Ain't she pretty? And handmade, therefore inherently a little quirky and imperfect (which is why it was necessary to order early, because if the counters are set first and the sink is a little off, the counters have to be redone. Which is Not Good.)

Of course, I'm getting one of these for the first time in my adult life (seriously - five apartments and two houses and no dishwasher ANYWHERE). (Did you go to the link? Who knew Wikipedia had such a sense of humor? CLEANING dishes and EATING utensils. Get it? It's like if the Dryer page said "drying clothes and eating socks." Nevermind. Maybe I'm especially punchy today... )

I may have mentioned before that I'm not a huge fan of cake (I KNOW, right?), so for my birthday I'm making myself a grasshopper pie, which is what I always requested from my mother instead of a cake. My brothers and I were allowed to have anything we wanted for our birthday dinners, and our favorite sort of dessert. Every year, without fail, I asked for homemade fried chicken, steamed artichokes, and grasshopper pie. (I never claimed to be a normal child...)

I'm compiling a cookbook of the very best recipes ever, and I've narrowed it down to two grasshopper pie recipes that will be competing for inclusion. May the best pie win. (Neither of my recipes, by the way, has Oreo cookies or marshmallows. Blech.)