Polliwogs

Etan and Stephane came over for dinner tonight. Yay! We made lots of little pizzas. Etan stood on a chair next to the counter and helped. And he tried to teach me French. I answered in Spanish. And I don't know Spanish.



That's a dessert pizza I invented. Strawberry Nutella pizza. Was good. The kid did not have any.

Dog tired

Insomnia tonight. Sleeping puppies are so adorable. Cute except for the squirrel breath.

Cure for yellow fever

Ebola virus still preventing me from feeling 100%. It's probably the Asian food wrecking havoc on my immune system. I will have to stop that. So I prescribed myself a cure of 'pesketti and meatza balls. Malaria, be gone soon!



Pesketti is good for the soul.



Some serious liberties with reality on this product packaging. Those have got to be some weird ass genetically engineered midget basil leaves. Or that's a giant fork and the spaghetti strands are five inches in circumferance.

Beefy wood

Still recovering from SARS. Ack. Long overdue trip to the car wash. Be gone, Tijuana schmutzh! Be gone, San Francisco schmutzh! Be gone, Albuequeque schmutzh! It's been a long time since I washed the car. Nearly collapsed after I got home from the car wash. Must rest between short bursts of productivity.



Between SARS induced naps in front of the TV, I managed to spend an hour transforming the trusty Honda into a Woody Surf Wagon. Now I need to learn how to surf. But that must come after I recover from Bird Flu, Pneumonia, SARS, and Lung Cancer.



5 spice braised beef short ribs- though, technically 9 spice. 9 is more auspiciuous than 5. With mushroom rice. Beef was falling off the bone tender. Nothing really wrong with the recipe, cook book perfect in fact. But I finally realized that I don't like 5 spice flavored things. Next time, I'll braise it with rosemary and porcini mushrooms. And pair it with cauliflower puree. Sprinkle of chives on top. I guess I'm not a very good Asian at heart.

Medical science

Coconut lobotomy. The other day, we stopped by Little Saigon on the way back from volunteering in Tijuana. I really liked the young coconut drink, so I cracked open my own today. Now I have an urge to go to medical school and study neurology.



Day 2 of this cold/fever/birdflu thing. Ack. I feel like crap. I decided to zap those nasty viruses with some high heat capsaicin. Take that, mean microbes! Stir fried Chinese noodles, Southeast Asian flavor. Shitake, oyster, and wood ear mushrooms, sizzled with edamame, basil, garlic, and Thai chili peppers. Lots and lots of Thai chili peppers. Assorted mystery sauces from the refrigerator. Despite my discomfort cooking Chinese food, the noodles came out perfect and not overcooked. Still feels kind of wrong. I kept wanting to add pancetta and parmesan cheese.



The answer to the lightbulb in the fridge question. No. It does not stay on.



And this is what the inside of a dishwasher looks like when it's running.

Udon't

Japanese style udon noodles. I'm trying to introduce some non-Italian variety to my diet. But making this just doesn't feel right. Nothing wrong with the taste. Pretty good actually. But somehow, it just seems wrong when I made it. Maybe I added too much squirrel.