This link to candyboots.com (which I found at pajiba.com) had me laughing so hard I cried. Weight Watchers, it seems, had a pretty inventive weight-loss plan back in the 70s- make food so incomprehensibly odd, stage it with the scariest propsyou can find and you'll lose your appetite (you must click on the imbedded link on that one!)

On to the candyboots-inspired diversion:

1. What is the worst dish you were ever served? Did you eat it?

2. What is the strangest dish you can't help but love? Do you inflict it on your family?

Stefania over at CityMama gave away the recipe to a Pasta alla Carbonara, a bacon and egg pasta dish. She called it one of her top 10 favorite comfort foods.

Salivating, it made me sift through the meals I continuously recycle as my family loves them. One is a Latin-style lasagna I got from my mom:

Olive oil for bottom of the pot
1 cup of spaghetti sauce (your choice, but I use Paul Newman's)
1 cup of tomato paste with water
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 green pepper
1 yellow onion
1 serrano chile pepper, or a hot pepper of your choice
4 garlic cloves (minced)
6 green olives stuffed with pimento (optional)
Chopped vegetables of your choice
Fake ground beef or meat of your choice
A pinch of oregano
A pinch of salt
Black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and let simmer for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are soft. Bake mixture with lasagna noodles and mozzarella cheese on top at 350 degrees. Take out of oven when noodles are cooked and cheese is melted. Enjoy!

As you can tell, we eat "Puerto Rican lasagna" a lot. What about you? What are your favorite comfort foods?

When I don't cook, we eat enchiladas verdes at El Nopal, our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Berkeley.

Betty Crocker sponsors a yearly cookie recipe contest, called "Bake Life Sweeter".

Contestants were asked to use one of the nine Betty Crocker Cookie Mix flavors and to get creative using additional ingredients, decorations and serving ideas.  

I've included Lynette Spence's winning recipe for "Cinna-Spin" Cookies.

Cookies
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, mix cookie mix and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir in butter and egg until soft dough forms.

2. On piece of waxed paper, shape 1 tablespoon cinnamon into a line about 5 inches long. Using floured fingers, shape 1 tablespoon of dough into a rope 5 inches long. Press one side of dough rope into cinnamon.

3. On ungreased cookie sheet, coil dough rope tightly, cinnamon side facing center, into cinnamon-roll shape. Press end of rope into roll to seal. Repeat with remaining dough. Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

4. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

5. In small bowl, mix glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cookies.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Decrease butter to 1/3 cup.
Prep time is 1 hr 10 min, and the recipe makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies!

The web site includes other fabulous recipes that received honorable mentions. I'm planning on making the winning cookies for Mother's Day.

Please, share YOUR recipes for baked goodness. Give this single mama options for baking! I just bought a new cookie sheet that I'm DYING to use!!

My husband is from a red-meat loving family; its not dinner unless it bled on the way there. I myself was raised by very omnivorous folks, we can throw down BBQ with the best of them, but beans and rice were also a staple. The first time I served dear hubby our favorite summer-time supper; big garden salad with chopped boiled eggs and a sprinkiling of Baco-s with chewy whole grain bread, he ate it up! And then asked what was for dinner.

I ate the last apricot while my son was napping. All of the sweet and none of the mess. The iconic, sensual fruit experience of "juice dripping down the chin" is overrated; now that I'm a mom I spend entirely too much time cleaning sticky trails from chins, chests, legs, arms, tables, and floors. The soft little fruit felt like Jude's head when he was a baby.

When he awoke from his nap and discovered the last apricot gone, he was pissed. He stormed around, cursing me. So when I went to the farmers' market yesterday, a big bag of Blenheims topped my list. But they were gone! The apricot season blows by faster than my desire for them, which lingers. But the peaches were out in full force. I filled my pack and pedaled home.

I'm trying to change, trying to integrate some new habits. I'm trying to eat seasonally (and to ween my lazy ass from the car). Of course, this can be pretty limiting; that's why people don't do it! On the flip side, the pleasure can be intense when the flavors are peaking. Food that is grown closer to home is picked riper. And of course, you value a thing more when you don't have constant access to it. Absence does makes the heart grow fonder.

My first step was to cut out a chart from the food section of the paper that lists seasonal food. (Scroll down to the bottom of the article for the chart.) I've taped it to my kitchen wall and glance at it before grocery shopping or figuring out menu items for the week. Here's what it says for the current season:

SUMMER
(June or July): Honey, sweet corn, tomatoes, fresh lavender, green beans, apricots, salmon, buffalo, beef, homemade ice cream.

HEIGHT OF SUMMER
(July and August): Basil and other fresh herbs, eggplant, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, peaches and nectarines galore, salmon, cucumbers, melons, grapes