Maggie dressed up a bit for Daddy’s birthday today. A friend gave us a little container full of baby hair fasteners. Apparently these little barrettes can cling pretty tenaciously even to three hairs, because she’s been wearing it all day. She also cut her first tooth for the occasion. Her signature “happy puppy tongue” makes it tough to get a picture, but trust me, it’s there!

You’ll notice I haven’t included pictures of Sam today. I kept him busy this morning with finger paints while I worked on Austin’s ice cream cake (a recipe from this month’s RealSimple - It uses ice cream sandwiches and takes about ten minutes!). Then I gave him half (too much!) of an ice cream sandwich. Wild under the influence of a sugar-high, he fell on a chair in his room and bonked his forehead. So if I had taken a picture of him today you would have seen: chocolate stuck to his shirt and the corners of his mouth, purple and green streaks in his hair (yes, he put the finger paint in his hair), and a red lump in the middle of his forehead. Seems about right for a 2-year-old boy in the summer.

It seems you can be a bad cook with no time, but if you have money, you can afford good quality convenience foods. You can lack money and talent, but have enough time to work through it. Or let’s say you’re short on money and time. If you’re a talented cook, you can come up with something creative and original that saves time and money.

But what if you’re short all three? I’m not saying this is me, but let’s just say hypothetically that I know someone who has no money, no time, and no talent in the kitchen. Got any recipes she might like that don’t include expensive cuts of meat or pricey ingredients, don’t take a lot of prep time, and are suitable for someone who can barely even pronounce “culinary?”

Please?