it's not the heat...

Oh, wait: yes it is. And the humidity. I have a feeling my poor injured mother never believes me when I say that it's "hot as hell" here, because she lives in the desert, where if she looks at the thermometer today or any other day this summer, it says 107°F (that's 42°C to you Euronians).

In contrast, when I bitch about the 4 days of hot weather we'll have had this summer, she innocuously asks, "Geez. So, how hot is it?" And I have to say, "eh...80? 85???", and we cue the pussyboy music and I just hang up in shame. UPDATE: My poor injured mother just reminded me that her monthly air-conditioning bills during this summer are costing more than my monthly rent. So I'll quit with the whining for now, but this fact reminded me of another recent Onion video: Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency.

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Mara made something completely unreasonable for dinner. Unreasonable in that it doesn't really make any sense, it shouldn't work, etc. but it was really really good. Basically it's like a yam neua, a Thai beef salad? Plus homemade American-style blue cheese dressing. I know. And I'm making fun of Paula Deen. Here's what it looked like before the application of The White Menace:






















I still can't figure out how the flavors got along so well together. Lime, mint, gorgonzola, mayonnaise, sour cream, and fish sauce. Maybe b/c there was no cilantro? It wasn't like okonomiyaki, where the flavorclash really is unusual and it takes you a minute to adjust. This just seemed normal, like a Benetton commercial, and we ate every single bit of it. Unsolved Mystery. Oh, and yes, those are frozen grapes being used as ice cubes for a glass of cassis. Not this, the non-alcoholic kind.

This other recipe here is something that happened because we needed cold food. It's based on something from the Mayo Clinic Obesity Discussion Forums. I hope that's the last time I'll be using that sentence on this blog.

Hollandse garnalen are the tiny little shrimpuses.These are not Hollandse garnalen, they're just tiny little shrimp, thank you Fact Checking Department. More later on this. This recipe didn't have nearly enough mayo for Mara, so if you're Mara? Double the mayo for starters, and then add more mayo to taste.

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granny smith and tiny little shrimp salad.
100gr Hollandse garnalen or other tiny little shimp (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons diced red onion, or 1 shallot
1 granny smith apple, cored and diced finely
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
3 tbsp mayonnaise
maybe a little lemon zest

Combine. Refrigerate until refreshingly cold. Serve on crackers or knakkebrod, taking care to drain it a little...the non-Mara version is quite healthy, and by that I mean liquidy.

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