I like chicken liver. Most (white) people I know think it's kinda gross, but i just love the velvety texture and the rich iron-y flavor. Mmm... (Hey, I tend towards anaemia.) Most Thai people seem to agree with me, because chicken liver here costs about as much as chicken breast, as far as I can tell. It's not a throwaway meat.

So my cousin mentioned a tasty dish involving chicken liver. It's a lot like something my mom used to make with pork or chicken and slivers of black mushrooms, so rest assured that if you don't like liver you can put something else in. But the liver made this childhood favorite a new and intersting experience for me. No one ever gave me a recipe, so I am guessing based on how I remember it tasting and the kinds of ingredients that I know my mom likes to keep around the kitchen.

Ingredients:

• half a medium onion (I think shallots would also do nicely)
  
• three cloves of garlic
  
• three thai chiles (on a five-star spiciness scale, this will give you about a two. There's room for more.)
  
• a chunk of ginger (like, maybe 1.5 inches cubed)
  
• a fistful of thai basil (the kind with purple stems)
  
• one chicken breast
  
• 3-4 chicken livers
  
• a splash of oyster sauce
  
• one teaspoon of that salty preserved soybeans in a jar stuff that you can totally find at asian grocery stores. (unless you're in asia, then you just find it at the grocery store.)

Toss some vegetable oil in a hot wok. The heat should be medium-high, or at least, my gas stove really only does high, medium-high, and off, so I work with that. While that's getting a het up, cut up the garlic very fine, and the onion into slices. Cut the peppers into thin, oblique slices, with that nice diagonal angle. They look pretty that way. And you can pick them out if you want in those bigger pieces. Throw that in, stir, and start cutting up the meat and liver. Toss that in and stir around.

Then you want to get very fine julienned slivers of ginger. Toss in that oyster sauce and soybean stuff, then the ginger. Stir things around for a couple minutes. At this point, if you turned on the rice cooker right before you got started, the rice should be nearly ready.

Turn off the heat. Toss in that handful of basil and stir it around till it's a bit wilted. You will have a pile of brown food that doesn't look like much, but tastes damn good.

Adding green bean or black mushrooms (you know? the kind that's kinda floppy till you bite down and then they're crunchy? I'm not sure if I'm calling them by the correct name.) Don't eat this too much, or you'll catch the gout.

First off, ck's shakshuka* recipe over at jewlicious is widely proclaimed to be the most authentic in all the internets, so definitely check that out first. I didn't follow it exactly because I was making it for breakfast, and it's dangerous for me to go out to public places like the grocery store before I've had my coffee, but I think I stayed in the spirit of the recipe. I make no claims to authenticity, only tastiness. I actually suspect the original author might have a fit over the fact that I cooked this all in a wok.

I used:

6-7 whole smallish tomatoes, cut into quarters
a small splash of some italian tomato purée that i found in the fridge, to thicken it.
3 thai chilies, cut up real small
some fire-roasted bell pepper, cut into small chunks
4 cloves of garlic, chopped but not too squooshed

I let this all cook until the constituent parts became impossible to identify and it became a red, spicy-smelling stew. Then I added some paprika and olive oil, and a little later salt. (best to add salt late, i think.)

Then I let it cook, covered, till it looked about the right consistency. Then I made some wells with the back of the spoon and broke 4 eggs into it. Note: it takes a while for the whites to look cooked enough, but it goes from almost-cooked-enough to hard yolks very quickly.

This needs to be served in a bowl. And you need some bread to sop up the tomatoey goodness.

* shakshuka, shakshouka, chakchouka, shaksuka, etc...

I really hate the Thai Kitchen brand of curries. They are everywhere, and not tasty. Better, and usually findable at stores like 99 Ranch, is Maesri curry, the only one I have ever found to make an acceptable Massamun curry.

But over the summer I had this truly transcendant green curry. I mean, like no green curry I've ever tasted. I think my aunt had slipped some cardamom into her mix. There is good canned curry, which will get you better Thai curry than you'll usually get at a restaurant if you do it right. But to have a religious experience with curry you have to make your own.

I went looking for recipes and to my surprise Epicurious had one that didn't look too bad. (I always thought of them as a little white.) So compiled from several different sources, I put together recipes for red and green curries.

Red curry: from epicurious, recipezaar, and temple of thai.

20 dried chilies
4 tsp coriander
2 stalks lemongrass
1 tsp peppercorns
4 tsp galangal
2 tsp chopped kaffir lime leaves or grated lime rind
2 tbsp coriander root or cilantro stems
6 tbsp chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped garlic
15-20 red fresh chilis
2 tsp gapi (shrimp paste)
salt or fish sauce.

green curry: from bbc recipes and syvum.com

30 green chilis
2 tsp whole peppercorns (white would be good, I had black)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cardamom <-- not in any of the recipes online but I suspected it was in my aunt's
2 tbsp coriander
1 cup shallots
2 tbsp garlic
2 tbsp coriander root or cilantro stems
1 tbsp galangal
about the same amount, maybe a little less of ginger
2 tbsp (about one stalk) lemongrass
1 tbsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp lime rind or kaffir lime leaves

It's pretty straightforward, but time-consuming. For the dry spices you want to get them whole and toast them in a pan. For the rest, chop it up real good. Then grind it all in small batches in a mortar and pestle. Or, if you're less dumb than me, use a food processor, but then you may have to add a bit of liquid.

I didn't find shrimp paste at 99 ranch, probably not because they didn't have it but because it's sometimes hard to find something in all the abundance. But I did have dried shrimp, so I rehydrated them and crushed them with some fish sauce. I kept all that separate from the rest because I have a vegetarian roommate, so I froze that separately in individual doses, to be added to curries she's not eating.

The spices used in each curry are pretty similar, but the ratios are different, which I think may be just a peculiarity of my recipe sources. I actually liked the green curry quite a bit better... I don't like having too much spice relative to the other flavors. Don't get me wrong, I like my curry spicy, but I want those other flavors too. If I want spicy I can use a lot rather than a little curry... I'm not going for spice efficiency here. So next time when I do the red curry I'll probably use a spice ratio similar to what I used for the green.

And here's what I made:

gaeng khiew wan poo (green curry crab... yum!)
4 soft shell crabs
a bunch of thai eggplants. like, maybe 6 or so. if you can't get those, then try to find some of those cute round ones at the hippy grocery store, or the japanese eggplants. The big dark purple ones are a last resort.
some chopped onion.
maybe some baby corn, though i didn't use it this time.

green curry
coconut milk

start by deep frying the crabs. They react violently with the hot oil. watch out.

set the crabs aside and sautée the onions in sesame oil. then toss in the eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces. cut each of the crabs in half and throw those in . stir in a heaping tablespoon of green curry.
then a splash of coconut milk, but not much. like 1/4 of a can or less. This is not a soupy curry, it should be thick and mostly clinging to the food chunks. and a nice, dark, green-brown.

Soft-shell crab is expensive true, so this recipe would really work nicely with most any seafood. Green curry is particularly tasty with seafood (whereas I think red goes better with land based meat).

By far my favorite way to eat white fish is steamed with a nice ginger scallion sauce. It's simple, subtle, well-balanced and elegant. Mmmmm. But I always have trouble convincing others to go in on the whole ginger-scallion fish (or better yet, crab!) at chinese restaurants because they just. don't. understand. how glorious it is. But also, it's not hard to make yourself.

Start with some flaky white fish. I used a humble red snapper because that's what was available, though I imagine a higher-end grouper or chilean sea bass would be even better. I steamed it in a bamboo steamer above a wok, with a circle of parchment paper beneath the fish to keep it from sticking. I didn't pay close attention to the time, but I think 10 minutes or so would be adequate. Personally, I like my fish a little rare and this time I overcooked it (to my taste).

The sauce:
Leftover chardonnay poured into a hot pan.
A big diced up chunk of ginger, and 3-4 thinly sliced scallions go in the liquid.
About a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken.
Half a teaspoon, maybe even less, of garlic black bean sauce.
A couple teaspoons of sugar, because the wine gets a little sour.

This was shockingly easy to prepare adequately. However, I have not mastered the perfect subtlety and minimalism that this dish can achieve at its best. Next time I'll try water or fish stock instead of wine and no black bean sauce or sugar and the very best, freshest white fish I can find.

• small onion
• small butternut squash
• one apple
• paprika
• garam masala
• cayenne pepper
• olive oil
• cream or half & half
• chives

dice the onion and sautée it in olive oil with some paprika, garam masala, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. let it get all brown and caremelized.

toss in dice squash and apple, a little vegetable stock or water, stir around.

cover it all in water or vegetable stock and let it boil/simmer covered until everything is mushy. maybe... 15 minutes?

blend or use one of those handheld thingies to get it all smooth.

add a splash of cream or half&half to make it a little richer. salt and pepper to taste.

garnish with chives, a little fresh ground black pepper, and a shake of paprika.

serves two.

Twisty at I Blame The Patriarchy posts pictures of her dinners and that is really one of my favorite parts of her blog (though I do sometimes like to get my blame on).

Pappa al Pommodoro

Good way to get rid of your stale bread.

• Stale bread, cut into bite-sized cubes.
• olive oil
• garlic
• canned tomatoes or other tomato substance
• maybe some red pepper flakes
• basil
• parmesan

cut some stale bread into 1/2 inch cubes. or, if you only have fresh bread, toast it in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes.

saute this in a pot with some olive oil and a few cloves of chopped up garlic. The bread will really soak up the olive oil. careful not to burn the garlic.

add the tomato stuff and red pepper flakes if you want them. I have tried all kinds of stuff here, and it always seems to turn out fine. Canned tomatoes are fine. Fresh tomatoes with maybe a little extra liquid and tomatoe paste have also been fine. Just make sure you add enough that the bread can soak it all up and get mushy. You want this to end up the consistency of a very thick stew. definitely moist, but you could put it on a plate and eat it with a fork if you wanted to.

add salt if it needs it, but usually the tomato stuff is salty enough.

When you're just ready to take it off the stove, tear up some basil leaves... lots... and stir it in. you still want them pretty much raw and fresh.

About 10 seconds before you start eating it, grate some parmesan on it and sprinkle on a little more olive oil.

The key here is GOOD olive oil. You know when it kind of tastes the way fresh grass clippings smell? mmmm.

salad

• some kind of decent lettuce. Bib or Boston or Butter or whatever... just not Iceberg. Those mixed, slightly bitter salad greens don't really work here. I love them, and arugula, but this isn't the place for it.
• radishes, sliced very thin.
• ripe avocado

The dressing is that same nice olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a little dill. And some fresh ground black pepper. This is so damn simple I'm not sure why I'm posting the recipe except to insert a note about how sublimely awesome a really good balsamic vinegar is on such a simple salad. My roommate's sweetheart is from Modena, so I got a few tips from her on this:

First, get balsamic vinegar from Modena.

Second, they are often numbered. This means something. We have a 5 and a 12. The 12 is thick and sweet, the 5 more like the typical tangy stuff. That's really all we know about the numbers.

I had heard somewhere that with the right kind of Balsamic, you could put a little on vanilla ice cream and have a delicious dessert. I always wondered about this it seemed so ill-conceived. But this new vinegar we got, it tastes just like raisins (it is made from grapes); I could totally see how you could treat it as a sweet.

I've discussed my penchant for braised eggplant here before, and speculated about other possible seasoning for it than I used in my original recipe. Since my roommate is very vegetarian, my fish sauce consumption has really gone down lately. I have since tryed soy sauce and ginger, which was not bad but was missing some of that delicious tanginess contributed by the fish sauce. But at last we have a winner....

It's all about the black bean sauce.

two eggplants + a brick of soft tofu.

Might do half a brick of tofu though. It's good to have some to contrast with the eggplant, since the eggplant really sucks up the braising liquid and the tofu does not, so you get chunks of relatively bland and salty. But I think we could have done with a little less tofu... when we boxed up the leftovers it was mostly tofu left. Do the initial browning in sesame oil with a dash of sesame chili oil. first throw in a few of those big whole dried chiles that you see in sezchuan recipes sometimes. when those start to smell a little burnt, then put in the eggplant.

the key is the braising liquid.

• three heaping teaspoons of black bean garlic sauce. "teaspoons" here is not even really a measurement... take a teaspoon and dig out of the jar as big a heap of that stuff as will sit on it, then do that twice more.
• three or four large cloves of garlic. yes. more garlic.
• a big old chunk of ginger, grated. maybe 2.5 or 3 inches.
• a splash of rice vinegar.
• vegetable broth. maybe a cup or so.

Put the tofu in at the same time as the braising liquid. Cover till the eggplant is mushy and then reduce.

Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and green onion (which I forgot this time) just before serving with rice.

This is very tasty, but soft eggplant and soft tofu need something to contrast... I'd suggest some crisp vegetables. Some sort of slightly bitter green would be good. On the other hand, we had a jicama/cucumber/carrot/thai chile pepper/lime-ok-well-lemon salad. Both had a kind of subtle, not-overpowering sneaky heat to them.

I was re-reading (ok, skimming) my copy of George Marcus's classic "Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography" when I ran across this note in the margin:

1 small onion
chicken bouillon
paprika
black pepper
oregano?
allspice
cinnamon
serrano chile
----------------
tomato juices
mango
----------------
garlic
ginger
----------------
water
----------------
tangerine juice, water
black beans
lentils
smoked tomatoes

I'm not sure exactly what I was getting at, but I interpret the lines as separating stages of preparation, basically "let this cook for a few minutes or reduce or whatever". I'm guessing that this would be a pretty mean black bean / lentil soup.

A year from now, I will look back at my Networking Lab notes and find a shopping list for eggplant parmesan, gorgonzola and arugula risotto, pappa al pommodoro, and mulled wine.

I got crepe-making equipment for Christmas (not one but TWO crepe pans and a cookbook), so I will report back on my experiments with things like chocolate soufflé crêpes, and ratatouille with cheese crêpes, etc.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I love braised eggplant. It is, to me, the pinnacle of eggplant preparation. But I was always scared to try it because I guess I thought I couldn't quite get it to that perfect mushy texture. There is this Vietnamese fusion-ish place in Seattle that does it so very well.

Actually, it's not so hard. This recipe is a bit Thai-flavored, but you could easily sub in more Chinese spices. This makes enough for 2-3 if that's all you're eating. 4 if you're serving some other food.

• sesame oil
• one eggplant (ideally, i'd go for maybe three of those skinny asian eggplants, but couldn't find them this time)
• one package of tofu
• small package of pork... two little cutlets
• fish sauce... I would go ahead and fill the cooking spoon with that. I used a little less... maybe two tablespoons and while that was fine, I think a little more would have been better.
• palm or light brown sugar... about 3 tbsp
• four cloves garlic
• three thai chiles, you know, those tiny hot ones.
• green onion
• toasted sesame seeds

So, get that sesame oil hot on med-hi in a big fat wok. While the oil's heating up, cut up the eggplant into large chunks and rub the chunks with salt. It will need to sit for about 15-20 minutes while the water gets sucked out of it. Brown the tofu and then take it out. That will keep it firm when you braise the whole thing later. Wipe off the eggplant bits and throw them in. While they're cooking cut up the pork. You want these things to brown but not burn, and the oil should be hot. So pay attention and stir occasionally, kinda, while you mash up the garlic and peppers in a mortar.

Um, if you're not so comfortable with the multi-tasking, all the things can be cut up beforehand.

When the pork and eggplant looks nice and brown and the eggplant is just starting to soften, throw in the garlic and pepper mash, the fish sauce, and the palm sugar and the tofu. Then put in about 1-1 1/2 cups of water and cover for 10 minutes or so. (What you're really supposed to do is cover for a while and then uncover and reduce.. what I did was I happened to have a lid that was too small for my wok, so the water just reduced very gradually and it turned out great in the end.)

While the stuff is braising, toast some sesame seeds in another pan on med-low or med heat. And cut up a couple sprigs of green onion. I did the white parts in little slices, and then cut the green parts the long way.

When it's just about all reduced, stir in the little bits of green onion. When it's really ready, plate it, sprinkle the pretty long bits on top along with the sesame seeds.

In future, I think the pork was actually unnecessary. It didn't really add a great deal of flavor, and I thought the texture didn't quite work. If you had a lot of time, it might well be worthwhile to stew it until it was falling apart. The eggplant and tofu were great. And I'd probably add some ginger and/or thai basil.

This might also be excellent some soy and black bean sauce rather than fish sauce.

Ammon was feeling ill the other day with a bad sore throat, I mentioned it to my supervisor who knows a bunch of herbal remedies for things, and she suggested boiling ginger in water and serving it as a tea with honey. I didnt taste it, but ammon says it is quite tasty and made his throat feel much better.

4 cups of water
2 inch piece of ginger root (fresh, not dried)
honey and lemon (just to your preference I guess)

Peel the ginger root and slice it into very thin slices (she recommends as thin as possible). I actually didn't peel the root because I was lazy! Bring the water to a boil, then add the ginger. Cover it and reduce the heat and let it cook for 15-20 minutes. Add honey and lemon once you put it in your cup. I didn't strain the tea so that the ginger would still steep, but she said that was just her preference and many people strain it.

so, near my place in irvine i have an albertson's and a trader joe's. I've been shopping at trader joe's a lot, since getting to any other hippy organic type stores would be a long drive, which kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think? so i've gotten well acquainted with tj's inventory, since it's small and unchanging. For example, fage yogurt? mmmm.... But I can't quite bring myself to buy the pre-prepared salads. I'm just not a salad enthusiast. They kind of bore me. it takes a special salad to hold my interest and i've managed to make a couple of them in my lifetime. Here's one:

• y'know those sacks of potatoes they sell at tj's? there's like three kinds of potatoes: red, gold, and exotic-looking purple. get some of that. the purple ones are awesome.
  
• beets. those they don't usually sell at tj's and i got mine at the saturday farmer's market.
  
• garlic
  
• eggplant
  
• cherry or grape tomatoes
  
• ripe avocado
  
• bag of mixed spring greens
  
• feta. tj's has really good feta. it comes in a round container and is made with vegetable rennet. really mild, slightly sheepy flavor.

cut an approx. equal amount of beets and potatoes into little bit-sized strips, coat in olive oil, salt and pepper, basil, oregano and thyme. mix in some diced garlic. roast at 400 degrees (actually i think you could go a little lower... i just picked a number).

slice the eggplant thinly, give it the olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic treatment. maybe some oregano. toss that in the oven too. the eggplant tends to suck up a lot of oil.

as i recall, that took about 30 minutes to be done, but i'm bad with timing, and just kinda peeked in and checked every now and then. Once they are done, give them time to cool. once cool, toss that stuff, and the tomatoes and a sliced up avocado with the spring greens.

for dressing i used olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey and black pepper. put the feta in after the dressing... i only used a wee bit.

my bf was literally struck dumb by this salad. I think it's the massive amount of fat (in olive oil form) that makes it tasty.

Yesterday i helped Buzz cut up a huge pork shoulder to make puerco pibil. I also helped him de-vein some habaneros, which after several hand washings, still is on my skin (I found out after I rubbed my eyes this morning when I woke up). Anyway, he has a very helpful tutorial on making this dish!

Tutorial

chocolate fondue

• 12 oz chocolate. I couldn't find semi-sweet so I used about half bittersweet and half sweet dark chocolate.
  
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream.
  
• spash of brandy. (or kirsh or cointreau)

Strawberries are an obvious dipper. I also cut up some madeleines and cointreau-flavored pound cake.

But shockingly, some was left over. I guess I didn't really need to make a double batch, as I had about half left over. So I folded them into some muffins, using a modified version of the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• leftover chocolate fondue
• roughly 1 cup chopped pecans

I omitted the sugar because I figure there was enough in the chocolate, and the results were fine. A little sweeter also would have been fine, and I'm wondering if maple syrup would have been a good sweetener for it.

Dry ingredients went in one bowl. Eggs in another. Milk and butter went into the fondue pot and got warmed and melted into the chocolate. Then mix it all together, don't sweat the lumps, and pour into your greased muffin tin. Makes exactly 1 dozen, which is pretty good for a batch whipped up purely to get rid of some leftovers. Bake for 15 minutes... shorter than the 20-25 that JoC tells you, but I suspect messing with the ingredients changes the baking time.

These turned out very, very rich.

A friend of mine posted a yummy-sounding recipe for fried okra. Check out his photographs, too.

This is a more-or-less original recipe, though heavily inspired by this avocado/mango/papaya salad they have at Bodeguita Del Medio on California Ave. in Palo Alto. They have excellent mussels there, by the way.

So, the avocado and mango stay the same. I love that combination. Since I couldn't find any compelling papaya I got some kiwis instead, which lend a certain amount of tartness. I also thought about using cucumbers for something less sweet and more texture-varied.

For the dressing, I basically made the dressing I'd use for a Thai cucumber salad. I warmed up some rice vinegar and water (maybe half and half... just so long as the vinegar is not too overpowering) on low heat on the stove and added a few spoonfuls of palm sugar. I don't know the exact measurements and really it's just the kind of thing that should be done to taste. If you don't have palm sugar, light brown sugar is a fine substitute.

Let it cool to warm but not hot, and gently toss the fruit with it. Now cut up some chili peppers. I have a bag of Thai chilis in my freezer, affectionately called "mouse shit peppers" in Thai (prick khee noo) but serranos would also be fine. Mash them up really good with some lime juice, in a mortar and pestle if you've got it, to the point where you think the lime juice is spice-infused enough to probably dissolve plastic (you *are* using ceramic bowls, right?). Toss that in with the fruit as well. Now let it all marinate for at least 30 minutes. The lime juice should keep the avocado from turning brown.

I had this with some vaguely caribbean tilapia (recipe taken from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook), mashed sweet potatoes, and plantains'n'black beans'n'sour cream.

• one generous tbsp of red curry ( we use maesri brand, and this is about half a can)
• almost one can of coconut milk... save a little bit of the thick stuff.
• one tbsp flour
• one egg
• a few kafir lime leaves, sliced really thin like confetti. maybe a teaspoon or so. If you can't get that, very finely sliced lemon grass would probably do the trick, or maybe a little lime juice.
• dash of fish sauce or a teaspoon of chicken bouillon.

I have a secret and guilty lust for Big Macs. I am ashamed and alarmed when the sweet relish secret sauce makes me want to devour buckets of hamburgers. I always try to play it off-- If I am out with a friend I say,"ohh, I am so hungry, I am so famished... dare I go to the McDonalds for a quick fix?" Usually this comment is met with disgust and disbelief. I dont want to subject anyone else to my vices, so I dont give in... until.... that said friend goes home, then I make haste to the nearest mcdonalds, because once I have it in my head that I want some, I cant get it out until I have it. The secret sauce is what does it. I found this recipe for the secret sauce, which I plan to spread onto my next double double at in-n-out

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons French dressing
4 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon finely minced white onion
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well.
2. Place sauce in a covered container and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight, so that the flavors blend. Stir the sauce a couple of times as it chills. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com)
Makes about 3/4 cup.

26-1. I don't want to talk about it. These beans were the highlight of yesterday. Black beans with Portuguese sausage and tropical fruits. I've made lots of different kinds of pork'n'beans, and the easiest way to make them taste good is by adding lots of pork fat or spices. This variation on the theme doesn't heavily rely on either of those two crutches. These beans are mildly sweet and spicy at the same time, with fruit flavors shining through. It's pretty good, I'll probably make this again.

strawberries wild
2 scoops strawberries (approx 10 strawberries)
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz apple juice

banana berry
2 scoops blueberries (a handful or so)
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz apple juice

peach pleasure, sorta
2 scoops peaches
1 banana
2 scoops frozen yogurt
1 scoop ice
8 oz orange juice or v-8 tropical splash

ice is usually optional - can just add more juice. i've added other fruits (pears, parsimmons) with varying results. staples are bananas and frozen yogurt, then just varying the fruit and juice mixes. most stuff tastes fine together, and it's great to start your day. you can get frozen fruit at safeway, and sometimes huge bags from costco (6# bag of strawberries for 6 bucks!)

I tried this on valentine's day. I started out with the chocolate pots de creme recipe from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, but modified it quite a bit. For custards I typically start out using a recipe because if I try to make up the egg-to-cream ratio I usually mess up.

We had a chili cook-off a few weeks ago at work. My boss made me in charge of organizing our group entry. Pretty much everybody I work with lives far away and didn't want to drive an hour to help make some silly chili. So, I ended up doing it by myself. And my boss insisted that it use seafood, since we're ocean people. We had a lot of fun coming up with recipes. This is what we came up with. It won "Most Original Chili", mostly because it's barely even chili

I like mashed potatoes. But, regular mashed potatoes are only good with gravy. I don't know how to make gravy, I always screw it up. Lately, I've been trying to figure out to how to make mashed potatoes whose taste stands by themself. I highly recommend the wasabi mashed potatoes at Simon, one of the restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Here are two of my recent mashed potatoe recipes: apple mashed potatoes and bacon-horseradish mashed potatoes.