I tried it, and by gum, it works.

That's the 5th sentence of my 23rd post: the 23.5 meme, brought to you by Sylvia, my blogodoppelgänger. My 23rd post was about raw cookie dough, and the thing that works (by gum!) is substituting soy flour for eggs.

This is entirely apropos of this totally stupid book I'm reading right now, French Women Don't Get Fat. Like I'm really gonna whip up an asparagus flan or a celery root rémoulade to serve my kids for dinner. Like I'm really gonna start sitting down to eat breakfast. You know, breakfast on fine china with a fresh white linen napkin. I haven't eaten breakfast sitting down in years.

Actually, the book's premise makes a lot of sense. Eat delicious, fresh, flavorful, homemade food. Whatever you want. You won't mind the smaller portions because the food tastes so interesting. You'll be satisfied with less.

But the book is totally annoying. Not just because it prescribes a totally unrealistic lifestyle (at least, for me) but because of the way it's written. For one thing, it's unnecessarily full of French phrases, such as: "I still needed to me remuer (move my butt)." What's the point of that? To remind us she's French? The whole book is about French women. We already know she's French.

Which brings me to my second criticism. Apparently all French women are alike. And all French women are incredible. Did you know that "[j]ust as French women have an uncanny knack for using the same scarf to create a different effect by draping it over the head, neck, shoulders, or waist, in the kitchen they master a few basic preparations and leave the rest to improvisation . . . " Yadda, yadda. Or how about this? "French women live on budgets, too, but they also understand the value of quality over quantity." Well, excuuuuuuuuse me!

Think I'll go whip up a batch of cookie dough.