I'm in love with Evan Kleinman and her beet gnocchi.

Yesterday at the KCRW fundraiser dinner a woman turned to me and said bitterly, "I'm so annoyed about dating guys who don't eat this or don't eat that. Evan needs to put together a dating site for Good Food listeners or like KCRW listeners. I don't want to end up with someone who doesn't eat mushrooms and beets and cheese and listens to like Mariah Carey."

"You dated someone who listens to Mariah Carey?" I asked incredulously.

"No, I'm just saying," she said. I nodded, empathizing, but of course not really, and meanwhile, sipped my prickly pear margarita and took bites of butternut squash lasagne and potato-tomatillo tacos and squash flower blossom quesadillas and looked around, at all the aged hippies who all seemed to know one another and actually really care. Not to say that I don't care, of course I do, I was there. But I felt sheepish; I had donated strategically, during a giveaway. I always do. And I always donate during Good Food so that I get invited to a dinner. I don't give purely out of the goodness of my heart. I kind of want a meal prepared by Evan Kleinman and I kind of harbor a fantasy of being friends with her and getting invited to her house for dinner and like sipping Friulian Tocai and talking to her about her show.

So, fine. I'm not completely altruistic. But, God, that beet gnocchi. Possibly one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten.