Lemon lemon chess chess pie pie was scenting Susan Yum Yum's entire block tonite. We walked over to delite in the site, smell and taste of this Southern treat baked up in S & D's campy cool retro red kitchen. Snuggled in the yellow fiestaware pie plate, this golden-topped sweet and simple tart warmed our hearts and our bellies, y'all.

Take one warm, out-of-the-oven, white choco chip, macadamia nut cookie, dip in steamy hot tea with milk, dissolve in mouth, smile blissfully, say goodnight.

Besides the advantage of having all your necessary ingredients prepped and "set in place," Mise en place provides you the opportunity to buy stacks and stacks of the cutest little bowls that you can sneak onto your already overcrowded bowl shelf without much clatter from the other bowls or your family who thinks that you should probably be attending BA(bowls anonymous) meetings. These dashing mini bowls were snatched up on an inspirational Sunday trip to Anthropolgie with Susan Yum Yum. I also bought Giada's new cookbook. Tonite I tried angel hair spaghetti with chicken, roasted pine nuts, lemon sauce and parmesan. (slight variation of page 137) This dish was like wearing your favorite sweater on a cool spring night. Now I am off to make some wicked dessert with white chocolate chips and spices.

To live in friendship is to live in peace. (From the movie: Ghengis Blues.) The Tuvas eat things we wouldn't dream of eating and drink "Tuva Vodka" from a plastic jug. The throatsinging is amazing. Who are we? Who, who are we?

Remember the preserved lemons? They are finally ready for some good cookin'! I was prepared to simmer up a potato turkey Moroccan stew (My good cookin' friend, Susan Yum Yum, made this stew the other day and it was Yum Yum!) until I went to buy a turkey breast at our big fancy uptown grocery store. At $5.98 per pound that little gobbler would have cost $24.00, no thanks. May I please have 3 bone-in chicken breats? Yes ma'am that will be $19.00. AAAAHHHHHH! After the butcher and I had a big hardy har over the price of a CHICKEN...I made him put the breasts back. Being a Lucky Ducky, I spotted a whole chicken on sale for $1.29 per pound, so for $4 and some change my dinner was lookin' a "whole" lot better. The stew became a delicious Moroccan carrot-potato-onion-chicken roast. The Morroccan in this dish is cinnamon, that old man cumin, red pepper, and one jar of preserved lemons. The combined spices and preserved lemons create a soft, silky, mellow veil of flavor, subtle yet distinctive. Chewy raisins, crisp apples, creamy Havarti cheese and homemade croutons tossed into the salada add the sweetness and crunch.

Along with the pleasure of eating this sweet lemon zesty, tasty, densy cakey (it tastes nothing like those store bought rubber mattress cakes,) you will have alot of fun watching this angel food cake batter get bigger and bigger and shinier and shinier until you want to jump up and down on top of the bouncy white fluffy dome and clap your hands, and backwards flip and clap your hands some more. (recipe in Ina Garten's Family Style)

Glen was in the kitchen with zucchini last night, oh, oh, oh!

When I got home from work today I didn't have any idea of what I would find in the bare bones, I haven't been to the grocery since I got back from LA kitchen cabinets and fridge. I know I can always do a chiliish diliish even if I am out of black beans. Sauteed turkey sausage, bacon, onions, red pepper and corn swallow up the spicy hot flavor of the chili, cumin, jalapeno, chunky tomatoey sauce. Pile this gallimaufry onto a homemade tortilla add a leaf of crispy romaine, frilly cilantro and slices of fresh mozarella, a squeeeeze of lime juice and you have a succulent little oolala BLT.

This is what good morning should look like. We used to make this potato bread at our Cape Cod restaurant and it tastes just as good today as it did in 1979. I baked the rounded loaf in an original McCoy ovenproof baking dish and the other in a Cape Cod potter's 1979 handmade loaf pan. Sweet, sunshiney farmhouse potato bread will make the moocows come home.

Add a string to this big butt, yellow cornmeal, yeast bread and it will rise like a crunchy-crusted, airy balloon. (Another delicious recipe from Jeremy Jackson's Cornbread book)

Even though it's in our home state, a trip to LA can cause some culture shock, so before Rebecca and I left for the big bling bling I made some creamy, cheesy, crunchy- topped, down home comfort food. Cheddar and parmesan melted into a classic cream sauce, fat rigatonis to soak it in and a butter bread crumb topping all baked up together will feed your inner sanctum.

BLOGGER GUEST CHEF DAY! Check out Glen's (the Most Delicious Cookie Baker in the world and his cakes ain't bad either) "Oatmeal, Choco Chip, Coconut,Raisin, I certainly can't eat just one of these tempty magic morsels, please bake some more tomorrow and bring them to me" cookies.

What do you play in your band? "I play the apple," says the nonchalant master musician Ollie. Previously unknown art form discovered today in banal downtown San Mateo office. Rock the Apple, Oll!

This little cowgirl rustled up some Basque paella tonite. Golden chicken, smoky chorizo, creamy arborio rice, roasted red pepper, sauteed bacon and onion with crusty bread to soak up the amazingly rich, earthy-flavored sauce. Home, home on the range. (God, I want those cowboy boots.)

Eat this meal and there will be clowns juggling and trapeeze artists flying inside of your mouth. I made the chili extra explodey with corn and black beans and beef and freshly ground cumin seeds, (which we call "smells like an old man spice.") I wanted something unusual to complement the spicy flavorburst of the chili so I baked the Apple Skillet Flipcake in Jeremy Jackson's The Cornbread book. Brown sugar carmelized walnuts, buttery chunks of apples, cinnamon and vanilla in a grainy, sweet and crusty cornmeal upside-down cake will have you standing on your head! (I really think these two should follow the example of the dish and the spoon.)

Baked eggs with herbs and parmesan topping served with lots of homemade baquette toasts slathered with butter and papaya-mango conserve from Julieannie's cannery make a quick sassy breakfast party before we run off to the sunday movie matinee.
(the egg recipe: Barefoot Contessa in Paris) (the movie:The Devil and Daniel Johnston)

Have you tried Lapsang Soochang tea? Its exotic flavor takes you on a magic carpet ride. Sip your brew slowly while nibbling a slice of spongy woodsy Monsieur Lerch's Pain d'Epices as suggested in Paris Boulangerie Patisserie by Linda Dannenberg and,my little mousey, you will get lost in the clouds.

I completed table construction! Cezanne came over and arranged the fruit; I'm doing a still life painting for a friend. Picasso said it was okay that Rebecca copied his painting and hung it on our wall.

Breakfast for dinner. This blue plate special is nothing more than bacon, eggs, cheese and a little cream folded together in a hot buttered skillet 'till almost set. Then under the broiler for 3 minutes to turn the "nothing more than" into "something more than." Each bite should be slowly savored to realize the creamy, crunchy, gooey textures. Just right for the spring ahead lost an hour this morning but found it tonight meal.

My friend Carol's seasonal fruits and veggies box delivered to her doorstep one pound of kiwi. She shuddered while imagining slicing into the hairy skin, touching the greeny flesh and finally setting her eyes upon the suspended black seedy thingies. Luckily she passed the kiwi along to me. I conjured up this kiwi lime conserve that is truly finger sticky good spread over hot dripping melted butter on crunchy toasted country bread.
(designer preserves Patricia Lousada)

Bacon, onion, corn and potatoes boogalloo up the bold flavor of this corn and cheddar chowder. It's the Corny Collins Show. Now do the shing-a-ling like I do.
Barefoot recipe, I used yellow cheddar, fresh corn and lots of salt and ground pep.

I had to pluck this apple blackberry crostada from the cloudy sky as it floated by. Fragile tender flakes dissolve in your mouth while the filling swathes your taste buds with a sweet liquory blackberry appley lemon zesty syrupy potion. A great remedy for your rainy day blues.