I've barely cooked this week, it seems. Last night I went out to dinner for a friend's birthday- we went to Harold and Belle's and I am still regretting my order, spicy crawfish cakes which were spicy, well, crawfish coated in batter and deepfried. Everyone else's etouffe was so good. And then I got vicious heartburn. Hate.

When I got home, some more free/cheap cheap book club cookbooks came in. How To Cook Everything: The Basics, which I ordered for Jeff and because it came in a package with The Minimalist Entertains. I see a few Minimalist dinner parties in our future, and the introduction made me happy- we're having our first dinner party next weekend, and Mark Bittman says our crappy tableware is fine! It was a good introduction- I'll keep y'all posted on the recipes. I was disappointed to read in The Basics, though, that Mark Bittman had changed his introductory statement from HTCE from believing that everyone can cook and most everyone should- he now no longer believes that most everyone should, and he gives no explanation why. Perhaps I'm taking this all a bit to seriously when the Minimalist's changes in outlook hurt me personally.

I also got Jacques Pepin Celebrates, which I briefly paged through before my heartburn made it hurt to look at food. Remember how I said everyone should get Jacques' Complete Techniques? Well, you still totally should if you are an obsessive nerd like myself, but if not just get Jacques Celebrates. It's got a lot of the same techniques, in beautiful color. And he explains the difference between a classic omelet, a conventional omelet, and a Spanish omelet. I can't remember now if my omelets are classic or conventional- they are not the kind where you pour the eggs in and let them set but the kind where you pour the eggs in and immediately start moving the pan and the eggs. And apparently that kind is not meant to be cooked til browned on the outside, either, so they're not really that kind either. But they are good.