It doesn't take much to thrill me

I was at Winners the other day to buy teacher gifts (with five to buy at the nursery school alone, I was all about the bargain). In between the $20 Silpats - which was very tempting - and the stacks of Bodum coffee and tea stuff was a french fry cutter.

It's niiiiiccce!

I used it for the first time yesterday. The kids thought it to be as groovy as I did.

You put a potato into this chamber, throw back this lever which presses the potato through a metal grate and, voila, perfectly cut french fries.

I tossed them in a little olive oil, threw on a bit of sea salt and baked them. Good stuff. Husband enjoyed them on many levels: good because they're fries, good because I made them with salt (I very seldom cook with salt), and good because they were natural and therefore healthier than the stuff McCains puts out.

The next time I may parboil them and then bake them, just to speed things up a bit.

I could probably use this with carrots and zucchini. Oooh, I could make sweet potato fries too, not that I'd eat it mind you, but it would fit nicely into my "make one new thing each week" vow.

And after showering last night, I used something called a Soft Coeur made by Lush that my sister V gave me for my birthday last week. It was kinda like rubbing chocolate on you but was invisible. It left such a nice feel to my weary skin and it smelled mmm-mmm-good. Middle Child sat on my lap and just snuggled his face into my neck. It was a sweet moment but imperfect as I could hear from his breathing that the boy had some big boogers up his nose.