Nigella and Me

Last night, just as I was thinking how I want to be Bartleby, and sit around saying "I would prefer not to," The Ramones' "I'm Against It" came on, and Guy said "Hey, it's your theme song!"

Okay, we must stop the trend. I can't be a scrivener since I don't know what it is (scribe?) , so anybody got any ideas?

In the meantime, I am hereby starting a JULIE AND JULIA ripoff. I pulled out my NIGELLA BITES last night (thanks again, Ruth!), flipped through it, and was so inspired by most of the recipes that I Nigella and I are going to spend the whole week together.

Day One:

Guy and I made the salt and pepper fried squid. Only we didn't use squid. Or peanut oil.

I'm sorry, Nigella, it's not you. I'm physically incapable of following a recipe. Blame my father.

Which is a damn good thing, because the last time we made this, I actually followed your instructions to use 2 tablespoons salt, and 2 tablespoons pepper, and I ground them up in the mortar and pestle and everything, and the food was INEDIBLE! That was way too much freaking salt, lady.

Anyway, we make this dish with shrimp because Trader Joe's doesn't carry frozen squid. And we use sesame oil because it is just about the tastiest oil on the planet and you can never go wrong with that.

Heat the oil to smoking, roll the shrimp in a sensible amount of salt & pepper & cornstarch, and then stand because the oil spurts a lot (I made Guy do that part).

Yummy.