Crafty Kitchen - Lentil Pasta

Let me be frank. This dish is not a looker. Hence, no photos. Take my word for it though, it is delicious. And simple to make. And very very satisfying, especially on chilly wintry nights.

You'll need:

• 1 cup lentils (Preferably the French Green ones, but brown work just fine, too)

• 1 can vegetable broth

• 1 onion, sliced into 1/4" half rings

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 head Swiss chard, torn into pieces

• 1 box orzo

Cook the lentils in the vegetable broth and water until done but still firm. (About 30 minutes) In another pot, cook the orzo according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a deep sided skillet, brown the onion in the olive oil. I mean really, really brown it. Deep, dark brown. This takes awhile, but it's worth it. When it's starting to get deep brown, toss in the garlic. When the onions are done to your liking, put in the Swiss chard, and cook briefly to wilt. Add the cooked orzo and lentils, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. DONE!

Serves 4 - 6. Freezes and reheats well.

5 Things to do with Yogurt

I'm sort of a yogurt fanatic. I can't get enough of it, especially the Greek kind. All those little cups can get expensive though (not to mention the ecological side effects), so I've come up with a few ways to make the big plain (or vanilla) containers a little more fun.

1. Add in jam! Exotic jam!
I have a weakness for collecting odd little jars of the stuff. Ginger spread? Apple cinnamon? Quince? Drop in a spoonful, swirl it around, and it's usually delicious. After all, that fruit-on-the-bottom kind isn't really that far removed from jam, is it?

2. Add spices.
Not a fan of putting in extra sugar? No worries. Try a little bit of cinnamon, or cardamom, or pumpkin pie spice. If you've got the plain sort of yogurt, try going savory. A little kick of cayenne and cumin, and you've got a whole different sort of treat. (Or dill! Or black pepper! Or...we could keep going. Experiment!)

3. Onion dip.
If I have one weakness (ha ha, only one!), it's onion dip. But holy cow, is that stuff ever bad for you. Try making it with lowfat or non fat plain Greek yogurt instead. It's still tangy and awesome, but a bit less likely to kill you. Of course, there's still the issue of chips. I guess you could always use raw veggies instead (ha! ha ha ha!), but let's not go nuts.

4. Oh, and speaking of nuts...
Yogurt + Peanut/Almond butter = delicious.
It's a freaking protein powerhouse. You will be UNSTOPPABLE!!

5. Yogurt face mask.
Okay, so we've run out of food ideas. A yogurt face mask is a traditional way to soothe dry skin and acne. It's antibacterial properties make it a great cleanser for troubled skin, and the lactic acid soothes irritation and softens skin.
To use it, wash your face like normal. Pat dry, and then apply yogurt to your face. Leave it on for 15 minutes, and then wash off with warm water.
Be sure to use plain, silly. And organic if you can - there tend to be more live active cultures in the stuff.

Your turn. How do you like your yogurt? Assuming, of course, that you like yogurt in the first place.

5 Ways to Spruce Up Oatmeal

Photo by TheBittenWord.com. Bonus recipe here!

Oatmeal. Common staple of the breakfast table. Plain. Boring. Often eaten only under duress, or with a grim sense of determination. ("I will lower my cholesterol, I will eat more fiber, I will I will I will")

It doesn't have to be this way! Oatmeal can be delicious. And fast. And still healthy. (Er. Sometimes.) Think of oatmeal as a blank canvas, just waiting for you to spruce it up.

I'm reluctant to even call these recipes. They're fast and easy enough to be done while you're still waiting for the coffee to brew. My basic formula for oatmeal is 1/2 cup of oatmeal (quick oats, natch), covered with 1/2 water, and microwaved for 2 minutes. Getting the water level right is such a personal thing. Experiment. Sweetener is another personal choice. My default sweetener is agave syrup. Now, the fun parts!

1. Apple Cinnamon

Dice 1 small apple. Add to oatmeal, and nuke as usual. Once cooked, add a few shakes of cinnamon, and the sweetener of your choice. OR. If you're feeling like you need a little something extra...a spoonful of caramel sauce. Ah. Maze. Ing.

2. Mango

Add 5 or 6 frozen mango chunks to the uncooked oatmeal. Nuke for 2 minutes as usual. Add sweetener, and a bit of cardamom to the cooked oatmeal.

3. Almost-a-muffin Blueberry

Add frozen blueberries to the uncooked oatmeal, cook as usual. Add cinnamon, sweetener, and about 1/2 tsp. of vanilla to the cooked mixture.

4. Tea-Riffic Oats

Okay, this one isn't mine. And I haven't tried it yet. But it sounds amazing! Head over to (never home)maker's blog for the recipe!

5. Cranberry Oatmeal

Mix in 1/4 cup of dried cranberries and 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract to the uncooked oats. Cook, and then add sweetener (and perhaps a pinch of cinnamon!) to taste. Oh, the yum.

Crafty Kitchen - The End of Nothing To Eat

***Special note! It's not too late to enter the Road to 500 Giveaway!***

We have all been there. Some of us pretty much live there. "There" being the dreaded 5 pm "what are we going to eat for dinner" pang. Try as I might to plan meals, things happen. Ingredients that should have been bought fall through the cracks. Sometimes, it's as simple as nothing sounding good. But something struck me the other day (no, not a box of cereal as it fell out of the cupboard...well, at least not this time). A formula. For LIVING. Er, EATING!

It's an extremely basic formula:
Grain + protein + vegetable + flavors = dinner



Sounds ridiculously basic, right? It's all about keeping a small selection of things in the pantry, and picking up a few fresh things when you're out. Using this formula, you can go to the market and choose whatever is in season/ looks best.
First, a caveat: this is ridiculously simple because it's something highly individualized. What I'm sharing here is really just a loose pattern. To make it work for you, first you're going to need to compile a few quick lists. These lists are the framework that make food happen.

Here are my lists, to give you an idea. They're obviously skewed towards my own tastes, but that's the beauty of the system: it SHOULD be skewed towards your own tastes. Why bother eating some one else's idea of what delicious is?

Grains - keep in stock in pantry:

• Rice

• Pasta

• Quinoa

• Bulgur Wheat

Flavors (pantry):

• Sauces, pre-made

• spices

• garlic

• onion

• broth

• olive oil

• various vinegars (balsamic, red wine, white wine, rice...)

Vegetables (fresh is better, but keep some in freezer for quick fix/"emergency" meals):

• Whatever is in season and looks good!

• A can of tomatoes (You can get a crazy amount of mileage out of this.)

Protein (again- mostly buy fresh, but keep a few on hand in freezer for emergency meals):

• Tofu

• Tempeh

• Lentils

• More beans than one can shake a stick at

THE COMBINING:
And here's where all that hoarding comes together.
There's a tremendous amount of directions you can go with all these goodies, but if you're stumped:
Start with frying an onion and/or garlic. Add to this the vegetables and spices. Add to that the protein.

• With tons of broth/water, it's soup.

• Served over pasta, it's...pasta.

• Served over grains, it's a stir fry.

• Served in tortillas, it's burritos/tacos.

You get the idea. The secret to variety is in the spices. You might want to start keeping track of combinations you really like. Or maybe I should write some up for the blog. (I happen to have a recipe for an easy lemon dressing that knocks the socks off of more dishes than you'd think.)

What do you think? Have any spice/sauce combinations you'd like to share? Comment!

Crafty Kitchen - Indian Tomato Soup

One recent cold and wintry evening, I found myself craving some manner of tomato soup (with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side, of course!). A quick search online revealed that tomato soup could be so much more than just, well, pureed tomatoes. I'm a huge fan of Indian food, and a huge stockpiler of Indian spices. Using what I had on hand, I threw this together. And what do you know, it actually worked!


What you'll need:

• 1 - 28 oz can whole tomatoes


• 2 potatoes, peeled


• 1 celery stalk


• 1/2 onion


• 2 cloves garlic


• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds


• 2 tab. butter or ghee


• 2 tsp. black mustard seeds


• 2 tsp. garam masala, or to taste


• 1 tsp. powdered ginger


• 1 cup milk


• cilantro

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt the butter over med. high heat. Add the cumin seeds, and cook for a few seconds, until fragrant. Brown the onion and garlic together. Add the browned onion, garlic, celery and tomatoes to a food processor, and puree them together. Return mixture to pan. Add potatoes, garam masala, mustard seeds and ginger. Simmer, partially covered, for 35 minutes. Add water as needed. (I wound up using 1 1/2 cups.) Add the milk, and remove from heat. Garnish with cilantro.

4 - 6 servings, reheats well!

Crafty Kitchen - Actually Edible Gingerbread!

It's a family tradition. Every year, I make gingerbread cookies. My cousin brings enough candy and frosting to build a life-size Hansel and Gretel trap. And then all the cousins get to work, elaborately decorating things no one will ever eat.
Why?

Because gingerbread cookies, at least the way I make them, are hard enough to chip a tooth. Or dense enough to make your jaw hurt just thinking of all that chewing.
But not this time. This time, I managed to make soft, chewy, delicious gingerbread cookies. Which no one but I ate. (Can you blame them? The last several years have not been kind to their teeth or taste buds. Also, I think I need to accept the fact that my family does not like gingerbread.)

Two things to note: these cookies are a *little* hard to decorate. Their soft spudgyness means arms and legs are going to break off. Also, rolling the dough between two sheets of parchment? BEST THING EVER. Imagine yourself not covered in sweat and flour, and not thrashing the entire kitchen to make these stupid cookies that no one is going to eat anyway, why do I keep making them?

ANYWAY. Want to make your own actually edible gingerbread cookies? Here's the recipe!

Best Gingerbread Cookies
(Adapted oh-so-slightly from the November 1999 issue of Cook's Illustrated)

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened slightly
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 tablespoons milk

1. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda at low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Stop mixer and add butter pieces; mix at medium-low speed until mixture is sandy and resembles fine meal, about 1 1/2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and, with mixer running, gradually add molasses and milk; mix until dough is evenly moistened, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix until thoroughly combined, about 10 seconds.

2. Scrape dough onto work surface; divide in half. Working with one portion of dough at a time, roll 1/4-inch thick between two large sheets of parchment paper. Leaving dough sandwiched between parchment layers, lay flat in fridge for 15-20 minutes.

3. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

4. Remove one dough sheet from freezer; place on work surface. Peel off top parchment sheet and gently lay it back in place. Flip dough over; peel off and discard second parchment layer. Cut dough into 5-inch gingerbread people or 3-inch gingerbread cookies, transferring shapes to parchment-lined cookie sheets with wide metal spatula, spacing them 3/4 inch apart; set scraps aside. Repeat with remaining dough until cookie sheets are full. Bake cookies until set in centers and dough barely retains imprint when touched very gently with fingertip, 8 to 11 minutes, rotating cookie sheets front to back and switching positions top to bottom halfway through baking time. Do not overbake. Cool cookies on sheets 2 minutes, then remove with wide metal spatula to wire rack; cool to room temperature.

5. Gather scraps; repeat rolling, cutting, and baking in steps 2 and 4. Repeat with remaining dough until all dough is used.

Makes enough cookies to fill a gallon sized ziplock bag. I really should have counted. Trust me, this is plenty.

I think I need to go eat one of these cookies right now. Excuse me.

Simple Vegetarian Cooking - Chard Pasta Recipe

It can be tricky to find good chard recipes. I came up with this one when I was craving something garlicky and comforting...and fast. It worked! So, without any further ado, here's my Chard Pasta Recipe.

1 box whole wheat spaghetti
1 can 28 oz whole tomatoes
4 tab. olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch chard - torn or cut into 1"-2" pieces
salt
juice of 1/2 lemon

Cook the pasta according to the box directions. Blitz the tomatoes in a food processor until pureed.*
Meanwhile, in a medium deep sided pot, heat up the olive oil. Add the garlic, and cook until brown. Add the pureed tomatoes. Add a tsp. of salt, and cook for 5-10 minutes to reduce the liquid.
Add the chard pieces, and stir. Cook for just a minute or two. You don't want the chard going all nasty and soggy. Aim for just wilted.
If your pot is large enough, add the pasta and stir. If not, you'll just need to spoon the sauce over the pasta. No big deal.
Add the lemon juice, give it a final stir, and serve!


*Note: if you don't have a food processor, just buy canned pureed tomatoes.

Total time: 30 mins Serves: 4-6 Freezes well!

Rice and Lentil Soup

I love to cook...but I love to create things in fleece more. Cooking usually gets shoved way to the back burner (no pun intended), especially when I've got deadlines.
Fortunately for me, it's winter, and there are only two humans in the house. In other words: SOUP. Which we can then live off for DAYS.
Here's one of my new favorites. It's adapted from a rather good cookbook about fast cooking with whole grains that I can't recall the name of. This recipe is great for many reasons, one of which is the 10-15 minute gaps of time in the cooking. I like to list things on Etsy while those are going on. Or watch videos on Youtube. Whatever. Now, about the spices. If at all possible, don't buy those overpriced jars in the shop. If you've got an Indian grocery nearish by, swing by and they'll hook you up.
This soup is kind of spicy. You might want to add some plain yogurt as a garnish to tone things down. Also, there are no photos of this soup. It is not a looker. Tastes great, though. Okay, enough disclaimers:

Curry-ish Lentil/Rice Soup

2 tab. peanut or coconut oil
2 tab. minced dried onion
1 1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
2 tab. garam masala
2 tab cumin powder
1 tsp. granulated garlic
6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup lentils
1 cup brown rice
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 12 oz. pkg frozen spinach
salt

In a 6 qt. soup pot, heat the oil over med. heat. Stir in the onion & cumin seeds. Toast until the onion is lightly browned, 1 - 2 mins. Turn off the heat. Stir in the garam masala - garlic, and let sit in the hot oil for a few seconds.
Stir in the broth, 2 cups of water, lentils & rice. Bring to a boil. Cover & cook for 15 minutes.
Add the tomatoes & the spinach. Taste & adjust seasonings if needed. Cover and boil for 10 minutes. Break up the spinach block, if it hasn't done that already. Add salt to taste. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
That's it!
Serve with toast or nan or triscuits or whatever. Or nothing.
Serves two quasi grown ups 3 dinners.

Lentil Fettuccine

Today on Cooking With Buster, we'll make Lentil Fettuccine. This is something I made up after looking at a similar recipe in an old Sunset cookbook. The recipe seemed just wrong, so I scrapped it and made what seemed right.
Here's what you'll need:

• 1 cup of lentils


• 1 can of vegetable broth


• whole wheat fettuccine


• 1 onion


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1 big bunch of swiss chard cut/torn into largeish bits


• olive oil


• salt & fresh ground pepper


• parmesan cheese for garnish

First, you'll need to cook 1 cup of lentils in a can of broth + some water so they're well covered. Simmer until they're done, but still a little firm. Set aside.

Cook whole wheat fettuccine according to the package directions. They probably know what they're talking about, over there on the package.

Cut 1 onion up into half moon pieces, and cook over high heat in 1/4 cup-ish of olive oil. Brown that onion! Feel the burn! When it's brown, remove the onion pieces, and put them in with the lentils. Toss in 2 minced cloves of garlic, cook until golden brown. Throw in the swiss chard pieces, cook until slightly wilted.

OKAY!

So! Combine everything together in a big bowl. Put lots & lots of salt & pepper on it. BAM! You're done! No, wait, put some parmesan cheese on there. More. More cheese. Okay. Now you're done!
It doesn't look like much, but it is really tasty. And it'll serve a bunch of humans, or two dogs. Your choice.

Where's my dinner, human?

How to make larb tofu – sort of.

I was turned on to Thai food at the tender age of 16, back when such things were quite the novelty. My impressionable taste buds were apparently burned for life, and to this day I think larb tofu is one the best tasting dishes on the planet. For the as yet uninitiated, it's sort of a salad/appetizer that can easily be a whole meal. It is something so good, so pure, so fresh, that I never even bothered trying to replicate it at home.
Well...until yesterday, anyway. An article in Readymade magazine sparked an idea, and a few hours later, I accidentally had something on my hands that tasted an awful lot like the beloved larb tofu.

Want to try it for yourself? It is nomulent. And easy (especially with a food processor. Zip zip zip!). And probably low fat and magic.
Okay, here's what you need:

For the salad:
1/2 head green cabbage - shredded
2 carrots - sliced
1 cucumber - sliced
bunch of mint - minced
bunch of cilantro - minced
mung bean sprouts
2 tomatoes - sliced
handful of honey roasted peanuts, chopped
1 block extra firm tofu

For the marinade:
1 serrano chili
1 very large shallot
1/4 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
2" piece of ginger
juice from 4 limes
3 tbsp. fish sauce
3 tbsp. soy sauce
(Note: thin slices of lemongrass would be soooo perfect in this. I'm doing that next time.)

The tofu needs to be pressed for about two hours. I put it between two cutting boards balanced on the sink and place a heavy jar on top. Jury rig it all you want, but this step is important! Really. Pressing out the excess liquid means it's going to be more flavorful. Once the liquid is mostly out, cut the tofu into little 1/2 chunks. Put in a ziplock bag.

Now, the marinade:
Peel the shallot. Cut everything into thin chunks. Combine all in a bowl with the lime juice- soy sauce. Set aside half as dressing. Put the other half into the ziplock bag with the tofu. Marinate for at least an hour, but longer is better! Flip over occasionally.

Combine all the salad vegetables together in a very large bowl. Put in the tofu, and the dressing. (You can add the leftover marinade from the tofu - really!) Gently toss to combine. Let it sit together for a bit so the flavors come together. You are done! It tastes even better the next day.

I hope you enjoy it!

Almost Edible Gingerbread Men!

Every year, I make gingerbread men (and women, bears, and stars) when my whole family gets together. It's one of our little traditions, right up there with staying up until 3 am and watching movies.
Every year, my gingerbread men get lavishly decorated by all the cousins, bedecked with gallons of frosting and buckets of candy.
And every year, they go largely uneaten.
This may have something to do with their ability to chip teeth. Hmmmm.
So I set out this year to find a new, better recipe than the one I'd been using. I searched high and low (online, for 20 minutes) to find the best of the best.
I came back from my quest with two recipes. Only one proved to be a winner. Let me warn you right now- this is going to be a lengthy post.
Before the results, let's look at the recipes themselves! And some photos!

Recipe A: From Elise.com
# 3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
# 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
# 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
# 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
# 2 teaspoons ground ginger
# 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
# 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
# 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
# 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
# 1/2 teaspoon salt
# 1 large egg
# 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Recipie B: From All Recipes.com - Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
· 1 cup white sugar

· 2 teaspoons ground ginger

· 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

· 1 cup margarine, melted

· 1/2 cup evaporated milk

· 1 cup unsulfured molasses

· 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

· 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour


Can you guess which one works? Oh, the suspense!
(For the actual cooking directions, hop over to the original sites.)
The First Batch, (Elise.com, hereafter referred to as "Batch A") was tough to work with- it required a minimum of one hour chilling time, which always makes things FUN.
After that, the dough was sticky, it tore easily, and was just generally nasty to work with. I think it needed more flour.
The Colonial Williamsburg recipe (batch B), on the other hand, was a dream to work with. It called for no chilling at all, and it was super easy to work with the dough. (I think I added 2 more cups of flour than they originally called for)

ANYWAY:
The exciting conclusion!!!
The clear winner is...the first batch, the recipe from Elise.com! The cookies had good flavor, and they were actually sort of soft! Wow! Amazing!
The clear LOOSER was the Colonial Williamsburg recipe. The cookies were awful, hard as rocks, dry as bones, as unappealing as tired cliches. Inedible, and even worse than my old recipe (Which calls for an astounding 7 cups of flour, by the way) (Also: Questions about the "Colonial Williamsburg" recipe: So, they had margarine back then, did they? And evaporated milk as well? And I bet lemon extract was super easy to get a hold of.)
So there you have it. Next time you think to yourself, "Self, I would really like some nice, chewy gingerbread cookies.", think about buying them from a store. Because making them at home seems to be darn near impossible.

p.s.: If anyone has a better recipe, do tell! I am on the hunt.

Why you should always read directions- OR- the great cake disaster of ‘07

Inspired by the gorgeous looking little cakes on Posie Gets Cozy, I decided to bring a gorgeous little cake of my own to my Mother-in-law’s this weekend. Her recipe looked so simple (a 1-2-3-4 cake! What could go wrong with that?) Now, let me just say right now, I am not really known for my skills as a bakestress. Rather, I am known for cakes that weep and/or double as anvils. But I had high hopes for this one, yes I did. I had made 2 (!) successful batches of cookies that turned out perfect a few weeks back, and I thought, “Hey, my baking woes are over. I’ve got this great new stove now, and all the horrid baked goods are behind me. I can DO THIS.”



Yeah. A more careful check of the not quite recipe showed that there were certain ingredient measurements lacking, like baking soda and salt. Hm. So I just checked Nigella Lawson’s book and kind of guessed. (A teaspoon? Sounds right.)
Second speed bump: Didn’t check the frosting recipe too carefully either. Did not have enough butter in the house, and had to send Dan out for more. And more sugar. And more confectioner’s sugar. Yes. Ok, now we’re back on track. No problem.
Third alarm: the batter was thick. Really, really thick. Like dough. Or like cement. So I spooned and smooshed that into the pans, and then waited around for those to bake while I desperately wanted to nap instead. Out they pop, and they don’t look half bad. Not sinking anywhere, and they look pretty even. Except for those hard crispy edges. Oh well, I can just cut them off…later.
***NAP***
And we’re back. Those crispy edges proved a little harder to remove than first anticipated. They had hardened quite a bit. Where I removed them, they left big gaping holes. Oh well, nothing that a little frosting can’t fix, right?
So on with the frosting. The recipe (also from posie gets cozy) did mention that the frosting could be temperamental. But I whipped that up in the mixer, no problems. Stuffed it into the pastry bag, no problems. Put little stars on the top, almost no problems. Well, the nozzle clogged, and there were some air pockets, but mostly no problems. Then onto the sides. There were too many holes to not frost the sides. And here is where it all falls apart. Frosting spurts out of the top of the bag. Frosting spurts out in uneven blobs…all over the place. Frosting on my hands. Frosting on the counter. Frosting on the floor.


Dog? Dog! Get in here, dog! Where is that stupid dog when you need her? TOPANGA! ***dog runs into the other room, as far away as she can get from the crazy squealing lady***


Ok, there we go. All frosted. Only…one hour late to the dinner thing. I put the lid on the carrier and oh, my gosh. This is so heavy. Really, really heavy. Ok. Into the car. Before we’re even out of the driveway, the cake slides forward and the carefully piped disaster cake smooshes it’s side against the carrier. For the sake of being even, I rotate it so it’ll smoosh all the sides. Frosting an inch and a half thick on all the cake carrier walls.
***later***
It’s after dinner. It’s time for cake! “Think of it more as a giant cookie.” I advise. “You’ll be happier.” The “cake” had the exact texture of a cookie, actually. It tasted not unlike a cookie, too. A really big, two layer cookie with jam and frosting. A very rich, filling cookie. Really rich. A two bite and you’re done kind of cookie.
“Some people can cook. Some people can bake. You have the gift of cooking. It’s a really useful gift!” In the car, Dan tries to put a nice spin on things.
“I want both gifts!”
“Like Martha Stewart.”
“Yes! Exactly! Martha Stewart.”
Even with the new old stove, I am not so much with the baking.