Added Sugar

That's how much added sugar we eat in a week.

I calculated it by taking out all the healthy (fruits and veggies) and homemade foods from this blog post.

The total amount of sugar is 936 grams (4.16 cups), which is 53.5 grams of sugar a day. The recommended amount is 35 grams. Clearly we are a little high.

This is the next area in our lives we are going to work on. We are planning to take on healthy eating next year for our New Year's resolution.

I can't wait!

Food! - Day 11 and 12

Day 11- Breakfast

Breakfast is a funny meal in our household.

We either go all out or we're eating cheerios on the floor.

If the kitchen is clean-ish and we don't hit the snooze button 100x,

we tend to eat really well.

But more days than I'd like to admit, we seem to just snack on Cheerios.

This was a spinach, mushroom, artichoke, and brie omelet.

It was good.

It would have been better without the artichoke.

(We actually got up this morning.)

Day 12 - Cookies

Oh man, we love cookies.

I was so excited for an excuse to get some. 

After Tiny and I went to Baby story time at the library today, 

we asked one of the librarians where we could get a good cookie.

They pointed us down the street to Olives.

Gah, they were sooo good and cheap.

That's a tart.

The cookie was so flaky and buttery.

Yum!

And then these chocolate ones...

They were so good and thick.

The chocolate was so dark.

I was in heaven.

Madeleine loved them too surprisingly.

I didn't think she'd like them since they were a bit bitter.

She washed it down with cow milk.

We're working on switching her from formula.

Breast milk to formula switch was really easy,

I'm hoping that formula to cow milk goes just as smoothly.

The Bent Spoon

Princeton is a pretty snazzy little town, and lucky for us the university likes its grad students.

The other day they had free ice cream at "The Bent Spoon"

Apparently, it's a big deal.

Like it has been ranked one of the top ten ice cream places in the country.

(And it's only a mile from us!)

When I looked over the counter, I saw buckets of strawberries, chocolate, raspberries, and other fresh produce, just waiting in line to be made into ice cream.

Each little scoop cost $4.50.

They gave us testing spoons to eat it with to make us feel like we had more.

But it worked for me, because the double dark chocolate we got was GOOD. 

It was so rich and bittersweet.

It was so creamy. 

By the end of my little scoop, I was pretty glad there wasn't more.

(Milk anyone?)

(They had awards all over that place!)

They had more adventurous flavors like basil and mango.

The raspberry looked so beautiful.

Next time I think I'm going to try it. 

Since they sold cupcakes too, logically we had to try one.

Their cupcakes were awesome too.

Maybe even as good as the House of Cupcakes which was down the street.

(We hit up the local cupcake shop within the first week we moved in. I'll blog about them as soon as I have photos. We kind of ate them before we got home.)

But anyway the ice cream was so good, we gave some to Madeleine.

I think she liked it?

She kept making this face and then opening her mouth for more.

Right next door there is a huge Ann Taylor (!) and a chocolate shop.
Needless to say, we will be back.

My First Julia Recipe

“This is a book for the servantless American cook who can unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children’s meals, the parent-chauffeur-den mother syndrome, or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat.”

~From the Foreword of Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Since Julie & Julia came out on dvd, I’ve been itching to get my fingers on my own copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I thankfully got a copy for my wedding, and now that school is winding down a bit, I’m ready to dig in.

I kicked off the beginning of my adventure by reading Julie & Julia. For your info, I did not enjoy the book. It was not as charming as I expected. The movie was 100x better, but the book did excite me about making a few recipes from the cookbook. 

After I finished reading Julie & Julia, I was ready to pull out the Book. I curled up on my bed and started reading. I was surprised that the first 75 pages had nothing to do with recipes. It is about equipment (which I’m missing most of), definitions (Matt was cracking up at my pronunciation of the French words. It was so much fun.), ingredients, measuring, temperature, cutting, wines, and two introduction. Just from reading those pages, I have realized that I learned a lot and have even more to learn from Julia.

Random Sidetrack Story (Feel free to skip)

Why It is bad for me to Read a Cookbook

By Michele Nielsen

It was our second week of being married. We had just returned from our honeymoon, and Matt was already back at work. School was not starting for another week, so I had a bit of time before school started. I did not know what to do. Our home was clean, everything unpacked, so I thought, “Huh, lets try out all my new kitchen stuff!”

I opened up my brand new copy of James Beard’s American Cookery and flipped through the book. I saw the bread section, and for some crazy reason I decided to make bread. At this point, I had only successfully made one batch of bread, but I must have thought with my new married status, I received homemaking super powers.

I flipped open to the bread section of the book and read…

"In 1857 Mrs. Sara Hale wrote in her huge cookbook, Receipts for the Millions: “To make good bread or to understand the process of making it is the duty of every woman; indeed an art that should never be neglected in the education of a lady. The lady derives her title from ‘dividing and distribution bread’; the more perfect the bread the more perfect the lady.”"

I read on to the recipe and then began to make it. I carefully measured everything and followed the recipe to a T. I even had a friend come over and supervise to make sure I did not do anything stupid. After I finished kneading it, my friend left -- fairly certain that I had avoided all disaster.

I set my timer and went to read a book. When I came back an hour later, the bread had not risen…at all. I was horrified!! (Normally I wouldn't even blink at messing up a recipe, but for some reason this was extra devastating.) I called Matt up almost in hysterics, “Honey, I’m the least perfect women ever!! Why did you marry me? I am such a failure. I’m so sorry.” (It was pretty pathetic.)

Matt was completely confused. We had only been married for two weeks, what could I possibly done that would make me so distressed? He calmed me down, and I explained to him what the book said and what had happened. He paused for a second before saying, “Did you let the water sit for a minute before adding it?”

“Uh...no. That wasn’t part of the directions.”

“That’s your problem. Provo has a lot of chlorine in the water. You gotta let it sit a while so it can flash off.”

And that is why I married a chemist. He fixes everything, even water.

When he came home, he told me that I should stop reading sexist cookbooks, so I do not feel bad when something goes wrong.

The End.

Back to me reading Julia Child’s book, I remembered that reading things other than the recipes in the cookbook was not necessarily the best idea. I read it anyway and came up on the quote I put at the beginning. I laughed.

Unlike failing as a perfect woman, I had already disqualified myself for who can cook French Cooking. While I rocked at not having a servant and we do not have kids, I do have a waistline I would like to keep, along with time schedule and a strict budget. I pointed this out to Matt, and he reminded me not to read cookbooks again. I figured even without meeting Julia’s requirements, I was going to give this a try.

Today I made the first recipe! Potage Parmentier (aka. Leek and Potato Soup).

It was easy, cheap, and yummy. I'm happy with it. 

Booyah for the first recipe checked off...500 and something to go? (I not sure, if I'm going to make all the gross stuff)   

The Awesomeness of Tea Parties and Friends

The first week I walked into to our church when we just got married, I was terrified. I hid behind my husband most of the day as I studied all beautiful, confident girls happily talked to each other. They all seemed so happy and nice, but did I talk to them? No.

A few months into marriage though, I realized for the first time in my life I was really craving female companionship. I thought I was going crazy, but this craziness gave me enough courage to say a quick “Hi.”

Turned out saying “Hi” was one of the best decisions of my life. Other than getting to be with my sweet husband forever, one of my favorite parts of being married is meeting other newlywed women. The friends I have made since I got married are some of my favorite people in the world. We giggle, laugh, swap recipes, and talk whenever we are around each.

For example, last Sunday, we couldn’t stop cracking up because we all wanted to hold the Hymn book. So what did we do, all 3 of us held it, while trying to giggle and sing at the same time.  I felt like we were a group of 5^th graders that couldn’t stop being ridiculous, just because we were so happy that we knew each other.  

On Thursday, one of my friends went to Hunger Games with me, because Matt had too much homework. We had an awesome time, eating popcorn, and talking through the credits. Afterwards she even inwardly gloated with me, as we saw all the people sitting in line for the midnight showing. We got a 7:00 showing for the night before, because of another awesome, married friend.

The line of poor people waiting. (Courtesy of Kaitlan)

Aren't we spiffily fancy?

Food!

Table that Matt helped me set up (He also took the picture. His pictures> mine)

Then this week, I hosted my first tea party. I invited three girls (because I only have four chairs) that I knew would love getting dressed up with me for a tea party! They came all dressed up in their fancy clothes and they were as excited as me (It was really cute. Natashya’s husband even got dressed up to escort her to my door! Talk about snazzy.) We talked for basically two hours straight eating chocolate, listening to the random stories about how we met our husbands. The only word I think that properly describe our party is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”  (Especially since we had the Mary Poppin’s hats.)

PS The girls at the tea party got married the same weekend as me. :) 

The Not-So-Perfect Meringue

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are completely inspired to be a 50’s housewife or a millennial man?

Your fingers itch to clean the whole house top to bottom. That stupid, plastic tub that you have failed to bleach clean would finally succumb to your scrubbing power. The closet after this day will never be a safety hazard again, because not only would it meticulously organized but decluttered.

Well if you haven’t, then you must not have looked on pinterest or read Little White Horse, because that is what inspired me to really tackle my home. Matt and I clean our home at least once a week, but I wanted to get every nook dusted and cleaned. Last week, I put bookplates in all of our books, and I realized just how dusty some places in our apartment was getting.

So we did it. By the end of Saturday afternoon, our home looked great. I was feeling pretty smug. Clean, organized house, AND dinner was done. Who rocked? We did.

God must have felt like I needed to be humbled. I figured since I basically just got an A+ on being a housewife, I would try to make a chocolate meringue pie. I had drooled at the picture a few weeks ago, and I had never made a meringue before.

Recipe here

Doesn’t it look beautiful? I was so excited as I watched my egg whites and sugar whip up beautifully. When I dumped the chocolate in my fingers couldn’t help but to nick a taste. I was completely daydreaming about my awesome meringue that I would be eating in not too long. I cut the wax paper and put the batter onto the baking pan where I carefully swirled it into a circle. I quickly double checked the recipe before popping into the oven and setting the timer. After that I called my sister while my meringue baked.

30 min later, Matt was yelling at me to get off the phone. Apparently, something was burning in our oven. (Turns out it was the Western Family wax paper.) I jumped onto the couch to hit the smoke alarm off every few seconds (still talking to my sister) while Matt heroically tried to fix what was burning. Matt swore that the meringues were done, but me having a perfect 50’s housewife moment would not listen to him. I knew without a doubt that the recipe said it had to be in there for an hour and 20 min.

Because the front door and every window was open, I caved and took out my meringues after 40 min. They were not beautiful at all…Matt said that we could go outside and play frisbee with them if I wanted to. It was a complete and total fail. I was so upset and furious. Why didn’t my recipe work and why did the wax paper catch fire??   I read the directions and all the comments and no one had complained about the cook time.

My dismal finished product....and this picture doesn't even show the completely black burned bottom

I felt a bit better after watch an hour of “Vogue” on hulu, but still I felt like I was wearing the “cone of shame” from Up.

So to prove to my mother and myself that I’m not a totally failure at a part-time housewife here are some projects that didn’t turn out so bad. (Notice they are not food)

Reusable Ziplock bags (Matt made the small one!)

Awesome Apron

Grocery bag that doesn't rip when walking home

RS thingy -- It's a "Forget-me-not" reminder of Pre. Uchtdorf

Menu on cabinet

Matt says I'm over doing it, but really ego shattered.

Morals of my day

1. Recipes lie sometimes

2. God will humble you if you think you are perfect

3. You can't be perfect.

4. There is always something else to clean.

PS. Does anyone really know how to make a meringue??? I would really really really love tips. As you can tell I need them.

Thai Green Curry Soup

Matt and I absolutely love this recipe. We made it three times last week alone. It’s not very spicy (that’s one of the perks of making Thai food at home, you can control the spicy level), but it has so much flavor. On top of that it is healthy. Now it isn’t quite as cheap as Red Lentil soup, but it is so worth every penny.

(Macey’s does carry everything you need for this recipe, but you’ll end up paying a lot more. We usually go to Chao’s (the Asian Market on University Ave.) to pick everything up. It saves us about $3 per batch.)

Thai Green Curry Chicken soup 

(Adapted from  http://www.fortysomething.ca )

$1.42  1 chicken thigh
    .15  Vegetable or olive oil
    .39  1 onion, sliced in moons
    .14  1 thing of ginger the size of the top part of your thumb, finely minced
    .05  2 clove garlic, minced
  2.19  1 c sliced mushrooms
    .79  1 red bell pepper, cut into 2 to 3-inch thin slices
    .34  3 Tbsp. green curry paste
           6 cups water
    .33  3 bouillon cubes
    .74  1/2 can coconut milk
    .63  Handful of uncooked Pad Thai Rice Noodles aka rice noodles (I use half a bag)
    .50  Lime Juice
$7.67

Serves: 6 ($1.27 per serving)

Calories per serving: 248

(Again, I’m assuming you have bouillon cubes, and I’m also assuming you have half a can of coconut milk, a full can is $1.47 at Maceys. Curry Paste is $3 at Chao’s for a cup of the stuff, and the noodle package is $1.26.)

Optional
1 Tbsp Thai chili sauce or Sriracha sauce
2-3 Tbsp. fish sauce
Cilanto or green onions garnish


How to do it

1. Saute onion in a pot until a bit soft. Cut everything else while it is cooking.

2. Add garlic, ginger and curry paste. Stir everything in curry paste before adding mushrooms and bell peppers, then stir everything up again.

3. After about 2 min of sauteing the veggies in the pot, add water, bullion cubes, and chicken. Then bring to a boil.

4. Boil for 6 min and then start shredding chicken.(You can shred it in the pot or out of the pot or just cut it up in little pieces. It doesn't really matter.)

5. After chicken is cooked, add coconut milk and rice noodles, then reduce heat to a simmer. (I usually put the lid on.)

6. In the bowls, add fish sauce, lime juice, and anything else that you want in that you haven't already added. Taste test soup before pouring in bowls.

7. Eat and get more.

Yum!

"Adventure is out there!!!" (Our travels to SLC)

The Schedule

8:00- Wake up
8:32- Finally leave warm bed for freezing environment, only to tumble in a really hot shower
9:00- Breakfast
9:30- Clean up and make pizza dough

Pizza Dough Recipe 

(It will rock your socks...if you are wearing some.)

1/2 cups of wheat flour

1 1/2 cups of white flour

1 tsp of salt

3 tsp of yeast

1 tb of oil

1-ish c of warm water

10:00- Slap water on hair or run a brush through, look for a reasonable outfit

10:15- Make pizza sauce and roll out dough and add on the toppings

10:30- Pizza goes in oven, Matt makes sure we have money for the bus

10:40- Matt leaves for school

10:50- Pizza comes out

Our lunch and dinner for the day

12:40- Michele leaves for school

1:00- We have class together!!!!!!!

2:50- Classes are over, mad dash to bus

3:01- Watch old man almost get hit by car as he very sloooowly jaywalks across Canyon Drive and pray that no one hits him.

3:03- Reach bus and crossing fingers that it isn't the bus driver that likes to leave early.

3:05- Bus leaves and we talk about life, hope, dreams and our relationship

4:24- We reach Sandy Trax and get on Trax (and shove pizza in our mouths)

5:13- Reach The Gateway Mall and dash to BYU Salt Lake Center for Michele's class

7:30- Michele gets out of class, and get back on Trax

8:10- Arrive at Sandy Trax and get on bus

10:03- Get off bus and come home!!!!

Adventure complete.

Mondays really are crazy, but in all honesty it is one of my favorite days of the week. I love the time I get to spend with Matt on the bus. I have 4 hours to discuss anything I want to with him, and we talk about everything. (He gets sick if he does his homework on the bus. Lucky me!) We talk about what we learned in our class, graduate school, the random person that is sitting across from us, awful names we could name our future kids, etc. It is awesome and so much fun.

Also, I love people watching on the bus too. It interesting the types of people that come on the bus. The guys that were right in front of us two weeks ago were ex-drug dealers. They were talking about the pros and cons of the jail system and what they think would improve it. We didn't necessarily agree with them, but Matt and I found their conversation very enlightening. There are always cool people on the bus, that I would never interact with except for the fact that we are riding the same bus.

The bus drivers are just as cool too. Jerry is one of my favorites. He has been driving the Provo to Sandy bus for the last two years. He is an avid bike rider and is always pointing out random trails that I should check out one day. There is another bus driver Miguel who I really like. He loves learning different languages, (the last count I heard was eight.) He practices with passengers and goes to night school at UVU to get his degree. How cool is that? 

I love that these people are on the adventure with Matt and me. They are our fellow travelers, just going to different places. It's a nice change to be with some normal people before being canned up in Provo the rest of the week. :)

Seis Meses

We have been married 6 months and 12 hours and 27 minutes!!!

Which of course is a cause for celebration. (We basically celebrate anything we can if you haven’t noticed.)

Celebrating for us always involves food.

First, we slept in until 10:30. We took a luxurious hot bubble bath, followed by strawberries and pancakes! They were so yummy. Our breakfast dessert was sprinkle cupcakes that we had made together the night before.

After that, we went to church where Matt made his usual heretical comments (his words not mine) and I got to see my friends and reassured people that we really are nice people.

When we came home we armed ourselves with aprons, recipes, and knives. We made thai green curry soup (which is amazing, hopefully Michele puts it up soon,) and cheesy pull apart bread. Then we succumbed to vice and played poker. Once we had eaten all the chips, we weren’t left with much besides the clothes on our backs, but we kept on going! Gambling is such a destructive addiction.

Finally, Matt got wasted while reading aloud Winnie the Pooh!

As you can tell marriage has been a wonderful experience for us. Really, it has.

A few things we like about our first 6 months together…

1. Our whole honeymoon

2. Taking classes together

3. Cooking and grocery shopping together

4. Fixing up our home

5. Eating out (especially Outback and Macaroni Grill)

6. Shopping in Salt Lake together during Thanksgiving break

7. Matt surprising me with an early birthday present

8. Laughing so hard it hurts over stupid things

9. Reading books together

10. Listening to and singing music together

11. Finding out just how weird each other are and then realizing how perfect we are for each other

I can’t wait to see what the next six months are going to bring us, but I’m sure it will be exciting.

Yum

I did two 5K runs this week!! Go me! I was so excited, that I could do that without dying. When I was a senior in high school, I barely finished one under an hour. This time 36 min.

My motivation.

Blooming Onion

(Matt says as I put this up: Can't we just have it every week until we die? They are so freaking good.)

I totally wanted one for my birthday dinner, so Matt and I walked up to Outback to get it. It was completely worth sweating for an hour to eat this. 

Highlights of my birthday:

1. Blooming Onion

2. Matt cooking me breakfast in bed

3. Cake with my family and friends

4. Having a Clean House

5. Getting a sewing machine a month before my birthday

Esau's Soup

A few years ago, I took cooking at BYU. It was an awesome class. For our final project, we had to come up with a dinner that cost under $3 a person. Sounds like easy right? It wasn’t. It was actually a lot harder than I had anticipated. Since then, I have become more conscious of how much each meal I make costs, especially since I’m married now. I figured since this is my blog (sometimes Matt’s) I wanted to put up some of our favorite recipes (because how am I suppose to make dinner if pinterest is down and I can't get to the recipe??)

Red Lentil Soup Vegan and therefore also vegetarian, and gluten free!! (Basically everyone can eat this)

History of Lentil Soup According to Wikipedia (which is back up!!!) 

"Lentil Soup is mentioned in the Bible: In Genesis 25:34, Esau is prepared to give up his birthright for a pot of fragrant red lentil soup (a "mess of pottage") being cooked by his brother, Jacob.” 

Esau gave up his birthright just to get this soup, which was kind of a big deal.

Red Lentil Soup > Isaac's Inheritance

Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly the red lentil soup, but really this recipe is amazing. 

Red Lentil Soup Recipe 

From: SassyRadish.com

Ingredients:

$ .15  3 tablespoons olive oil,
  .39   1 large chopped yellow onion
  .05   2 minced garlic cloves
  .50   1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
  .01   1 teaspoon ground cumin
  .01   1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  .01   1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  .01   Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne
  .33   1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (I use 3 bullion cubes and 4 cups of water)
  .88   1 cup red lentils (These are at the sunflower market, and 1 cup is a little less than half a lb)
  .40   1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  .59   Juice of 1/2 lemon
   .79  3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

$ 4.12 for everything (Given that you have salt, pepper, bullion cubes, cumin, and chili powder)

Preparation:

In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add broth, lentils and carrots. Bring to a boil, then partially cover pot and turn heat to low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt if necessary.

Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.

Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro.

Serves 6 to 8

Total per serving: $0.52-0.69 

Let me know if you make this. I really hope someone does. It is amazing and cheap and basically everyone can eat it. 


Also, if you have any awesome recipes that are cheap and yummy, would you mind giving me a copy? I love trying new recipes.


PS I'll put a picture up as soon as I can.
PSS This is with actual Macey's prices.

Hi Anna!

Happy Birthday Anna!!!

Today was such a lazy day. After having our friends the Herrick’s over last night, we apparently were exhausted. We woke up at 11 to the Matt’s phone beeping. He rolled over and called Anna, while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do today. Somewhere in my muddled mind, I thought about how turning 18 was exciting and how I wish we could be in Virginia celebrating it with her.

So today, we ended up throwing a party in Anna’s honor here in Utah! There was even cake and balloons and party guests.

Pre-Party Dinner -- Gyros!! (They were really good)

We just finished dinner up when our awesome friends came over. First Ryan and his cute lady friend Ariel came over, and not long after Erin and Logan came over!! (Erin had just come from buying her wedding dress!!!!!!!)

The Cake

Singing Happy Birthday to her

Matt!!!

Ariel and I blew out the candles for her, while Anna thought of a wish! We hope you had a great birthday Anna!! We love you, and maybe next year if you aren't globe trotting you can be here with us next year to celebrate your birthday. 

Things You Can Do Once You Are 18

• Vote
• Jury Duty
• Sign your own medical and permission slips
• Get your own credit cards
• Model for playboy
• Work a fork lift
• Get a tattoo
• Get married
• Do not need a cosigner on a contract
• Play on game shows
• Sit at the "Grown up table"

The Perfect Medicine

Despite being sick, tonight has been a pretty perfect night. I have been fighting off a cold/sinus infection for the last 3 days. Luckily for me, I was feeling well enough to go church, before crawling right back into bed. Before I feel asleep, I mumbled off half-understandable direction to Matt about dinner, that looking back, he definitely should not have understood. An hour later when I woke up though dinner was ready!! Matt made creamy tortellini soup and cheesy artichoke bread. It was so good!!

Link for recipe: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/soups/creamy-tortellini-soup/

Link for recipe: http://www.plainchicken.com/2009/10/artichoke-bread.html 

After dinner, I slithered back in bed to fall asleep again, when Matt came in with Winnie the Pooh! He read to me as I drifted in and out of sleep. We read about Winnie the Pooh and Piglet walking around a tree for a while following tracks of some wild animal. Winnie the Pooh convinces Piglet that he should come with Pooh to follow the footprints just incase it ends up being a "hostile animal." Piglet becomes increasingly nervous as more tracks appear! They keep following the tracks until Christopher Robin convinces Pooh that he is just following his own tracks.

I loved this story tonight; it made me smile. When I'm sick, I become so confused and lose everything. I do not know where anything is or what I should be doing. I do end up doing silly things that don't make sense all the time. Luckily for me I have my own husband/best friend to convince me whatever I am doing is maybe not the smartest thing ever and still loves me for it.

 Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

Anyway, Books+food+cuddling with hubby+ice cream= great medicine.

Night all! I’m off to bed, again.

Lies "The Little Mermaid" taught my wife

Get this. The other night, we went to the Red Lobster and ordered a plate that included shrimp scampi, scallops and stuffed flounder. Considering how far we are from the nearest ocean, it was pretty good. Michele especially liked the flounder and made some comment about them being "cute." Huh? I thought to myself, Cute?

After some discussion, I ascertained that Michele's perception of a 'flounder' was the following:

"Oh, no!" I said, "You've been horribly deceived! Flounders actually look like this:"

I realize that my timing was off. Michele probably did not want to learn that her cute fish friend was actually a demented-looking bottom feeder while she was eating it.

I tried to reason with Michele. Why would she want to eat a cute fish? And if it were ugly, what better purpose could it serve? In the end, we agreed that our favorite version of the flounder was this: