Here's hoping you had a spiffy week. Things were going along just fine here until ... ANOTHER crash. The latest disaster killed my favorite places (bookmarks), mail records and most of the "working" pages. The good news is, the main page was not affected.

The mail: I know I lost at least one recipe contribution. The subject line was Watermelon Salad - which is all I know because it wouldn't open and then everything went boom. If your contribution is not included, please send it again. I do answer all mail so if you don't get a reply in a day or two, please try again. This is starting to feel like an ongoing game of Russian roulette - and maybe I should start wearing a helmet to be on the safe side.

The mail that made it was, as usual, wonderful:

From Lois: A cream cheese thing - "It's funny, no matter what I serve (and sometimes I do serve stuff that takes a bit of effort), people rave about about this. Take one 8 oz. package of cream cheese and one package of Pillsbury crescent rolls (if you can get the small one ... if not just get the regular size and pitch the extra or make rolls - whatever). Separate the dough and use one half of it - pat it out so the lines are squished together and you have a rectangle. Put the cream cheese in the middle of the dough, sprinkle with whatever spices appeal to you (I use onion powder, garlic powder, dill, sometimes pepper flakes ... whatever floats your boat) ... wrap the dough around the cheese. Turn the thing so the seam side is down (seal with a little water if you think about it). Put in 350 oven for about 20 minutes or until crust is brown. Serve with crackers."

From Latham: "Something that works well for me is to use flour tortillas as dumpling material. Just tear them up and put them in." Gotta try that, the other easy dumpling substitute is refrigerated roll dough cut into quarters. Simmer chicken pieces in a pot seasoned with onion, garlic ... whatever. Add dough material, put the lid on - poof - puffed up just like grandma used to make.

From Robin Robin's Web - Home Page "One of my fave recipes: Spaghetti Trinidad; 1 box spaghetti, 1 pkg. bacon, olive oil, 1 onion, garlic cloves to suit your taste, carrots, (I prefer baby carrots, sliced into thin coins), 1 green pepper, salt and pepper to taste, parmesan cheese. Fry the bacon, cool, drain, crumble, set aside 1 - 2 tbls. bacon fat. Start salted, boling water for spaghetti. (I prefer spaghettini, which is thin.) Heat olive oil. Saute onion, carrots, pepper and garlic. When almost done, toss in bacon grease (for fuller bacon flavor, it's optional.) Drain pasta. Toss all ingredients together, add more olive oil, salt, fresh ground peppep and be very generous with parmesan. This dish is great the first day and spectacular the second. There will never be leftovers of this dish!"

Queen C notes: Add a splash of oil to spaghetti water to keep pasta from bonding into a permanently glued-together mass. Throw a piece on the wall to see if it sticks (a time-honored done test, which is fine if you are bored with the present texture of your walls - if not, maneuver a piece or two over to the side of the pot and press - if it breaks apart under gentle pressure, it's done). Also, start with a minimal amount of oil if using non-stick fry pan. ('scuse me, PC is saute.) Bacon is definitely not PC - but neither is anything else that tastes good - so - just figure with all those things out there waiting to get you, one or the other of them surely will - might as well go out smiling. They'll have to pry my cold, dead fingers from my French fries.

Don't forget to check out the contest. Drop a Hint, Win a Book

Now if I was giving out prizes for favorite comments :) ... From Suzy: "I felt as if I was reading my autobiography! You help to dispel the guilt I feel every day when I literally throw something together for dinner."

Hints and recipes all qualify for the contest, you can't vote on the following tho, they're mine.

Use undiluted chunky soup as "instant stew" - pour over potatoes, rice, noodles ...

Easy Eclair Dessert: Actually somebody else adapted (PC for stolen) this. I suspect the original was in full-calorie glory, which is how I adapted it back. Sin level would be your choice. Arrange 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs on the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan. Crushing crumbs is a pain, it takes exactly 6 and 3/4 crackers plus filling in the spaces with crushed to accomplish the same goal. Combine 3 cups milk with 6 oz. pudding mix (any flavor works). Beat with a wire whisk about two minutes, fold (gently stir) in 12 oz. thawed Cool Whip-type topping, spread over crackers. Top that with a thin layer of crumbs. Top that with a 16 oz. can of frosting that you nuked a few seconds to soften into a pourable condition. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

The above made a lot ... the following wasn't enough, which reminds me, anytime a recipe specifies number of servings, keep in mind that all depends if you are feeding Tiny Tim or the Incredible Hulk. You can get in trouble skimping on meat (it looks like you might just be cheap - tacky, very tacky). Take a good look at whatever and mentally divide into appropriate size portions.

It was my own fault for not making more of this than it turned out would have been nice to have. I cut it down to fit a 9 x 9 pan but I'll give you the original quanities for a 13 x 9 inch. It's the easiest and tastiest Chick-Mex thing I ever tried, even if there are more than five ingredients. Spread a little salsa in the bottom of the pan, then line with four flour tortillas cut into one-inch strips. Top with about a pound and a half of boneless chicken breasts cut into one-inch pieces. Pour on a load of salsa (I used a 20 oz. jar, more would have been better). Add at least one drained can or frozen box of corn (try white). Top that with two more tortillas cut into strips. Top that with at least 8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, sliced, grated, cubed, whatever. Decorate with sliced black olives. Cover with foil, bake 30 minutes at 375; uncover and bake 15 minutes more. Let sit for a few minutes before cutting into it.

When you can find reasonably priced (a buck each is not) avocados try this to go with the the above. First you need to know how to choose the little devils. Takes practice - you are looking for the ones that are not rock hard, just barely soft when you squeeze gently. Cut in half, going the long way, around the seed that won't let you go all the way through. Twist the halves a quarter turn and pull apart. If you whack the seed just right with the knife, it might twist right out - neat trick if you can master it. If you can find a little plastic gadget called a citrus peeler, it's the perfect way to get rid of the skin. Chop the flesh into chunks and drown in lemon juice. Add chopped tomatoes, green onion and possibly a little bit of cucumber. Best if it sits for a few hours, hard to resist tho.

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Cool links for the week: Fran's Place - I really like the graphics on Fran's main recipe page and her brand new Less-than-Fiver tag looks lovely there. You will need to fish around for the LTFs but everything looks wonderful.

Ingrid Tantalizing Ma Pickle Recipes and I negotiated a link trade. I would ever dream of attempting such a project. More power to you if the very thought doesn't pickle your brain.

That'll do for now - check back next week. Sunday is update target day, if you don't see anything new, try again Monday or Tuesday. Don't forget to write - twice!