Just in case you inferred from my post below that my parents are frequent regifters, I must say, they aren't. (Though sometimes they are, and that Omaha Steaks gift certificate reeked of it, is all.)

In fact, my mother recently sent me a random gift of a little booklet of dog biscuit recipes- with little cookie cutters! Shaped like bones and cats and trees! That was a)clearly not a regift- no one in their right mind would give my dog-hating mother such a thing- and b) a really well-chosen little surprise, because, hello, I love my dog and I love baking and what better than a gift that combines those two things? NOTHING.

So I made the biscuits from The Fun of Cooking for Buster, and cut them into little trees and cookies and bones, and he LOVES these biscuits. He is only sort of fond of most treats, but these, he's bonkers for. I was a little peeved by this- What, my poodle is so special he will only eat homemade snacks?- but then I realized, duh, what other kind of dog could I possibly raise?

This weekend I made a ton of pizza- first I made my usual (caramelized onions, prosciutto, and lemon pepper cream sauce) and then we watched a very special episode of Let's Dine Out, the Allen Borgen pizza review episode, and I had to make 1/2 cheese, 1/2 pepperoni pizzas. I tried the sauce and mutz from American Pie and I must say it beat out anything Allen Borgen could find in his pizza tour of the Inland Empire. (As an aside, Let's Dine Out is a BRILLIANT show and a must watch for anyone in SoCal. He loves junk food! She's a registered dietitian and diabetes educator! Oh ho, the comedy!) I made one with the mutz on top of the sauce, and one with the mutz on bottom, so Jeff and I could decide which we preferred-- and, shockingly, it was the mutz on the bottom. Who knew?

In non-pizza related news, leftover sour cherry brioche makes an awesome French Toast, your husband's feelings on sour cherries notwithstanding. He can just pick them out.