God loves us

Evidently K, with M's J, made glitter slime this afternoon.

Me, voicing an opinion that I have long held and have voiced before: I don't understand why slime is so popular.  Instead of slime, you could make chocolate chip cookies.

J: But you can share slime with people!

Me: You can share chocolate chip cookies with people!  Chocolate chip cookies are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!

Shortly thereafter...

Unkie and Uncle J were in the kitchen playing with what I thought was the glitter slime. 

Me: So, is that the glitter slime the kids made?

Uncle J: It's putty.

Unkie: Thinking putty. 

Me (do you ever experience deja vu?): I don't understand why slime is so popular.  Instead of slime, you could make chocolate chip cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!

M's hubs P: Do we have chocolate chip cookies?

Em: I can make shortbread!

PS: recipe 

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 c sugar

1c flour, can add up to 1/2 cup more flour if needed -- depends on moisture.

cream butter & sugar (if butter is not softened, shred it with a grater to make it usable)

add flour

work manually until it comes together

optional: can add 1/4c mini chocolate chips

bake 15min at 375F or until edges barely start to brown, then remove from oven and let sit 10min on the hot tray.

prick top surface with fork 

Gnocchi with Chef Reto

Chef Reto, of Reto's Kitchen in Greensboro, not only caters and does private parties, he also teaches!  Some friends & I were able to set time to learn from a real French chef, hands-on, in a real catering kitchen.  It was a blast!  I'm so glad I met Chef at a Yelp Elite event there earlier this year and that he was able to fit us into his schedule.
 

A few quotes from the evening:

More butter!

Why? Because we can!

Cow patties, please, not turds! (with regards to shape)

Pressure is everything. (with regards to piping)

Loads more photos available on FB  (public album)

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Chef Reto taught us in an approachable way.  His food was amazing and it's also something I can replicate at home.  Really!  And he took us thru hands-on training on knife skills, including sharpening a knife and the difference between chopping, slicing, and mincing.  We learned to pipe, to knead, and that fire in the kitchen can be fun and not frightening.  Opa!  Even the tomato sauce and vinaigrette salad dressing were simple and from scratch, and again completely duplicatable.  I'm excited to apply these things in my own kitchen!

I encourage you to sign up for his open classes (he also did kids' camps this past summer), or get a group of 6-10 friends together and set up a private class!

On difficult cooking

I've never heard these words in this particular arrangement before:
"We haven't had dumplings before."
How is that possible?  But at least we rectified the problem.

Also, on Sloppy Joes being such a reach, and "don't go out of your way for us...", Cow-Lover says:
We didn't go out of our way!
It wasn't even on the way!
We sat on the porch and did nothing!

Wasn't there a song about Sloppy Joes?