meet alice

Meet Saucy's new BFF, her new constant companion. Alice is a Manhattan Cruiser who hails Rancho Dominguez, California. She wears the fashionable colour combination of baby blue and brown. She resides for now in Saucy's porch:

If her bell is like her voice, then she sounds as happy as a lark!

Her pinstripe detail is as precise as cat's-eye liner on the lid of a go-go dancer's eye.

She wears her name emblazoned on her chest like a fashionable tee shirt.

Her seat is wide and heavy. She's got a lot of junk in the trunk but she likes it that way.

She has a fondness for tattoos, sporting ink and design in expected places...

... and unexpected places. What a naughty, naughty girl she is!

Her whitewall tires are like wearing white shoes after Labour Day but they will never hit the pavement on a day that's less than sunny from Victoria Day onwards. She's a fairweather friend that way.

Her basket pops out and makes way in its wire frame for Saucy's Ralph Lauren summer beach tote! It's a perfect fit. She's already borrowing Saucy's stuff.

That day that Saucy has dreamed of her entire life... the one where she wears a floppy hat and a pair of jean shorts and pedals to the market for fresh milk and flowers on a sunny weekend morning?

That day is just around the corner.

Alice told her so yesterday.

Not only was it Saucy's birthday yesterday, it was also Phil's... he's Saucy's kitchen design guy. He said he wasn't a cupcake sort of guy. He's an oatmeal raisin cookie sort of guy. Saucy took him up on that.

Phil's Birthday Buddy Cookies

1 and 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

Whisk together oats, flour, raisins, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In stand mixer, beat butter and sugars. Add egg and beat until fluffy. Mix in vanilla.

Add dry ingredients gradually to butter mixture, beating only until just blended.

Drop from tablespoons onto baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees 12-15 minutes, until nicely browned.