Shrimp Fra Diavolo, June 26-July 2, 2020

Posted on 06/26/2020 by bjnosek

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

New Salon every Friday – c’mon in

CS friends, and help yourself to tasty resources

We want to help us all stay safe – and find joy in the kitchen, our own special haven

♦ COMFORT FOOD ♦

Shrimp gets frisky

A decent hit of red pepper flakes, a touch of another pepper, and go-for-it garlic all conspire to put a tingle on your tongue. Though truth be told, I did drizzle a bit of sriracha over it too.

There are of course other fine flavors too, seasonings, wine {though I actually used clam juice instead}, tomatoes, herbs. Thinking a green salad with some cooling avocado and a dollop of sour cream could be a tasty counterpoint.

The prep is from one of my favorite sites, AllRecipes, and in turn is credited to Chef John. Thanks Chef John!

The good news roster: prep time 15 min, cook time 20 min, 5 star rating, delicious!

Well, woohoo, turns out the good chef has all kinds of great looking dishes on the AllRecipes site. The ones most likely to bring me back first – his breakfast & brunch dishes, lemon bars and potato roses, and the latter includes a demo. Even if you never make this dish, pretty sure you will enjoy watching even if only for his droll sense of humor.

Next week: chocolate filled crescent rolls

Recipe ♦ Chef John’s dishes on AllRecipes

♦ FOOD TIPS FOR THE TIMES ♦

Shopping, cooking, storing, substituting, using up, helping, amusement, health & safety

♦ In last week’s salon we linked imdb’s favorite foodie movies. Leave it to google to tap into a full roster of sources for top rated movies with a culinary theme. Water for Chocolate and Chocolat are two of my list toppers and truly for reasons well beyond the title subject.

♦ A little indulgence now and then can’t hurt right? Good for the spirits. So, high on that list for lots of us is a hot fudge sundae. No hot fudge? If you have karo syrup and any kind of chocolate – boxed, bars, chips – you in effect have hot fudge in the wings. And easy, no measuring, even though I do use a measuring cup for the easy pouring. Put in the chips or chopped chocolate, cover fully with the syrup, nuke and whisk till smooth with a pinch of salt.

. And remember it will thicken considerably when it hits the ice cream. After you make it once, you’ll know if next time you want to add more of one or the other to suit your taste. You can enrich it with butter, cream, vanilla, e.g., too but it will also be a perfectly good sauce with just those main ingredients. I did discover one thing – a hot fudge banana split is a heck of a breakfast.

♦ Campbell’s cream of chicken soup is the foundation of my own personal mother sauce. May share some of that here but as well going into a cookbook. Meanwhile, wow, so many tasty ways to use this culinary workhorse. See for yourself with a stroll through Campbell’s cream of chicken soup recipes on their site. You know what looks so good – the creamy chicken pot pie, easy chicken & cheese enchiladas, shortcut chicken cordon bleu, chicken and stuffing pie – better stop.

– Also, Campbell’s has published cookbooks based on their wide range of products, and there is at least one dedicated to recipes that start with their soups. You can find these cookbooks on this page on Amazon.

“Make America Decent Again” collection crafted by Zazzle – see it right here on CS

Tees, Sweats, Hoodies, Mugs, Hats, Buttons, tote bags – nice styles & colors

CS Marketplace Directory

Click here or on the Amazon logo to go directly to their home page

You can still see full-featured Salons in the Archives, 04.10.20 & earlier

Looking for something in CS?

Scroll & check previews OR use the search box OR contact me at bjnosek@gmail.com

Questions, comments?

Use the same email, enter CooksSalon in the subject line – see the Let’s Chat tab for further details

Note

All transactions are solely between the buyer and linked supplier

I’m associated with Amazon, Zazzle, and SunFrog, only

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you

Rich and creamy {& famous} clam chowder, April 10-April 16, 2020

Posted on 04/10/2020 by bjnosek

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

New Salon every Friday – c’mon in

CS friends, and help yourself to tasty resources

♦ Here’s what you’ll find this week when you scroll below ♦

♦ TIDBITS – “easiest” asparagus / salsa=16 dinners / corona through food? ♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT – our fun new mugs / adda Mada ♦ FEATURED RECIPE – trick it up ♦ TIP – read & ready ♦ THE WEEK – there’s good and there’s good / possible leftovers resource / play without fear

♦ TIDBITS ♦

Newsy, schmoozy stuff for cooks

♦ What a great time for an asparagus recipe, just when the tender spears are becoming available. Even better, “This might be the easiest way to make asparagus.” It’s in a skillet, few ingredients, says 5 minutes.

♦ As promised in last week’s Salon, here is AllRecipe’s offer of “16 Easy Dinners to Make with a Jar of Salsa.” Note as with many of these slide shows you can also opt to just scroll down and see the full list. I think my list-topper is likely to be the Black Bean Breakfast Bowl, or wait, maybe the Cilantro Lime Garlic Sauteed Shrimp {D’s Taco Pizza?}.

♦ Thinking we’d all like to know the answer to this. “Can You Contract Coronavirus Through Food?” MyRecipes takes our previous posts a step further with “Why you need to pay attention before, during, and after your supermarket visits {and home deliveries}.” Their information is sourced from the CDC and FDA.

♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT ♦

Cheer up your morning {or any time} with a fun CS mug

Our own CS mug collection {five is a collection, right?} is now on its own page right here on the Salon site. More will come in the days ahead.

For now, you can raise a toast to chocolate, coffee, ice cream, and parties. And rounding out the lineup, one I just love . . . “In this house I’M the celebrity chef” – you too?

All of them are our own designs. But credit for the craftwork goes to CA-based Zazzle, home of many fine crafts.

The page also gives you links to other food-themed mugs on Zazzle plus on Amazon and SunFrog. Some are more cups than mugs, like the clever one shown here from Amazon. Images are clickable.

CS Fun Mug page ♦ CS Marketplace Directory

NEW, our “Make America Decent Again” collection on Zazzle now includes a tee, hoodie. button, sweatshirt and mug – all right now on BJN’s Eclectic Mall page

♦ FEATURED RECIPE ♦

Make as is or use their own trick

In our 03.27.20 Salon we featured Todd Wilbur’s book, “Top Secret Recipes/Step by Step.” I had mentioned that among the preps landing on my to-make list was this very one from the famous Boston {etc} restaurant group, Legal Sea Food.

The amped up flavor is thanks to such ingredients as bacon, onions, garlic, and spices. I actually used bottled clam juice for the stock, and here’s one of two ‘fess-ups – canned clams, added at the end and gently heated so they stayed tender.

The second ‘fess up requires a detour, in fact to Boston. I’m long familiar with Legal Sea Foods given that it was a mandatory stop any time my husband and I were in town.

Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step: Secret Formulas with Photos for Duplicating Your Favorite Famous Foods at Home One time while we were at the bar awaiting our table we had a pleasant conversation with the bartender. In the course of the chat we mentioned how we were all but addicted to their fish chowder.

Whether he should have told us or not, he did – the secret he said is a lot of Monterey jack cheese. The question was, is that true or not, but our fairly experienced taste buds thought it probably was and that’s what I’ve borrowed for the clam chowder in place of the flour and cornstarch, melting in till it was as thick as I wanted, and then the clams.

Btw, I learned something that’s reflected in the recipe link. Don’t know how many are in its “library,” but apparently Google posts entire books and that’s where the link will take you. If you’d rather have a real book in your hands, there’s also the Amazon link where you’ll see Wilbur’s work merits 4 1/2 stars, available at good discounts for both Kindle and paperback.

Recipe ♦ “Top Secret Recipes Step by Step” ♦ Wilbur’s other Top Secret Recipes cookbooks

♦ TIP ♦

For some CS-ers, this is going to be a great big Duh!

Which is to say, you might take a look at the subject and say, well of course I do that. But not all of us do, all the time, and I’m as guilty as anyone else in this regard.

The subject is, reading the recipe. And not just right before you make it, but a day or two before you make it.

Do you have all the ingredients. And just as important, do you have enough of each ingredient. Are the necessary appliances in working order. Does anything have to be done in advance – marinating, baking, chilling, freezing. Or, can some of the steps be completed in advance.

Party time makes this pre-look even more critical, and now we’re likely talking more than one recipe. Are the necessary big bowls and pans going to be available or in use for something else. Is there room in the oven or on the stove for all the planned preps. Is there time to get it all ready.

So grab a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice, sit back and relax. And have a nice little read.

♦ A PEEK AT MY WEEK ♦

Welcome to my kitchen and living room

♦ I was drawn to a headline regarding Quarantine Cakes on my Echo Show. Turns out they’re from a bakery in CA, designed for 1 or 2 people, frosted with coronavirus messages {“Stay 6 ft apart,” e.g.}. Not sure what I was expecting, but not exactly this, and not something available only locally. But maybe, intentionally or otherwise, there’s a message here anyway – don’t have to totally abandon good eating habits, but maybe this is a time to indulge in a few more treats than usual. We’ll do our best to help.

♦ In case you have an Echo Show, one of the features that’s quite handy is asking Alexa how to use up leftovers, as a general question or regarding a specific ingredient. I asked her about some leftover cooked shrimp and she came back with shrimp quesadillas and lemon garlic shrimp. You can then of course ask her for the recipe.

♦ Are you among those spending a little more time at home than usual these days. One possibility to pass the time is to . . . play with your food. And do it without fear because, cooks being among the most creative folks on earth, we can almost always find ways to turn the bad to good. E.g., I recently made a layer cake instead in a sheet pan, and after a guessed-at baking time the poked-in wooden skewer came out clean and the edges had started to pull away.

– But after it cooled somewhat discovered that actually the bottom was decidedly not cooked. Hmmmm. Hauled out a large skillet, in with a little oil, and then dropped in squares of the cake undercooked side down, until done and a little crisp. Over briefly for some crispness on the done side. Then cooled, wrapped portions in foil, and into the freezer to emerge on demand as tasty pancakes.

This week’s:

Photo credits – cup, mug, book-Amazon / recipe-my photo of Wilbur’s page / others-mine
Link sources – cooking asparagus-MyRecipes / brownies-msn.com / photo links for cup & mug, books-Amazon
Partnerships – Amazon {ongoing – Amazon, Zazzle, SunFrog}

Click here or on the Amazon logo to go directly to their home page

So far next week: Starting next week our Salon will convert for now to a more simple format, just two elements – a comfort food recipe and whatever food safety measures we can find

Last week, just below: taco shell the blank slate, best cobbler?, marinara + + , sheet pan 2.0, warm chocolate cobbler, flour trick, save the milk, fun with taters, impromptu dressing

Looking for something in CS?

Scroll & check previews OR use the search box OR contact me at bjnosek@gmail.com

Questions, comments?

Use the same email, enter CooksSalon in the subject line – see the Let’s Chat tab for further details

Note

All transactions are solely between the buyer and linked supplier

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you

Red-wine braised red cabbage, Feb 28-March 5, 2020

Posted on 02/28/2020 by bjnosek

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

New Salon every Friday – c’mon in

CS friends, and help yourself to tasty resources

♦ Here’s what you’ll find this week when you scroll below ♦

♦ TIDBITS – restaurant dishes you can make / no clinking, etc etc etc / don’t take a fake ♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT – Pat-ifying your kitchen / New MADA shirt on Zazzle ♦ FEATURED RECIPE – a super sweet and tart tasty side ♦ TIP – make a hash of it ♦ THE WEEK – food of the ancients / cookie redux / Temple & trivia

♦ TIDBITS ♦

Newsy, schmoozy stuff for cooks

♦ Last week we featured lava cakes, a restaurant specialty you could make at home with the Ghirardelli recipe we included. Ready? Here are a lot more thanks to Taste of Home serving up “30 Restaurant Copycat Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes {or Less!}.” Now you can make in your very own kitchen such dining out specialties with recipes for, inspired by as they say, Cheddar Bay biscuits, Culver’s butterburger, KFC Crispy, Olive Garden breadsticks, Orange Julius, Cheese Factory Spicy Cashew Chicken, Shamrock Shake, and lots more.

♦ Tut tut {lorgnette to eyes}. My dear, do you not know the “11 Fine-Dining Etiquette Rules You’ve Probably Broken Your Whole Life.” Some are just plain practical, others I think we may regard as optional. About the napkin, e.g. – long ago a tuxedo-ed server showed me the trick of laying it flat in the lap, then folding the far edge back about a third, providing a handy hand-wiping area that also keeps your dress safe. And then the one about always leaving one bite {hahahahaha}.

Btw, did the writer take this all super seriously? There might be a clue in this intro comment about learning the “few rules of formal dining that you can follow even if you’re hosting in your own home, serving delivery that you are trying to pass off as your own cooking.”

♦ Can you make a fake? Not create a fake food item, but rather know one when you see one. Cooking Light has identified for us seven foods that are on the suspect list for not being what they seem, and then telling us what to look for to distinguish the genuine article from the impostor. It’s all here in “The 7 Most Common Counterfeit Foods and How to Identify Them.”

♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT ♦

Begorrah Decorah

So easy to turn your kitchen into Celebration Central for St Pat’s Day. And that’s whether, as we say in our motto at the end of every Salon in a slightly different context, it’s “for a crew, or for two, or just for you.”

Stores are already overrun with festive possibilities,and of course there’s also always good ol’ Amazon. Shown here a few of the possibilities offered by the latter.

That adorable garland is just $6.99, Prime eligible. This sprightly fabric leprechaun is actually a door hanger, but what a great theme setter for the kitchen or dining room, $29.99, Prime free delivery. Or brighten up the whole scene with these battery-operated four-leaf clover indoor/outdoor string lights, $11.99, Prime free one-day. All images here are clickable.

What else can you find there? Tablecloths and runners, hanging garlands, banners balloons, ornaments, stickers, decals {including leprechaun footprints}, window clings, valance decorations, figurines, wall decor and more including combo packs.

Bring it all to lunch or dinner with paper plates and cups, napkins and flatwear. And how about something Irish to put on those plates? Happy St Pat’s!

All St Pat’s decs ♦ Irish cookbooks ♦ Irish movies

CS Marketplace Directory

Eclectic Mall NEW Now shirts on Zazzle with the “Make America Decent Again” message – shirts and mugs still on SunFrog

♦ FEATURED RECIPE ♦

Red wine braised red cabbage – a Eureka moment in the kitchen

To give credit due, it was a same-named recipe in “The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook,” featured in our 02.14.20 Salon, that started this process. My favorite version was in a cookbook that apparently was swept up in a donation to a culinary instructor.

The one in the Downton book came close to the one I’d had, and inspired a further search. Thank you Taste of Home for providing the simple and similar prep I was looking for.

A ‘fess up though – to bring it even closer to what I recall I tweaked somewhat. Sauteed the onion in a half stick butter. Brown sugar instead of white sugar. Red wine instead of vinegar {thus the title here vs. the name on the recipe}. If it dries out too much while cooking pour in a bit of stock, and if you’d like it a little sweeter increase the sugar or, as I did, add a bit of syrup.

Sooooo happy with this dish. Hope you will be too.

Recipe

♦ TIP ♦

A tasty way to switch out carbs

Thanks to AllRecipes, I found a great remake for hash browns. Now, if I promise there will also be a rich potato version, can you please promise you’ll give this a chance after you read . . . cauliflower.

Their Dec/Jan issue had side by side preps for Keto Cauliflower Hash Browns and Loaded Breakfast Potatoes that were made with regular hash browns. I liked the cauliflower idea but wanted it a little richer like the potato one.

Wait, how about plugging the cauliflower into the potato prep???

Below you’ll find both original recipes. I made the potato one with 2 16 oz bags frozen florets, thawed and blotted, just cutting down the largest ones. I used a cup of cheese in the mix and then another cup for the topping, and also 2 T chopped chives “borrowed” from the cauliflower prep. Pretty good, maybe just a tweak or two needed.

Loaded Breakfast Potatoes {comes up as crack potatoes} ♦ Keto Cauliflower Hash Browns

♦ A PEEK AT MY WEEK ♦

Welcome to my kitchen and living room

♦ Thanks to a friend’s recent excursion followed coincidentally by a Smithsonian article I’ve become familiar with the archaeological/architectural wonder in Jordan known as Petra, site of an ancient and remarkably advanced culture, where up to 30,000 people dwelt among temples, theaters, gardens, tombs, villas, Roman baths, trade routes and marketplaces. The link leads to much more detail.

– Bringing it into CS land, what was on those tables over 2000 year ago? Oxen, sheep, chickens, wheat, grapes, olives, pomegranates, sesame, often starring in great feasts and banquets. And . . . “the king holds many drinking bouts in magnificent style – but no one drinks more than 11 cupfuls.” {!}

♦ Whenever I see a way to salvage otherwise trash-bound food, like to share it with you. What happened is that I was making my butter cookie recipe with the addition of lemon curd, but that changed the timing and so the first batch was underbaked. So, beat them smooth with an egg, a bit of flour, baking soda and peanut oil, dolloped into a skillet and, voila, not bad pancakes.

♦ Let’s play trivia. On a recent episode of The Kitchen, I saw Geoffrey Zakarian made two take-offs on the non-alcoholic beverage known as a Shirley Temple. One was a Dirty Shirley, a cherry flavored gin drink. The other, with a similar flavor profile but no alcohol, he named Don’t Call It Shirley. Here’s the trivia – what movie does this latter one refer to and what is the exact line?

This week’s:

Photo credits – St Pat’s decs-Amazon / all others-mine
Link sources – etiquette-Food & Wine / all St Pat’s items-Amazon / Petra-google
Partnerships – Amazon

Click here or on the Amazon logo to go directly to their home page

So far next week: hearty Irish stews, book found/cookbook found, crochet dinner, Yearwood tops it, bakers bonanza, chewy goodness, chefs’ secret is out, Julia Child’s secret is out, fries with that

Last week, just below: coffee cake a la you, bacon ways, cooks’ source, longevity somewhat unmasked, Ghirardelli chocolate lava cake, interpretive lasagna, biggie foodfest tix, taco tamer, word of the day

Looking for something in CS?

Scroll & check previews OR use the search box OR contact me at bjnosek@gmail.com

Questions, comments?

Use the same email, enter CooksSalon in the subject line – see the Let’s Chat tab for further details

Note

All transactions are solely between the buyer and linked supplier

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you

eb4823

No-bake lemon cheesecake tarts, Aug 2-8, 2019

Posted on 08/02/2019 by bjnosek

Hosted by Barbara J Nosek

& Misty the FoodieCat

CS friends, help yourself to tasty resources!

♦ CatChat – Misty previews this week’s salon ♦

♦ TIDBITS – pizza help duo / begorrah, the winner is . . . / out damned stain ♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT – cookbooks for kids ♦ FEATURED RECIPE – so good, so easy, so refreshing ♦ TIP – one from Ina Garten {and one for her???} ♦ THE WEEK – more Med / ps to scones recipe / ps 2 to scones recipe

Misty’s History ♦ Misty’s Gallery

♦ TIDBITS ♦

Newsy, schmoozy stuff for cooks

♦ Pizza help – x 2! The first, from Food & Wine, is a reheating trick – in a skillet to get a crispy crust which I had heard of, and then the addition of a few drops of water to melty-up the cheese which was new to me. The second, from Well Done, tells you what you can do following that cry of owwwww {or something stronger} when too hot pizza assaults the roof of your mouth.

♦ Lads and lassies, gather around Ireland’s favorite meal, as determined by an IrishCentral poll. Yep, it’s the full Irish breakfast, and hooray the story is replete with recipes for all the contenders. Btw, in the photo for bacon and cabbage you’ll see what you’ll likely be served in an Irish pub when you order bacon, often offered as an entree because it’s like the best ham ever.

♦ Another chance to expand your vocabulary occurs when you or someone else accidentally douses your good stuff with a glass of cab or pinot. Well Done to the rescue with their guide, “How to remove red wine stains from almost anything.” One tip I also heard, fortunately no opportunity yet to test, is to immediately pour white wine on the stain. For any of these probably want to try first on a small area.

♦ CS MARKETPLACE SPOTLIGHT ♦

Kids can cook!

And did you know – there are all kinds of cookbooks for kids. Because of “my kid” Misty I chose ‘Bacon Artist.” Nice recipes for soup, salad, sandwiches and snacks. Bacon Artist: Savory Bacon Recipes (Kids Can Cook!)

The pages also talk about becoming a bacon artist including safety tips, the kinds of bacon, cooking methods, making bacon bits, and of course recipes. Think the one I’ll try first is the bacon cheddar dip.

Amazon has this subject thoroughly covered. There’s a link below filtering the selections by rating but you can also customize by age group, format, condition, Prime and more.

“Bacon Artist” ♦ Other cookbooks for kids ♦ Cookbooks for kids, 4 stars and up

♦ FEATURED RECIPE ♦

Tart lemon, sweet cheesecake

A Tasting Panel Selection

I have to give primary credit to AllRecipes because the cheesecake layer is totally theirs. It was actually for a regular full size cheesecake with cherry pie topping. Their readers gave it 4 1/2 stars.

For our version, we spooned the creamy mix into store-bought graham cracker tart shells and then topped it with out of the jar lemon curd. You could certainly also add a dollop of whipped cream.

So, what makes this cheesecake so rich and creamy? Could it be full the pint of heavy whipping cream??? Whether tart or full cake, this is the only recipe I’ll use from now on.

AllRecipes cheesecake

♦ TIP ♦

What a good idea

And so obvious have to wonder if I’m the only cook/baker that hasn’t thought of it. Thanks to Ina Garten for this one.

Watching her “Barefoot Contessa” show on Food Network, where she was making meringues which in turn went onto parchment paper. She wanted them to be a particular diameter and so marked the dimensions on the underside of the paper with a pencil. Voila, instant guide.

And then in a moment of spectacular immodesty, wondered if I could give her a tip{!} For the next dish, filled acorn squash, she talked about how hard it is to cut this veggie in half. With a knife Attila could have taken into battle she sliced into one of the grooves and then banged the whole works on the board till it fell in two. Ummm, what I actually do before backing is pierce the squash in a few places, nuke it for about three minutes, and watch a regular knife go through it like butter. 😉

Ina Garten cookbooks on Amazon ♦ “Barefoot Contessa” on DVD ♦ On Prime Video

♦ A PEEK AT MY WEEK ♦

Welcome to my kitchen and living room

♦ As a followup to my mention in the 07.19.19 Salon of the “The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook,” I’ve now found further encouragement with a Clean Plates post identifying “The Best Products You Can Buy for a Mediterranean Diet” – just in case you’d like to try some of this too.

♦ A ps to the scones prep we posted on our Recipe Page in conjunction with the food pen design for St. Pat’s Day in the 07.26.19 Salon. The original comes from the AllRecipes site which you can see here. It actually called for cranberries and walnuts rather than dates and pecans. the latter a nod to my mom’s awesome bread. Also I adjusted the recipe somewhat after reading some suggestions in the comments, and then adjusted it a bit further after our Tasting Panel session.

♦ Fair warning that my final version leans more toward moist than crumbly and just as noted in some of the comments this can make the step of cutting the dough into separate triangles a bit of a challenge. Two things I think I’ll try for future times, one is to deeply score the whole round of dough and then finish cutting through after baking, and the other is to use a biscuit cutter instead as shown in this joyofbaking demo. It’s certainly worth the effort because these are really good, and even the original, despite some issues posted on the page, rates 4 1/2 stars.

So far next week: dare to air, kitchen storage trick, weird upgrade for weird sammie, egg salad in love, Martha’s slow cooker recipe

Last week, just below: Play with your food! Draw colorful designs right on holiday classic fare, year ’round fun

Direct access to Amazon homepage through my personal link

Looking for something in CS? – scroll and check Misty’s previews OR enter the item in the search box OR email me at bjnosek@gmail.com

Note, transactions are solely between the buyer and linked supplier

Photo credits – book/Amazon, all others/mine

CooksSalon.com

Cookbooking, Recipes, Tips, News & Interviews

Tag Archives: AllRecipes

Shrimp Fra Diavolo, June 26-July 2, 2020

Rich and creamy {& famous} clam chowder, April 10-April 16, 2020

Red-wine braised red cabbage, Feb 28-March 5, 2020

No-bake lemon cheesecake tarts, Aug 2-8, 2019

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you