Bob, looks so at home in the chair, very king of the junglish (is that a word, no I didn't think so either). And you coordinated the yarn with the chair -- very cool. You may need to get another chair, he seems to like it.

So what happened Sunday?

mmmm..tater tots.

I hope the second pic was taken before you started eating, because really..tater tots without ketchup...so wrong.

umm, yes I am looking at every little detail in the pictures. very bored + hate my job=obsessive blog reading

I am very jealous - we do not have Ikea here. When I come to visit you(Oh, yes, one day I will finally stop talking about it and actually do it) we must go to Ikea. I love tater tots, but being as Southern as I am I dip them in a mixture of Mayo and Ketchup. I cooked Enchiladas yesterday, and like always I made way too much. We will be eating enchiladas for a week.

Reminds me of the dinner party Bridget Jones throws for her friends.

Ikea tax free weekends are awesome! I've spent several Saturdays fighting the crowds at the Ikea Seattle (why does everyone else have the bright idea I do of going to Ikea during the tax free time?). Love your blog, Crazy Aunt Purl. I've been reading for a couple of weeks now.

Bob looks very comfy; you may have unintentionally surrendered sitting rights in the new chair! I made it to Stitch Cafe for the weekend sale - can we say Silk Garden at 20% off?? I hope you liked Unwind. I'm there at least once a week to hang out and knit; maybe we'll run into one another there.

you'll be glad to know that my mom thinks 4 o'clock IS cocktail hour.

Also that chair is a cat bed. It looks like the boss says so. Remember: Dogs have owners. Cats have staff. But obviously you are good staff. You have provided a very nice looking cat bed and got it on sale and all.

I think you ought to try the brisket again. As long as you can remember to put it on before the shopping. Brisket would go well with tater tots and is also one of those great foods which cooks well in beer. Or aren't you the kind of girl who has beer in the fridge?

I just want to know why you never bought a bunch of cheap hot dogs at Ikea.Where do you think I take the kids when I don't want to cook?lol

Beats the jar of pickled beets and Diet Coke I had many a Saturday night!!

I had to laugh.. your dinner plans are what happens to me just about every night! I love your blog and your sense of humor!

I can build a Billy in five minutes. Seriously. Sometimes I feel like my Billy walls are closing in on me.

Green Bean Casserole. Mmmm. I'm thinking you're using Cream of Mushroom soup. I had an old boyfriend who's mom used Golden Mushroom Soup. It was an interesting twist. I also see you're generous with your French's onions. Very, very nice.

Hey Laurie, Saturday night I cooked feta & mushroom stuffed chicken breasts, warm green bean & argentina pear salad, and caramelized heirloom tomatoes topped with parmesan cheese. Served it up with a bottle of $12 shiraz. You were invited, didn't you get the invitation?

OK, so for the last few times we have not eaten the standard American meat-veggie-starch combo, but the very tasty meals I have consumed at your house include:
- A wonderful shrimp linguini in sun-dried tomato pepper sauce
- Steak, mmm, steak
- Shish kabobs
- Lasagna
- And many, many more!

is it wrong that I now plan to eat green bean casserole and Stovetop stuffing (probably mixed together) for dinner tonight? And here I thought I was going to have to resort to takeout.

That chair matches Bob's coloring perfectly. Ikea causes fights b/t me and the husband. Probably b/c he sucks at assembling it.

Silly woman - Ikea Burbank is ALWAYS packed and tater tots are totally yummy. You should call them something French when serving to your guests, though, like petits pommes de terre.

I don't see nothin' wrong with some tater tots and green bean cassarole! I can eat my weight in green bean cassarole. (Don't ask how I know that.)

You mean 4 o'clock ISN'T cocktail hour?? Shit.
My favorite meal, really, is tater tot hot dish. Hamburger, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, diced onion, and tater tots. The original version had dried onion flakes, but my inner chef is out and I chop a real onion. Yum.

Aw shit. My whole life I've been saying "Hell it's noon somewhere!" And it turns out that five (PM I PRESUME?????) is the proper time for drinking. Explains both the weird looks I sometimes get and the friends I've made who say "I like her." in response to my declaration.

I used to make dinner every night for my ungrateful butthole of an ex-husband and then promptly forgot how to work the hot thing upon signing divorce papers. It's taken me 10 yrs to get any semblance of it back. But I still don't like to get more than 2 burners going or I kind of freak out and f*ck the whole thing up. L.A. is great that way, though-there's always somewhere you can eat if you WHOOPS forget to plan ahead for cooking. I know because it happens to me. A lot.

I eat horse poop and consider it a treat - tator tots and green beens are absolutely exotic!

Cabling without a cable needle is so fantabulous; if you haven't tried it yet you're going to be madly in love. Okay, well, maybe not, but you're gonna really, really like it. :)

Gorgeous chair! I love IKEA, but hate the lines. You were quite brave to show up there on a tax free weekend. ;-)

In London, when they had an Ikea sale event, people were trampled in the crush.

I really like your cat's feet.

I remember discovering the things I could do again after my divorce. It was great! Go find a Amish cookbook though. That's my secret. Great, very yummy recipies, that are super easy. Even leaving time to go suntan while preparing dinner. The chair, yarn, and Bob look great!

First off I love green bean casserole and tator tots, so your dinner looked good to me. That being said, best advice for cooking get a good basic cookbook, such as Better HOmes and Garden it's my cooking Bible. Also go for simple, simple and elegant, like take a whole chicken stuff the inside with cut lemons and garlic, stick it in the oven roast it (according to times in Better Homes & Garden cookbook), steam a veggie like asparagus, heat some dinner rolls purchased at grocery store, and walla a fabulous meal that's cheap and easy to cook. Or serve it with tater tots and green bean casserole.

Or even better advice memorize phone numbers for pizza delivery.

In the last few years, I've learned that wok cooking is actually fast, easy, and produces superfancy-looking results. But my all-time favorite recipe is still my mom's tuna casserole - pasta, cream of mushroom soup, canned tuna, canned peas, baked with breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.

Mmmm...it's a little mountain of trailer park heaven on a plate.

Does your friend Bob have extra toes? The fantastic "extended paw" picture sure looks like it.

Do you have a grill? You could grill anything: veggies, fish, shrimp, fruit. Your guests will be astounded-and no pans to clean! Trailer park people grill, but only burgers and beercan chicken, so you will be safe either way.

Isn't it amazing how many cool things you can make out of Campbell's Cream of Something soup??

Thanks for the cooking advice and recipes, ya'll. I'm sort of hopeless in the kitchen. But that doesn't stop me. And yes, Bob has the cutest toes EVER! I have to take a pic of the bottom of his feet. They are so perfect and cute you want to eat him up. He has the normal number of toes, they're just REALLY BIG. Like him. RAWR.

i would so be your friend if you made tater tots and green bean casserole- two of my favorite foods. and sorry about your horrible bus experiences. that sucks big time and i hate when people are mean to service workers just because something goes wrong that is beyond their control. no one wants to get stuck on the 5 with a burning bus. no one. glad you made it out alive.

Hi! I love your blog. Because I'm a total knitting nerd and kind of a noodge, I'm going to ask you please please pretty please to put up a picture of that chair unobfuscated by Handsome Orange Cat? Because I have this feeling that a wonderful Fair Isle pattern is lurking behind his feline opacity.

Hi! I just discovered your blog (through knitty.com), and after reading about the BUS ON FIRE I had to keep going for a bit. You know, I have two or three recipies that look ultra spiffy but in fact are super easy and whippy (seriously -- eight year olds could whip them). Oh, and they taste really good, too. Especially the crawfish tortellini (although the other recipies have no Exotic To Locations That Are Not Louisiana - type ingredients). If you ever want recipies from a loopy stranger on the Internets just let me know, and they are all yours. :)

Love Bob -- Love the chair