Kim, and Stephanie and me, at our 20th high school reunion at the end of July. We weren't in a photo together, and I don't know how to photoshop us together. Someday, I'll get better at this!


Oh, I got a funny email from my dear high school girlfriend Kim (above). She said, you've always been a (wannabe) foodie, she still has letters from me in 7th grade talking about the food I was eating at the dude ranch we vacationed at every summer, the HF Bar. Now, the HF Bar was a crazy-fun place, but was not known for its great food, as you might imagine, I have no idea what I said but it just made me laugh that I was raving food at age 13. What a DORK. It reminds of the career aptitude test I took in 8th grade, I came out to be a chef, which at the time I thought was incredibly embarassing. I think I even tried to lie about it to my other dear highschool girlfriend and post-college roomie, Stephanie (also above), but there was no lying to her, she knew that I secretly loved to cook (and was mystified by the fact; this is a girl who once called me at my parents' to ask if she should add a can of mushrooms to pasta while it was cooking, or after it was done...hmmm...to be fair, I'm sure she cooks quite nicely for her family now, that was a long, long time ago).

Big food day tomorrow, I'm Cooking. For colleagues of John's and spouses. BIG Byerly's run, which I always enjoy (I'm one of those rare few who love to grocery shop). I just got out of the shower and unfortunately smell more like garlic than shampoo - I created a marinade for the loin lamb chops I'm making tomorrow by pureeing lots of garlic, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper. Smeared it on the chops with my hands, post-shower (oops). That's OK. I don't mind garlic on skin so much, just breath. Unless I have garlic breath too, and then for some reason that cancels it out, of course. That's so me - something offends me until I do it and then it's OK. I was born a hypocrite. It's in the genes.

My "fucking sublime" papardelle with tuna sauce (I got some SHIT today about saying fuck) was VERY nice on the reheat for lunch. Fucking awesome. Just kidding. Almost as an after-thought at Byerly's, because I realized I had put zero thought into dinner THIS night, and I wasn't up for pasta yet again, I bought a baguette, two nice cheeses (a tangy blue and a mild sheep's milk - boy do I enjoy sheep's milk cheese), fig preserves (good with the blue, yum), a hard salami, olives, and arugula. And that's dinner. Would have been better as a picnic on a July afternoon, but oh well. My kitchen in January does not suck. Especially with a few candles, good tune-age, and a nice glass of wine. And it's Friday! And I'm cooking all day tomorrow! Woo hoo!