(Enter Laura) This week we tried a new recipe from our new magazine subscription to Cuisine At Home. I really got hooked on the first trial issue Cuisine sent us. Now these are not "healthy" recipes but they sure taste wonderful! Our first meal was Argentinian Flank Steak- it was amazing with Fontina cheese, grape tomatoes and steak- Mark said that this was definately his favorite meal (even toping his spegetti and chicken parmasan recipe- I never thought that would happen). To add to our creation, we had pan baked garlic potatoes- they were so much better than french fries (and I like to think healthier). Mark also cooked a lovely pork stir-fry- this time we used half of the cabbage and were very happy with our creation! To top these meals off, I froze some dinner rolls (an idea from Mike and Yolanda's dinner party) that we ate all week long. It was easier than I thought 1. make a recipe of milk bread (my fav) and let rise once 2. push down the dough and divide into golf ball sized pieces, putting them in a zipper freezer bags and into the freezer. To use- 1. just remove the number you need and put them on a plate and microwave on high for 30-45 seconds 2. let rise for 20-30 minutes then pop in the toaster oven at 400 for 15 minutes- enjoy!

(Back to Mark) This weekend, I finished making a piecepack set. A piecepack is like a deck of cards, but for board games; there are four suits, each a different color, which have tiles, pawns, coins and dice with them. There are about 150 games so far up at the piecepack website and the piecepack wiki that we'll now be able to play. It's also a ready and willing source of playtesters if I design any games for this system. Right now, I'm working on translating a solitare puzzle called Cell Management to use the piecepack and hope to have some more designs soon. If you playtest it, please let me know how it goes, thanks!