1. I am very, very, very, very, very happy with this year's winner of TOP CHEF.

2. Which reminds me, the other night for dinner I attempted to recreate Lisa's infamous peanut butter mashed potatoes (and no, that's not a spoiler, just go watch). What I did: peeled and boiled maybe six or seven regular baking potatoes (medium sized). Drained and put them back in the pan. Added 2 T butter and about a quarter cup of regular Skippy (I did not do precise measurements, as you can see). Added coconut milk and mashed them with a hand masher. I think we added more peanut butter and more coconut milk - it ended up being half a can and I froze the rest for later. I had boiled the potatoes in salted water but added a bit more salt to the final product. OH MY GOD. So good. Went perfectly with a top round London Broil and petite green beans. [Note: obviously this is not a low-fat side dish, and not something I would make weekly, but it was a fun, yummy experiment and I highly recommend trying it out at least once.]

3. Yesterday, my new pedal extenders came in the mail. Huh? you say. See, here's the deal - I'm short. REALLY short. Like barely 5'2". What's worse is that I have supershort legs. (FACT: in middle school, Cindy Joseph and I were the same height, and her legs were three inches longer. I'm not even exaggerating.) So, even in my cute little Saturn, I always am sitting right on top of the steering wheel - just so my feet can reach the pedals. And I tend to wear out the rubber on my brake pedal, so it gets slippery, and then I have to sit even closer. Well, obviously this is not good, and Joe and I started doing research and found out that they make pedal extenders that bolt onto your pedals (approved by traffic officials and everything) and it lengthens your pedal by 2 to 4 inches, which means you can sit the regulated 18" away from the steering wheel. Squee! Apparently there are a lot of cars made in this decade that have automatically extending power pedals, but the Saturn is from 1998 and I don't see me getting a fancy pants new car any time soon. So, extenders it is. I haven't tried them out yet but definitely will this weekend.

4. We no longer have an AQUA TEEN lawn. In the front, anyway. The back yard ... well, let's just say I'm glad it's in the back.

5. Today I made a mental list of all of my good friends that I haven't talked to in a while and I needed two hands. I have no idea WHY I've been out of touch, or why they've been out of touch, but as soon as I finish going over the copyedits on STELLA I plan to rectify the situation.

Last night, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made Rachael Ray's Corned Beef and Cabbage Stoup and Spotted Dog, a traditional Irish soda bread. I also picked up a pack of Oh Ryan's Irish Potatoes candy (though at my store, they were only $3.25 a box). Next up: baking pies for a Saturday Easter Dinner with Joe's family. I looked for a traditional Easter dessert, but the ingredients were getting pricey so I'm going with two tried-and-true recipes - Coconut Buttermilk Pie and Chocolate Chess Pie. For those of you who bake, this is the key to affordable buttermilk that won't get wasted because a recipe calls for a cup instead of a whole quart. I swear you can't taste the difference from the real stuff.

On a completely unrelated note, I AM THE WORLD'S SUCKIEST CORRESPONDENT. I have 101 unanswered e-mails in my zeisgeist inbox, to start with - and I haven't checked two other major accounts in days. Not to mention that I can't remember the last time I answered Lola's e-mail. It's been on my to-do list forever, but I'm in this mood where answering e-mail seems about as much fun as pulling tax receipts (which is something I actually did do last week, thankfully). I'll get to them soon, I swears it.

Finally, the world might be coming to an end: today I found myself nodding in agreement when THE VIEW's Elizabeth Hasselbeck made her case for why Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is extremely disturbing. I, like, NEVER agree with Elizabeth - but this time I think she nailed it on the head.

Type "meatloaf recipe" into Google and you get 220,000 hits. Apparently, everyone's got an opinion on what makes a great meatloaf. I've just spent the last 40 minutes sorting through more recipes than I care to count.

So, I pose the question to you: what's YOUR favorite meatloaf recipe?

Fire away!