Still weirdly warm here, at the same time the rest of the country is freezing. It's also dry as a bone.

Kitchen adventures this week included a six-cheese gnocchi parmesan recipe out of Veggie Times--a kind of gnocchi lasagna. It took almost an hour to make, twice as long as their estimate, and ended up being really bland. I also realized that I don't care for gnocchi all that much. Considering it called for a lot of pre-packaged things that added up to almost $12 for 8 servings (though you could certainly shred your own cheese or make your own tomato sauce if you had the time and inclination), this isn't something I'm likely to make again. It did give me a chance to use my 8-quart stockpot for the first time, however, which was exciting.

I am really liking the tofu shirataki noodles they have in the tofu section at the grocery store. For one thing, they're about 40 calories per package in contrast to pasta which is about 200 calories a serving, and they have a good chewy texture. Says on the back they're endorsed by Hungry Girl.

I've stopped watching The Real Housewives of Orange County. The women are just too hateful and self-involved. The Atlanta women certainly behaved badly, but never on this level of viciousness. It's also sad the producers have apparently booted DeShawn from the next season of RHoA for being "too boring." She and Lisa were the most normal ones on the show, and her husband is such a nice guy.

Top Chef lumbers on, now down to four women and four men, with Jamie from Absinthe hanging in there. The new judge is bizarre--his vulgar comment about copulating with raw meat almost made me barf up my gnocchi.