Too much Greg lately!

Greg ate this and Greg made that. Greg goes here and Greg went there... ho frickin' HUM!

You heard me; I am taking a back seat to the food today.

Sure I'm gonna make the food and I'm gonna eat the food. But that's where the ME stops and HE begins. Because today I have two recipes and they both come from Bobby Flay. Word for word. Step by step. It's all him. I did not adapt I was not inspired by. Heck I did not even improvise today. Not even one tiny bit. I thought about it once or twice. But, nope. I held my resolve. I stuck to my guns, 'cuz I am having a Flay Day!

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloins with Lemon Glazed Sweet Potatoes. Okay! Now you see why I am so superfluous to the editorial content.

But just so you get the idea about how good this meal was let me say this much, and then I'll shut up. Because IF this post were about me I would say that this is MY kind of meal. It's pork on pork with a wallop of roasted garlic and a big zing of lemon. Talk about food porn. Just thinking about it gets me all bothered. But we are not here to discuss me today. Tempting as that may be.

• Brenda Jensen
• Hidden Hills Creamery
• Westby, Wisconsin
• www.hiddenspringscreamery.com

Dear Brenda,

Thank you so much for supplying the cheese for my recent FoodBuzz 24-24-24 challenge featuring a meal Tyler Florence showed us how to make when I was at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival. I made Roasted Lamb with Sheep's Milk Ricotta Gnocchi, Morel Mushrooms & Pea Tendrils. The gnocchi from your cheese was the star of the plate!

Tyler taught me how to make light and fluffy ricotta gnocchi. Finally learning the secret to pillowy gnocchi was a very exciting event in my life. According to Tyler the key to success is quality ingredients. He particularly gushed about the superiority of sheep's milk ricotta in this preparation. There is something about the butterfat content that just makes it very wonderful to work with. Of course this same butterfat makes it best to work the dough very cold, something else I learned that day.

But for me it's that special tang that makes sheep's milk ricotta such an enticing product. But, as you must know, sheep's milk ricotta is difficult to come by– even in Los Angeles where everything seems to be at hand. Fortunately you came to my rescue.

I know you like fried calamari. I flat out know you do. You can pretend like you don't all you want, but I know deep inside you like it. You can even put that pained and squeamish look on your face and then try to tell me that squid is just not your "cup of tea" (so to speak). But I know you'd just be saying that just to get me all riled up.

That's because you like fried calamari. I flat out know you do.

Armed with that knowledge I feel it's quite alright to play against your expectations with this dish. Maybe even break a few rules. Maybe even include a spicy chipotle citrus dipping sauce with your calamari when you aren't looking. Scandalous!

I know what you're thinking. It's just not done... and it's true I'd be the first one to join the argument that says fried calamari is best hot, salty and simply adorned with lots of lemon. It's a winning argument. There is a whole lot of truth in it. But you hear that squelch? That's me bending the truth once again!

Because I am here to say that (sometimes), it's quite alright to go against even the plainest of truths. That's just what I have in mind. So get ready to have your culinary foundation rocked. Because truths, they are 'a tumblin' down.