Jimmy stares towards the bright Pleiades / It's so strange what his distant eye sees / Who knows why you start rediscovering your heart / you just do it again and again

I woke up early this morning from a dream in which I was talking to Jimmy Buffett on a very large, very cushy, very white bed. He had given a performance outside somewhere and I had managed to get to the front of the line to have my picture taken with him. He was wearing a white linen outfit and was surrounded by women in saris, fanning him with giant fronds.

When the picture was done, I thanked him for writing Frank and Lola and he said, "Don't you want to climb up here and chat with me?"

Since I'm on a flexitarian kick, I've been trying to use up some of the random food in my house. There was a package of lentils in the cabinet begging to be cooked. Here's what I came up with.

This soup falls under a lot of categories: vegetarian, healthy, budget friendly and Specific Carb Diet (the later stages, anyway). I hope you enjoy.

Inspired by a recipe in The Cook's Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Cooking, J made this dish tonight.

I baked our weekly bread today, but I just wasn't ready to get out of the kitchen. The question was, "What to make?" I looked in my cabinet and found peanut butter and cocoa powder. That was a step in the right direction.

I woke up at 8:00 this morning like I was late for work. It's Sunday. Give me a break, internal alarm clock. Seeing as I wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, and J was busy in dreamland (probably killing zombies or taking back Poland), I decided to get up and make breakfast for him. I have been craving Eggs Benedict lately and decided that's what I would make. Only, as I surveyed the contents of our fridge and pantry, I discovered a few slight problems with this plan.

We didn't have English muffins.

Or Canadian bacon.

Or the makings of Hollandaise sauce.

We did have eggs, though. A whole carton, in fact. We also had leftover steak from last night, a whole bag of spinach (buy one get one baby!) and half a loaf of Italian bread. After two sips of coffee, I was inspired to come up with a variation of Eggs Benedict that would make J fall in love with me all over again. After you read this recipe, you may just do the same. Sorry, I'm taken, but "Have Whisk, Will Travel."

Click Read More to see the recipe.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

The original recipe sources are:
Mascarpone Cheese – Vera's Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.
Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home
Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

Seeing how J and I are still sort of doing the Specific Carb Diet, I adapted the recipe to fit the guidelines. It was definitely a challenge, but that's ok – the results were quite tasty, even if it wasn't technically tiramisu, but more of a Tiramisu-Inspired Stacker.

These are my shoes. My only friends in the whole wide world some days.

Oh…. And a fat cat….

Easy Homemade White Bread

Ingredients:4 C all-purpose flour1 1/2 C lukewarm water1 packet (or 2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast2 Tbsp Olive Oil1 tsp salt

Instructions:

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. The key is to make sure it is lukewarm...not hot, not cold, but the special place in between. I like to measure out the water in my glass measuring cup and then whisk the yeast in until it dissolves. Then, sit this aside for a minute to let the yeast have a little party and really get going. In a glass mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 C of the flour, olive oil and salt. Mix in the Partying Yeast and combine until it is thoroughly blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for about 30 minutes. This allows the yeast to mingle with the other ingredients and hopefully make some new connections. Add 2 C of flour to the mixture, 1/2 C at a time. Mix well, but don't overwork the dough. This is the time to add spices to the dough, too. I used a secret combination of Italian...

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It's been almost a month since we started back on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Here's an update on how it's been going...

I made my first batch of SCD muffins today. Baking with almond flour is going to take some getting used to.