JSw, took company coming in a few hours on Sunday to get me to do that. And today? Well I am skating on Sunday's progress... Except for the laundry, that is in and happily getting clean.

Oh, I got a haircut too, which I have needed for weeks. I must be ... leaving tomorrow to drive to Michigan and visit Buffistas. Doh! I need to pack too.

(Love your tag too...)

The Daily Show is totally my comfort zone these days. That Barbara Walters clip (So, Mister President, shall we begin the torture?") knocked me off the couch.

Hil, for me it means coma and death. Even scant will kill me.

For you, it means "you may have some left over but have that amount there just in case and don't add any extra or you'll weight the thing down."

Or that's how I usually take it.

Scant means don't pack 'em in, and don't let the cups heap. Basically, "1 1/2 cups at most."

Oh! If I can ask a quick cooking question:

I really want to make pasta. My marinara sauce has a whole universe of Lutherans in the jar, unfortunately.

Can I just chop up a tomato and throw it in a pan with olive oil and garlic and basil? Will that work to toss on top of pasta? It seems like it would, but I've never made sauce from a raw tomato (as opposed to canned crushed tomatoes).

"Scant" means "just barely." So don't fill the 1/2 cup full to the brim, and don't pack the almonds down.

Can I just chop up a tomato and throw it in a pan with olive oil and garlic and basil? Will that work to toss on top of pasta? It seems like it would, but I've never made sauce from a raw tomato (as opposed to canned crushed tomatoes).

I've done that, and it's turned out just fine.

Wow, teppy, that sounds good to me.

I'm currently eating fresh guacamole with my tacos AIFG.

Thanks.

OK, now that I've actually read the recipe, you're supposed to grind the almonds and 1/4 cup of sugar in a food processor to make a paste, and then use 1 1/2 cups of that paste. Which would seem to me to mean that you'd have to measure out a bit more than 1 1/2 cups of almonds, because a lot of that measuring cup space would be air space between the almonds, right? But maybe air gets beaten into the paste, or something. (And I'm just reading the recipe for a "maybe I'll try this sometime later," so this is entirely theoretical right now.)

Can I just chop up a tomato and throw it in a pan with olive oil and garlic and basil? Will that work to toss on top of pasta?

Yes. If you have time, roasting the tomato first (cut in half, place cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt pepper and olive oil, bake at 350-400 until soft and squooshy and a little browned, about 30-45 minutes) will concentrate the flavors and make for a richer-tasting sauce.

What Jess said, about the tomato-roasting. It's yummy.