine, and had lots of summertime houseguests, many of whom had their hearts set on a lobster dinner. So they had many a suppertime filled with lobsters being boiled and cracked, with all the stuff that goes with that (pieces of errant shell flying all over the place, lobster juice drenching everything, etc, etc.). And the point of the article was, wouldn't life be wonderful if you could make a meal that included all of the lazy, delicious, summertime taste of lobster without all the shell-cracking, juice-flying, sticky drama?

At least I think that is how it went. It's been a while, and my brain isn't what it used to be.

In any event, I did keep the recipe, which is wonderfully and perfectly entitled "The Way Life Should Be." And when it comes to eating lobster, the way life should be is that the lobster is out of the shell, cut or torn into delectable bite-sized pieces, and marinated in a glorious bath of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, chopped garlic and a heaping amount of chopped up fresh mint, parsley and basil. (Very Important Note: the original recipe says these herbs are optional. They are NOT. They are MANDATORY. Otherwise the recipe is automatically retitled, "The Way Life Kinda Should Be.")

Anyway. You leave the lobster in this lovely marinade for 60 minutes, then you cook up some spaghetti, drain it, put in in a bowl and pour the whole lemony, lobstery, herby, garlicky concoction over the pasta. Toss it around a little and there you have it -- a summery lobster dinner that smells incredible and tastes even better.

We had this for dinner a few days ago, and it was a work day for me. When I got home, my hearthrob of a Southern husband had already put the lobster into the marinade and it was waiting on the kitchen counter. The kitchen smelled incredible -- all mint and basil and lemon and garlic and lobster -- and all I had to do was make the pasta, mix it up and not mess up the picture.

Now THAT is the way life should be.

THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE, adapted from The New York Times

Six lobsters, cooked, shelled and chopped into bite size pieces

1/3 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 minced garlic cloves

1/4 cup chopped parsley and basil

1/4 cup mint

Pinch of salt

1 pound cooked spaghetti

1. Combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, herbs and salt. Add lobster and let sit at room temperature for an hour.

2. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and return to pot. Pour lobster mixture onto pasta and toss.

Print this!

Dijon Shrimp Scampi

I have been making this great little recipe for ages. It's in standard rotation here at the Jacksons because it is so easy and so elegant. It's great for weekday dinners when you want to make something quick and tasty, but it is also perfect for a little (or big) dinner party, because it has a lovely little sauce that looks and tastes very ooh-la-la. Because it has just a few ingredients, it's important that all of them be fresh and lovely. So here's my suggestion for how to go about that.

Shrimp: I've said it before, I'll say it again -- the absolute best place to get shrimp is Costco. I buy the great big bags (actually, I think they only come in great big bags there) and when I get home I divide them into bags of 10 each and throw them in the freezer. That way there is always a little bag-o-shrimp on hand, and when I get down to the last one I send the ever-helpful Southern husband to Costco for more. This time he came home with the shrimp, a giant bag of macadamia nuts, about 25 lemons, two dozen organic eggs and an industrial size box of Bounce. It's always entertaining to see what catches his fancy at Costco.

Lemon juice, garlic, parsley: all fresh please. Trust me, you will taste the difference.

Mustard: follow the directions and use the Dijon. It's got a little bit of white wine in it and that makes a nice impact in this recipe.

Butter: use the good stuff. I like Kate's Homemade Butter (that is an actual brand, I don't own a churn. Well actually, I DO own a churn, but it is purely decorative.) You can buy it at Whole Foods and Fairway.

Rice: I love basmati rice for this recipe, it has a great popcorn-ish flavor to it. And while we are on the topic of rice, can I just say that I ADORE my rice cooker. I held out for ages before I bought one. Who needs a whole separate appliance for cooking rice, I told myself. But my reckless Southern husband went out and got one ANYWAY and ever since then my rice has been perfect every time. And it also makes rocking great steel-cut oatmeal and cheese grits too.

So without further ado, here is one of the nicest, easiest, hardest-working recipes in my collection! 

DIJON SHRIMP SCAMPI

• I pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Hot cooked rice

1. Melt butter with garlic in large skillet. Saute shrimp over medium-high heat until just cooked through, about 3-5 minutes.

2. Blend in mustard, lemon juice and parsley and heat through.

3. Mound rice on place, place shrimp on rice, drizzle mustard sauce over all.

Print this!



Goat Cheese Quesadillas

One of the best things about this blog has been the many suggestions, ideas, and comments I have gotten from the folks reading it. I love hearing from all of you so much! I have gotten amazing guidance on the photography (thanks, Bob!), with the design of the blog and how to display the pictures (thanks Christopher!), general love and encouragement and patience when I am holding up yet another meal while getting just ONE more shot (love you, Don!) and best of all, so many great ideas and suggestions for new recipes to try. Today's recipe comes to me from my friend Pat, and it arrived at the absolute perfect moment -- one of those days when I actually had some un-spoken-for corn in the fridge, some tortillas, and a lonely avocado. A quick trip to Fairway for some of their AMAZING store-made goat cheese (try it!!) and some salsa verde and I was in business.

These little quesadillas would of course be a great starter for any meal, but we actually had them for lunch. I made my 30 second version of guacamole (mash up an avocado, mix in fresh lime juice, coarse salt, chopped tomatoes - that's it!) and plunked the quesas on a plate with a little mound of the guac and some sour cream. Out we went to the Adirondack chairs in the back yard -- me, my gorgeous Southern husband and my hopeful but out-of-luck-when-it-comes-to-getting-any-of-the-quesadillas dog, and we had a lovely little lunch.

So thanks for the recipe, Pat! And thanks to everyone else who is helping me make my little blog adventure so much fun. Keep those comments coming! Meantime, here is the link to some great quesadillas:

Goat Cheese and Roasted Corn Quesadillas

Summer Steak Tartare

Steak tartare. It is certainly dramatic, isn't it? This is one of those recipes that you have to be completely in the mood for. (The dog tried her best to tell me she was in the mood, and she would also be in the mood tomorrow and the next day and the day after). It is kind of primal -- we are talking raw meat, raw egg, and some serious flavorings. But every once in a while it is just the thing for a small, exotic, romantic meal.
This particular recipe comes from one of my beloved Sarah Leah Chase cookbooks, OPEN-HOUSE COOKBOOK. I love them, these cookbooks, and I go back to them over and over because they are great at putting a little spin on recipes you think you know but haven't really experienced to their fullest until you have tried Sarah's version. This one is called "Summer Steak Tartare," because along with the standard tartare ingredients it also includes a serious amount of fresh chopped herbs, which for me totally changes it for the better. The recipe calls for serving it on fresh greens, but I changed this to a bed of basil leaves (anything to use up more basil!), and discovered that eating small bites of it wrapped in the basil leaves is just as great as eating it off of toast points. And on the toast points front, I used triangles of Indian naan bread, because it happened to be in the fridge at the moment, and it was perfect!
So whenever you are feeling a little romantic and adventurous and carnivorous, give this one a try. Add a little red wine, some Van Morrison on the stereo, eat it with your sweetheart from a shared plate, and I promise you, it will not be your run-of-the-mill dinner. Thank you for the millionth time, Sarah...

SUMMERTIME STEAK TARTARE, adapted from OPEN-HOUSE COOKBOOK

• 3/4 pound finely ground beef tenderloin. Get the best one you can and your food processor will grind this up just fine.
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon drained capers
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 5 sundried tomatoes, packed in oil, minced
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt and pepper to tase
• Shaved Parmesan cheese
• 1 hard cooked egg yolk, pressed through a sieve
• Greens -- arugala, or even large basil leaves

1. Using your hands, mix everything together except for the parmesan, cooked egg yolk and greens.
2. Line a serving plate with the greens. Mound the tartare in the center. Decorate with Parmesan shavings. Scatter sieved egg yolk over all. Serve at once with toast points.

Serves 4 as appetizer, or 2 as a romantic little dinner.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

Okay. I will start by saying that this recipe is the biggest break ever with my "if you can't make it in 30 minutes or less the Jacksons don't eat it" rule, because this one takes two days. Yes, two days, you read that correctly. And all I can say is, they are WORTH it. They are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made, eaten, seen, etc. I have independent teenage verification of this.  Here's the scoop.

A long time ago I printed this recipe out from the New York Times food section, because the author (the fabulous David Leite)  promised these would be cookies like no others, and he gave all sorts of scientific explanation as to why. I am a sucker for scientific verification of why recipes should be done in specific ways (this is why I am a Cook's Illustrated addict), and so I filed it away for future cookie-making. Periodically I would come across it and read the two-day part, and back it would go into the stack. The two-day part is one of the critical elements -- apparently cookie dough that sits for more than 24 hours, and as part of that allows the butter to reform into it's original harder state is way better than your regular dough. But TWO DAYS? Who has two days for cookies?

And then one weekend I did have two days. And so on Saturday I made the dough, following the instructions to the last letter. (If I was going to devote two days to cookies, I was not taking any chances.) Into the refrigerator the dough went to mellow, or whatever it was that it was supposed to do. On Sunday, I measured them out EXACTLY as instructed, sprinkled them with the expensive sea salt EXACTLY as instructed, and baked them EXACTLY as instructed.

And oh. My. God.

As you know, I take pictures of a lot of what I cook, and of course I needed to do a little photo shoot with these. Which took about 30 minutes. There were several children milling around, and I thought I was going to have a riot on my hands while they waited for me to be done and hand over the cookies.

When we finally bit into them, all I can say is...two days, expensive sea salt...totally, completely, absolutely worth it. I've eaten a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my day, and these I will remember for a long, long, long time. It's enough to make you cancel your plans for the weekend just to have time to make them.

Here is a link to the whole article in the Times, because all kidding aside, I think it is really interesting to understand WHY all this works the way it does, and there is a link to the actual recipe in the article. Give them a try -- life is too short not to have eaten these cookies at least once. Trust me on this - I wouldn't steer you wrong on something so serious as a chocolate chip cookie. I mean, c'mon.

"Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie"
Click here for the recipe!

Watermelon Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil

So, earlier this summer I was delighted when the great folks who publish cookbooks at HarperCollins asked me if I would take a look at some of their books, try some of their recipes and write a little piece about the recipes for their online newsletter.

Try out recipes and write about them, you ask? Why, yes I will! And I get to check out some new cookbooks as part of the whole thing? Awesome!

Then the first cookbook arrived. LIVING RAW FOOD, by Salma Melngailis.

Wait a sec. Raw food? I am a grill it, saute it, deep-fry it, bake it kinda girl. I'm all for being healthy, but I am into all of this for the taste, and while I love my sushi and a little steak tartare here and there, in my experience raw and tastes-good don't usually go together. But, I am a woman of my word and so I opened up this cookbook to see what I could find. And oh my goodness, I stand corrected. I won't go into all of it because I do want you to read my ARTICLE (link is below, how convenient!!) but let me just say that the watermelon salad pictured above will be put on permanent rotation in my collection of summer recipes. It was a beautiful concoction of watermelon, tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley, avocado and (get ready) chopped jalepeno, and man, did it all work together. And it looked gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

So, here is a link to my article.

Living With Raw Food

Along with a direct link to the watermelon salad recipe.

Watermelon Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil

And you should definitely check out the other great books in the HarperCollins Summer of Books website

HarperCollins Summer of Books!

And, it just goes to show you -- you never, ever know. Raw food for everyone!!

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

So, for all of you who follow this blog for the recipes, I promise there is one at the end if you hang in there. But for right now I must go on for a while about my perfect little baby nephew, Liam Christopher.





I told you he was perfect. Look at that perfect nose, and that perfect ear, and that perfect little baby rosebud mouth.

Here he is with his mama and papa. They are just a little bit happy, and they might keep him around for a while.



And here is his big cousin Emma. She is a black belt, so she has his back from now on. If you are like me and can't possibly get enough of looking at this precious little bunny, here are a few more pictures for you.Liam Gallery

And for those of you who have been SO good, and waited for the recipe, here it is. I have had this recipe for a while, and some day I am going to make it for Liam, but in the meantime I will share it with you. They are ice cream cupcakes, substituting a little ball of ice cream on the top of the cupcake instead of the frosting. Just perfect for a perfect little boy whose birthday is July 7, don't you think?

Ice Cream CupcakesLove you, precious Liam.

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Some weekends I just get a dessert-making mania. And because I am forever running across recipe after recipe that looks SO tempting, by the time a dessert-mania weekend rolls around, I usually have quite a backlog. And while the dog is more than happy to do her part, there is only so much dessert the Jacksons can eat. (and before I start getting messages about it, I do know that chocolate is not for dogs. No matter how hard they argue with you that it IS.)

Anyway, this weekend I am in luck, because today I am going to see my completely perfect brand-new 11 day old nephew Liam, and I promised his mama that I would bring along some dinner for her and the papa. And what is dinner without...DESSERT. Especially for people who are waking up every two hours. They DESERVE dessert. They NEED it. So, those delectable little chocolate coconut bars are on their way to Liam's house. Well, most of them, anyway.

This is a very easy bar recipe that comes from Martha Stewart's Cookie A Day newsletter. If I had 2 more hours in each day I would make her cookies every day - each one sounds better than the next. So it is probably good there are NOT 2 more hours in each day. It disciplines me to pick and choose only the ones I cannot live without. Like these.







A couple of pieces of advice on this one. When she says to use parchment paper -- use parchment paper. These are sticky little devils. Parchment paper will make your life better. You can find it in the baking aisle at your supermarket. Next, when she says to make sure the condensed milk doesn't touch the sides of the pan, she is not kidding. If it does, the cookies will hang onto the pan for dear life. If it doesn't, you will be able to lift these little devils right out.

It's really not as scary as I just made it sound. And let me tell you, these are WORTH IT. Check out the link below.

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Cucumbers

Cold sesame noodles is one of my favorite Asian dishes ever, and so I am always on the look-out for a new good recipe to try out. (which always then leads to a Recipe Shoot-Out, since then I have to go back and re-make all the ones that I already have, just to compare and contrast. Luckily I have a patient husband who doesn't mind eating variations on the same theme over and over and over, and a daughter who is happy to have Cheerios for dinner).

Anyway, I was therefore delighted to find this new recipe on Mark Bittman's fabulous blog, and take it out for a test drive with the leftover grilled chicken I had in my fridge. Overall I really liked it, and the cooperative Southern husband absolutely Loved it, with a Capital L. Which will not stop me from making the other version I already have in my binder, but if you don't already have a recipe for sesame noodles, this is a quick and easy one. I've included the link below, but I do have several pointers/suggestions/adjustments, because I just can't leave well enough alone!

1. This recipe calls for poached chicken, but I think it is SO much better with grilled chicken that has been shredded into bite-sized pieces.

2. I use the large shredder attachment on my food processor to deal with the cucumber. SO much easier and faster then shredding by hand, and better shreds. And we must have good shreds, you know.

3. Mix this thing up with your hands. It will absolutely come together the best way if you do this.

4. I garnished with sesame seeds instead of scallions, but I am not anti-scallion. The ones I had in the fridge were just looking a little dodgy. (don't you love being an improvisational cook?)

Aside from that I stuck very closely to this recipe (and feel free to ignore me and follow Mark's instructions to the letter, he does have a decent jump on me in terms of cooking expertise). And with that, here is the link:

Cold Sesame Noodles

Tagliolini with Lobster and Fresh Tomatoes

Ok, enough with all this creamy, grainy comfort food -- time to bring on the drama! And nothing says ooh-la-la, I am a DRAMATIC dinner like lobster. Now, lobster is usually something I save for eating at the beach (Red's Lobster Pot, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Go there at least in your life. Trust me on this.) But that is when we are talking about whole lobsters. Let someone else have the putting of the lobster in the pot guilt, never mind the mess of the shells that fling themselves across the room as you are cracking your way through dinner.

However, recipes that involve lobster meat as part of the dish? Bring 'em on, baby. In those cases we purchase the lobster at the supermarket, they steam it right there, and then all I have to do is talk my sous-chef husband into doing the hard part, which is extracting the meat from the shell and chopping it into succulent little chunks. I am then home-free on the rest of the dish, because (once again) he has done the serious work. He also cleans up the kitchen, by the way. Every night. No, you cannot borrow him, he's MINE.

This delightful, delicious, de-lovely lobster dish is from the cookbook that brought us the gnocchi recipe earlier in the week: ITALY AL DENTE by Biba Caggiano. This time of year I will try almost anything that calls for fresh tomatoes, because in New Jersey in the summertime the fresh tomatoes pretty much have us surrounded. This is a quick and pretty sauce that called for those tomatoes sauted in olive oil with garlic, sundried tomato, red pepper and (and this MAKES the dish) a handful of capers. Some lobster meat, a lacing of butter, some hot pasta, and your evening just got a whole lot better!

So next time you have some tomatoes hanging around your kitchen, go grab yourself a lobster and give this one a go. And if you are ever in Point Pleasant Beach...Red's Lobster Pot.

Red's Lobster Pot

TAGLIOLINI WITH LOBSTER AND FRESH TOMATOES

• 1 lobster, steamed, meat extracted and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon minced sun-dried tomatoes
• 1-2 tablespoons capers
• 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, seeded and diced
• Salt to tase
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 8 ounces tagliolini pasta (use linguine if you can't find this)

1. Bring water to a boil in large pot and cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve one cup of pasta water.

2. Meantime, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and capers and stir for a minute. Add diced tomatoes, season with salt and cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir in parsley and turn off heat.

3. Add lobster and cooked pasta to skillet and toss with butter. Add a little pasta water to make a light sauce. Serve immediately.

Artichoke Risotto with Taleggio Cheese

I am obviously in some sort of creamy, grainy, comfort-food-ish zone this week, because following in the footsteps of the pastina and the polenta is this nice little risotto. As with the others, it is warm and silky and completely eat-with-a-spoonable. The recipe caught my eye because it called for taleggio cheese, which I have never had before, and artichokes, which I have had many many times and love.

Risotto is definitely best made with a patient partner, because it involves a lot of stirring. And I do mean a LOT. I have seen arguments on both sides, and have heard tell that if you don't stir it constantly for the entire cooking time it will be just fine, but in this house we are taking no chances. We stir. And to be totally honest, it is my handsome Southern husband who stirs. He is a completely reliable stirrer, which leaves me free to work on the mix-ins, thereby just squeaking under the 30 minutes or under rule.

As risottos goes, this is a pretty easy one. Basic arborio rice cooked in chicken broth with minced onion, with the artichoke hearts, cheese and a little butter stirred in at the very end, and fresh ground pepper on top. Easy, easy, easy, especially with fine stirring back-up. The recipe is adapted from I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI, by Guila Melucci -- and again, if you haven't read it, it's a good one!

Tomorrow I am breaking out of my creamy grainy zone and making...pasta! For which you will need a fork instead of a spoon! But for now, here's a nice comfortable risotto.

ARTICHOKE RISOTTO WITH TALEGGIO CHEESE

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1/2 cup white wine
  
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
• 1/2 cup diced Taleggio cheese
• Fresh ground pepper

1. Heat chicken broth in medium saucepan.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in second medium saucepan over med-high heat. Saute onions for 2 minutes

3. Add rice to onions, saute for 2 more minutes

4. Add wine to rice and simmer until wine is absorbed

5. Start adding chicken broth, one ladle-ful at a time. Stirring constantly, wait until each ladle of liquid is absorbed before adding the next one. Continue until rice is cooked, about 20-25 minutes. If you run out of chicken broth before rice is done, add a little hot water.

6. When rice is done, stir in artichoke hearts, cheese and remaining butter.

7. Serve immediately with a grinding of fresh pepper on top.

Polenta with Shredded Chicken, Fontina, and Sage Butter Sauce

So, this doesn't happen to stubborn inflexible me too often, but every once in a while I come home thinking I am going to be making one thing for dinner and it ends up as another. I don't ever stray TOO far afield -- the ingredients generally stay the same - but occasionally they come together in a way that was, um, not the way I originally planned. That's what happened to me tonight.

On the menu was sliced grilled chicken, with a creamy cheese polenta on the side, flavored with some fresh sage. I also had in the back of my mind that later this week I am going to be making a cold sesame noodle salad with shredded chicken, so my multi-tasking Plan was to grill enough chicken for both meals. Or to be totally accurate, my Plan was to ask my dashing Southern grill-loving husband to grill enough chicken for both meals. So far, so good.

Off he goes out to the grill, and in I stay to look over the polenta recipe (which he actually started to make before I got home. Have I mentioned lately that I am just CRAZY about this guy? I am.) It's a basic polenta recipe -- make the polenta, stir in cheese and butter and chopped sage, serve -- and as I always do, I start envisioning how it is going to look on the plate. And...I got bored. I think I might have actually yawned. And then I started thinking -- shredded chicken, shredded chicken. And what if I didn't mix in all the cheese? and what if I didn't mix in all the butter, but saved some for a tiny little sauce? And I wonder if there are any ice cream sandwiches in the freezer for dessert? Oh wait.

So, in comes helpful adorable Southern husband with the chicken, which he then offers to shred for me (why yes! thank you!), and it all started coming together in my mind. Nice pool of cheesy polenta on a round plate. Little mound of grilled, shredded chicken in the center. Fresh grated parmesan cheese on top of the chicken. Melted butter with chopped sage drizzled over the whole thing.

Now, THAT is not boring.

And yes, there are still some ice cream sandwiches in the freezer.

POLENTA WITH SHREDDED CHICKEN, FONTINA AND SAGE BUTTER

Serves 4

4 cups cold water
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmagiano
3 ounces diced fontina cheese
5-6 sage leaves, minced
1 1/2 to 2 cups grilled and shredded chicken breast

1. Bring water to boil and add salt. Reduce heat to medium low and pour the cornmeal into the water in a slow constant stream, whisking all the time to prevent lumps.

2. Simmer for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on consistency of cornmeal, stirring regularly, until polenta is thick.

3. Add 1 tablespoon butter, half the Parmagiano and all the fontina. Stir until cheese is melted.

4. Melt remaining butter and stir in sage (this can be done in the microwave).

5. Spoon polenta onto plate in a nice round. Top with shredded chicken and remaining Parmagiano. Drizzle melted sage butter over top.

Click here for printable recipe

Ricotta Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Walnut Sauce

Okay, settle in, boys and girls, this is a long one. And let me start by saying that this most definitely breaks the 30 Minutes Or Under Rule that I usually have for making dinner, but I do tend to bend that rule on Sundays when I have time to really take my kitchen out for a spin. This weekend I decided that I was going to try making homemade gnocchi. I've never made it before, and I actually have not eaten it all that often, and so I knew I needed a clear afternoon to really get down into it.

So, first I needed a recipe. I have this cookbook called ITALY AL DENTE by Biba Caggiano, and the subtitle is "Pasta, Risotto, Gnocchi, Polenta, Soup." Bingo. I read the chapter on gnocchi and learned there are two basic types: potato and ricotta. Biba advises neophytes like me to start with ricotta. The recipe is pretty basic.

16 ounces whole milk ricotta, a cup and a half of flour, 2 teaspoons salt, one egg and 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmagiano cheese.

Mix it all up together until you have a wet dough.

Then knead it for about 2 minutes until it feels pliable and smooth. I was a little wary of this particular direction, but actually you recognize it when it happens.

I would like to pause at this moment for a moment on one of God's gifts to cooks, which is the Silpat. That is my beloved Silpat you see in the picture above. The recipe said to do all this kneading on a wooden board, but I have been around the block enough to know that when it comes to dealing with sticky anything, you can't do better than a Silpat. They are silicone (I think) mats that are roughly the size of a cookie sheet, and nothing -- I mean nothing -- sticks to these suckers. Pie crusts, chocolate chip cookies, candied walnuts, now sticky gnocchi dough -- my Silpat has seen it all, and has never, ever let me down. If you don't already have one -- or four, like me -- you NEED one. Trust me.

SILPAT

Meanwhile, back at the gnocchi. Next Biba told me to divide the dough into sections. Being a gnocchi newbie, I cut my dough into three sections.

Which once I started the next step I realized should have been more like 6 sections (easily remedied). Next step was to roll the sections into long ropes, about the width of your finger, stretching as you roll. Stretching as you roll? This took me about 5 ropes to figure out, but I got there.

Then you cut your rolls into one inch pieces.

Then you take a fork, face it downward and away from you and press each of these little pieces onto the tines of the fork, forming little grooves. The better to hold the sauce, Biba says.

There they are, my adorable little gnocchi's! (or is the plural "gnocchi?" I should look that up.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I needed a sauce. Apparently gnocchi is a cooperative little pasta that works well with a simple marinara sauce among other things, but I was WAAAAYYY too invested at this point to let myself off that easily. I settled on a walnut gorgonzola sauce that sounded just sinful.

Chopped walnuts that I roasted in a 375 oven for three minutes. 3/4 cup heavy cream and 3 tablespoons of my really good butter. And best of all, 3 ounces of what the cheese guy at Fairway swore to me was the best creamy Gorgonzola in the place. Gorgonzola Dolce, direct from Italy to the Fairway in Paramus, New Jersey, right to my kitchen counter.

Okay, then things started happening fast. First, my biggest pot got filled with water and put on to boil, so the cute little gnocchi's had enough room to swim around and not stick to each other.

While the water was heating I started the sauce. First melt the butter over medium heat, then add the walnuts and saute for about 2 minutes. Add in the cream and the gorgonzola, give the whole thing a stir and then simmer for about 4 minutes until it thickens slightly.

Now, I wish I had a picture of this next part because I didn't quite believe it would happen until it did, but at this point things were happening at the speed of light. As the sauce was simmering for its allotted four minutes, it was time to cook the gnocchi. You drop them into the boiling water and they sink to the bottom like little stones...and then about 2 minutes later they pop to the surface. At which point they are DONE. By the time I finished dropping the last little gnocchi into the pot, the first ones were popping up. (Phew!). The final step is to scoop them out with a slotted spoon and drop them into that simmering cheese sauce....and there you have it. Gnocchi nirvana.

Succulent little ricotta gnocchi, coated in creamy Gorgonzola sauce with bits of roasted walnuts. Can I get an Amen?

I'm exhausted now.

Pastina with Egg and Cheese, Otherwise Known As Comfort Food

I love the general category of comfort food. You know what I mean: buttered toast. Cream of Wheat. Chicken noodle soup. I could go on and on. Sometimes it is the only thing that will do when you are feeling blue, or tired, or overwhelmed by the busy-ness of it all. Or maybe you just want to be 5 years old again, for a few minutes. Anyway, I have my little repertoire of meals (usually for just me!) that fall into this category, and I was delighted to run across a new one the other day in this book I just finished reading.

It is called I LOVED, I LOST, I ATE SPAGHETTI, by Guilia Melucci. For all of you who read EAT, PRAY, LOVE it is basically the same type of book, only this time the EAT and the LOVE parts are combined. And scattered throughout this book are Guila's various recipes for this that and the other thing, mainly Italian dishes. I bookmarked five or six that I am going to try at some point, but this one I knew I wanted to make right away. It has been that kind of week!

The basic components are pretty simple: pastina, egg, butter, cheese, salt and pepper. It cooks up in about 5 minutes start to finish, and turns into a creamy, slightly cheesy concoction that needs to be eaten with a spoon. I ladled mine into my Peter Rabbit bowl, settled into my favorite chair outside, and immediately felt much better. So if you are looking for a good book to read give this a try:

I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI

And the next time you need a little pick-me-up, cook up some of this. Preferably served in a Peter Rabbit bowl.

PASTINA WITH EGG AND CHEESE

Serves one fragile person

• 1/4 cup pastina
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan
• Fresh ground pepper

Bring one cup of water to boil in small saucepan. Add pastina and salt and cook until most of the water is absorbed, 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in egg, letting it cook in the hot pasta. Add butter, cheese and pepper. Eat slowly out of your favorite bowl with your favorite spoon. Feel much better.

Shrimp with Corn and Basil

I consider myself a pretty organized person. Okay, an obsessively organized person. But every once in a while I look in my fridge and find something that I have no idea what it is doing there. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, and particularly when it is something GOOD, it's a personal challenge to make something out of it. Yesterday I was looking through the fridge as I was thinking over the menu for next week and in the crisper, minding their own business, were four ears of corn. I swear to God, I have no idea how they got there. And of course, neither does anyone else who lives in this house. But there they were, and this was a little urgent because their poor husks were already looking a little D R Y.

Happily, I remembered this old favorite recipe of ours. I can't remember where I first got this one; the recipe itself is old and yellowed and looks like it was cut out of a magazine about 125 years ago, but it's one that I have gone back to time and again for a quick summer meal that comes together in about 15 minutes. The key is fresh ingredients -- must be fresh corn, not canned or frozen. (Check, got that.) Must be fresh basil, not dried. (Check, gigantic basil crop right outside the door and threatening to take over the house.) Nice big shrimp -- I buy these in bulk at Costco, which has a rocking great seafood department, and separate them into bags of about 10-12 shrimp per back and chuck them into the freezer so I always have some on hand. Last but not least, really good butter, since that is pretty much the main ingredient of the sauce. It's worth going to the specialty part of your supermarket and spending extra for gourmet butter. I keep two kinds of butter on hand, the really nice kind for spreading and for pan sauces, and then regular organic butter for baking.

Those ingredients are the grand total of what you need for this recipe. I thawed out my Costco shrimp and 15 minutes later we were sitting outside by the pond having a lovely summer lunch. So here's the recipe, for you to try whenever you come across some nice summer corn -- either on purpose or by surprise!

SHRIMP WITH CORN AND BASIL

• 4 tablespoons really good butter
• Kernels from 4 ears of corn
• 1 pound shelled shrimp (cut into one inch pieces if they are really big)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Melt butter in large frying pan. Add corn and shrimp and stir-fry until shrimp is cooked through, about 3-5 minutes.

2. Stir in basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. This dish is perfect as is, but if the mood strikes me I have been known to mix in some crumbled feta cheese, or to grate some fresh Parmesan on top. You should experiment, too!

Sliders with Bacon and Horseradish Sauce

A while back I had the privilege of working with the phenomenal Emeril LaGasse on a series of children's cookbooks, and it was one of the pure pleasures of my life. Emeril is an absolute artist in the kitchen. I can honestly, definitively say that the food I ate at the various events where he cooked was the best I have ever tasted. He has an amazing gift for putting foods together in simple but perfect combinations that make you want to just sing and dance when you taste them.

So when I heard Emeril had a new cookbook, and one that revolves around the grill...oh baby. I thought I would just start on page one and work my way right through to the end, but I was totally sidetracked by page 100. Sirloin Sliders with Crisp Bacon and Creamy Horseradish Mayo. Don't you just want to weep with happiness at the prospect of one of those babies? So last night my husband fired up the old Lazyman grill and we gave this recipe a try, and Emeril? Once again, you ROCK.

I followed the directions to a T (because who am I to question the Master), except that I used hot dog rolls instead of the brioche or dinner rolls -- simply take side-cut hot dog rolls and cut them in thirds, they will be the perfect size. I've included the recipe below because I know it would be total torture to tease you with that picture up there and then not share, but believe me when I say this book is jam-packed with recipes that look just as sensational. Run, do not walk to wherever books are sold and pick this one up -- it is essential reading for anyone who has both a grill and tastebuds. Click link below for more info:

EMERIL AT THE GRILL

Sliders with Bacon and Horseradish Sauce, adapted from EMERIL AT THE GRILL

Makes 12 sliders

• 12 ounces ground beef chuck
• 12 ounces ground sirloin
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 12 dinner roll sized brioche buns (or 4 hot dog rolls cut in thirds)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 6 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained and broken into 2 inch pieces

1. Combine chuck, sirloin, garlic, onion, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly to combine. Using a 1/4 cup measure, divide mixture into 12 portions. Shape into small patties, 3 inches wide and 3/8 inch thick. Place on plate, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to overnight.

2. Whisk together mayo, sour cream and horseradish. Add remaining salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve (up to 3 days in advance).

3. Preheat grill to high.

4. Lightly brush cut sides of buns with butter. Wrap buns in foil and place on coolest part of the grill to warm while you cook the burgers.

5. Grill the burgers for about 2 minutes per side for medium. Transfer to bottom part of buns and garnish with bacon. Spoon a dollop of horseradish cream over the bacon and place bun tops over all. Serve hot.

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Last week you may remember that I made Emma's all-time favorite meal, macaroni and cheese. However, I made the baked-with-breadcrumbs kind.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Which to some people is perfectly wonderful, but for Emma to be in true mac and cheese heaven she needs the creamy stovetop kind. Not wants. NEEDS. So being the all-around great mama that I am, I put macaroni and cheese on the menu for the second week in a row, and went right to my most reliable recipe for it, which is adapted from Cooks Illustrated. Which is a great chance to tell you about the fabulousness that is Cooks Illustrated.

There are many, many, many great free cooking websites out there, and I use lots of them, but there is only one that I pay for and that is Cooks Illustrated. It's not a lot of money but it IS a paid website, and you might ask, why is this necessary with all the great free ones out there? Simply put, you simply cannot go wrong with one of their recipes. Their approach is that they take a recipe -- say mac and cheese - and they test the various millions of ways to make it until they come up with what they think is the ultimate perfect way to make it. And they tell you what they did and why their final method is the way that works. For a Type A personality like me, it's just fascinating, and utterly reliable. They also do this with food products --they test them and tell you which one is the best. (They recently said that Nestle Carnation Ice Cream Sandwiches are the best ones out there, just so you know). And also kitchen tools, from garlic presses to food processors to oven thermometers.

So whenever I need a TOTALLY reliable recipe for something, they are the ones I run to. Their creamy mac and cheese is everything advertised -- smooth, creamy, cheesy and total home comfort food. They include a step (which I left out, natch) for finishing it with breadcrumbs, but that is an optional step and so this is a total stovetop experience. So for all you creamy mac and cheese fans, this one is for YOU. And especially for my girl.

CREAMY MAC AND CHEESE

Serves 6-8

• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• Salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 5 cups milk
• 8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack
• 8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar (I recommend Cabot)

1. Cook macaroni until tender in boiling salted water. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour and whisk to combine, about one minute. Whisking constantly, add milk.

3. Bring mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened to the consistency of heavy cream, whisking occasionally.

4. Take off heat and stir in cheeses and one teaspoon salt until cheese is fully melted. Add pasta and stir over medium low heat until heated through, 3-5 minutes.

5. Ladle into warm dishes and watch the faces light up in happiness.

Ah, the creamy goodness.

Raspberry Mess

Mmmm, berry season. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries. I love them all. And looking over the list of recent recipes, it occurred to me that I don't have one single dessert recipe other than the banana cake, so it is high time I passed along one that is easy and seasonal and good and good for you, right?

While I am pretty vigilant about having a home-cooked meal on the table most nights, when it comes to dessert I usually let the troops fend for themselves. There is usually a plate or jar of homemade something on the counter that either Emma or I have made (Emma is getting to be an accomplished chocolate chip cookie-maker), and there is always ice cream in the freezer, but unless it is a special occasion I don't usually make a special dessert. But every once in a while I get inspired by either some seasonal ingredient or a particular recipe - or in this case, both!

First of all, Fairway had a stack of these gorgeous berries piled up right by the door, and look at them -- how could I resist? And then I remembered this recipe from Everyday Food that I torn out (mainly because of the name) and it was short and sweet enough that I was able to recall the needed ingredients right on the spot, which are: the berries, heavy cream, and a package of those meringue cookies -- you know, the little round ones that come in the plastic tub. This is the brand I usually find:

Meringue Cookies

And all you do is this: Whip up the heavy cream, crumble the cookies into chunks and fold the cookie chunks and some of the raspberries into the cream, puree the rest of the raspberries with a little sugar until they are liquified into a sauce and drizzle that on top with a few extra raspberries for garnish. Takes no time at all, it it comes out looking like THIS!

I mean, I ask you: where can you find a dessert that is more dramatically beautiful AND so easy to make? And it tastes every bit as good as it looks, I promise.

If you want to try this little number for yourself, here is the link to the recipe. My only adjustment was to add about 1/4 cup of sugar to the cream as it was whipping, otherwise I find it to be a little bit too plain. Aside from that, it is pretty close to being the perfect summertime dessert, if you are a raspberry fan like me!

Raspberry Mess

The Writing on the Wall

So, while I know that this blog makes it seem like I spend all my life in the kitchen, we actually DO have other rooms in our house. One of my favorites is our cozy bedroom, especially this time of year when you can throw all the windows open and let the breeze in. When it isn't raining, of course.

Wait. It's always raining.

Well anyway, we are always looking for unusual little decorating ideas, and a little while ago we were at Kohls (I love Kohls. Among other things, they are one of very few places that still carry good old garden variety Levi's) and I spotted these:

They are these strips of vinyl letters that spell out different phrases. The package -- as you can see -- promised that once applied to the wall it would look like it was hand-painted. They also promised it was easily removed if you ever changed your mind about whatever looked hand-painted upon your wall. And, they were On Sale. So we figured, what the heck.

Inside the can is a strip of lettering attached to adhesive backing on both sides, some directions that warned you 10 different ways that you should measure, and use a level, and measure, and make little marks on the wall to show you where it needed to you, and measure. Also a little plastic thing to smooth it onto the wall. Not letting any grass grow under our feet, we popped open the can and pulled out our little soon to be "hand-painted" on the wall phrase:

Because who doesn't need a little reminder now and then?

Don got right to work - he peeled the one adhesive side off and applied it lightly to the wall.

I would like to point out right now that there was NO measuring. I also pointed out at the time that there was no measuring going on. I read aloud all the parts in the instructions that mentioned measuring.

Apparently tough Southern men do not need to measure. They are completely confident in their instinctive ability to apply semi-permanent things to the wall with no supplementary measuring assistance.

Now that the thing was on the wall, it was time to take the little plastic thing and smush it on there for good.

No going back now. No straightening possible either. Not that straightening was going to be an issue though. Of course.

Final step: peel the other adhesive backing side off very very slowly.

Verrryyyyy....

sloooowwwwlllyyyy.

(interesting what parts of directions get followed, and which parts don't?)

Voila.

And even better.

And because I always give credit where credit is due...perfectly, beautifully straight.

xxx and good night!