Meatless Monday menu ideas

Have you ever had a watermelon-feta salad? It is such a good pairing, especially with some fresh mint and top-quality balsamic vinegar thrown into the mix. It is also extremely easy. I’m going to make this tonight as part of dinner.

I’m also thinking of making another Yotam recipe, his Socca. It calls for chickpea flour so I had Elia bring me some from Italy. Though I haven’t carefully studied the recipe, it looks like you make some chickpea flour flatbreads and top them with a caramelized onion-cherry tomato confit of sorts. In his photo, they look gorgeous, so I think I’ll attempt those too.

Shocking lack of police paraphernalia

Jack continues to be riveted by all things police so will be having a police party for his 5th birthday in July. We had planned a police badge birthday cake, but he now believes he might want a secret service car cake instead. I told him just to noodle on it as I make a solid cake, and Tom is an ace-of-cakes type of icer.

The real problem thus far is the shocking lack of police-theme party supplies available that aren’t rated X. What is up with all the “hottie police” stuff? Clearly I am just too vanilla to have known about this type of “fun” but it does put a real crimp in the plans for a 5 year old’s birthday. Wow!

I think I’m just going to get some police tape (that yellow roll that screams Caution!), some handcuffs and hats and plan a police-themed scavenger hunt. The kiddies can pretend to be Secret Service teams on the hunt for their supplies or something…Hmm.

Random musings

1) I find shows like, but especially, The Bachelor extremely depressing. Women, my thought is that it’s better to be alone than to basically prostitute yourself out and/or disavow your own standards and dreams to be coupled.

2) One of the traits I most admire, especially in women because it seems braver and more gender-stereotype-breaking, is saying exactly what you think and believe without worrying about doing so. Doing so, however, does NOT mean you need, or should feel license to be, an ass.