Handsome Chef Boyfriend arrived last night, which could mean only one thing: bad puns and good eatin’. (Okay, two things.) In the daily morning call we decided on homemade pizza for dinner. Get whatever you want for toppings, he said. My mom used to ask me if I had a hankerin’ for something when I was hovering over her in the kitchen. Yesterday at the store it was red onion, carmelized.

I managed to capture HCB in  a slightly less blurry moment; he does not like me jamming the camera all up in his business while he is working and won’t slow down for love or money. (Well, maybe for love. Or possibly money.) You can also see the manly burn scars on his forearm in this photo–a sure sign of working around hot ovens. Anyway, it is jolly good of him to still want to make dinner after a long day of being on his feet in a commercial kitchen and a couple hours in the car. We made dinner together last night.

And because you will ask, here goes.

What I did not spend much money on:

• Store brand red sauce
• Black olives in a can
• Store brand Parmesan
• Dough (HCB made)
• Red onion
• Poblano pepper, which left me with spectacular burns on my right hand: a story for another day

What I spent a little money on (but not much):

• Store brand Soppresatta
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Artichoke hearts
• Goat cheese

Living small and well in the company of HCB. And possibly the best perk of dating a chef is pinching his ass while he cooks.