El perro loco

After the crippled dog incident and resulting doggie physical, the vet suggested putting Preston on a low impact poached chicken and rice diet. So now I'm cooking arroz con pollo for the dog. Aie-ya! The things you do for the ones you love. So much more work than kibble. Preston picks out the chicken and doesn't like rice. He probably learned that from me. As our eating habits are gradually swapping places, I will be eating cereal out of the dog bowls soon.

Cous cous with the figs and pistachios. I've been putting handfuls of pistachios into everything lately. I must be nuts.

And since I was still hungry, supper #2 is baked stuffed quince. Just like they do in the ancient olden days. Also with pistachios.

Fire in the hole

Now THIS is an individual sized turkey pot pie.

Brussel sprouts are mind numbingly labor intensive to clean and prep. But delicious. I could use a sous chef and a prep cook to make my life easier. And my own bacon pig.

What do they say about ashes to ashes? Preston went all Dalmation on me and tried to save my life from the self cleaning oven. The oven was filthy. Filthy!

Birthday highlights

The best things today:

* Uncle Jason in Taiwan tries to time my birthday email at exactly 12:00 Midnight California time. So he can be the first to say Happy Birthday to me.

* Pomegranate Pinkberry is in season.

* Hannah attempts to sing "Happy Birthday" using only 4 words and tells me she is saving a Dora the Explorer tattoo for me.

* Kung Fu Panda is still entertaining after 5 times.

* The facebook alerts on the phone kept ping ping pinging all day from all the birthday chatter.

* Preston is fluffy.

* The house still has lingering delicious pork smells from last night.

Through the magic of transistors and Japanese fuzzy logic, my birthday oatmeal was ready when I woke up this morning. Birthday oatmeal had mix-ins such as goji berries, candied ginger, and lotus seeds. (These would make great Coldstone mix-ins too.)

Birthday Trivia:

* I share my birthday with the Suez Canal, Washington Dulles Airport, Isamu Noguchi, Soichiro Honda, Rock Hudson, Lorne Michaels, Rem Koolhaus, Howard Dean, RuPaul, Daisy Fuentes, and one of the Hansons. The boring one- not the little one, and not the pretty one that looks like a girl.

* Richard Nixon said "I'm not a crook" when I was born.

Pyrex OCD manifests itself inside the refrigerator.

The saddest things today:

* The ash and soot from the fires made it impossible to see the Leonids meteor shower this year. (But it's still totally cool that I get a meteor shower for my birthday every year.)

* I am no longer valuable to advertisers.

* Pottery class is closed today.

* My health insurance premiums are now in the next more expensive bracket.

Coconut Failure Cake. I managed to make a coconut cake with the texture of a dense brownie. I am such a failure at baking. And the burnt shredded coconut makes it more Snuffleupagus than pastry. Such a failure.

The strangest things today:

* Freaky hot weather.

* Birthday phone call from my car insurance agent.

* My Mom getting me a Nintendo Wii Fit. Is she telling me that I'm fat and flabby?

Treats, no tricks

The best part of Halloween is Boo Berry cereal. Since Boo Berry cereal is only available at this time of year, it fits the definition of a seasonal food. And it's made with whole grains now. So it's healthy. And boo berries are a fruit. And boo berry trees also absorb carbon dioxide.

A lovely limoncello risotto. It's pink because I also splashed in some rosé wine.

Preston will always choose treats over tricks.

Down chuck

Preston's been throwing up all day. So sad.

Hari-kari

While having my coffee at the dining table this morning, I see out of the corner of my eye a brown blur aimed squarely at my noggin. Feeling like prey first thing in the morning wakes you up much better than any cup of Costa Rican. The labrador retriever in Preston wants to fetch the dying kamikaze dive bombing hawk that smacked itself against the window. This appears to be a somewhat endangered-like sharp shinned hawk. Can any of the bird watchers in the audience identify this one? If the other hawks are similarly prone to committing suicide with windows, they'd be extinct soon.

Unagi from the frozen section of Mitsuwa Marketplace. These are surprisingly good for frozen food that takes seconds to heat up. It has umami.

Project layaway

There is only one habanero pepper in this year's pitiful harvest. Mucho Pitiful. My thumb is not so green this year. But it's the first year tromboncino squash and basil were fruitful. So I count my blessings and save my cursing and ill thoughts for Dick Cheney and Proposition 8.

Because a clean and fluffy Preston is such a rare occasion, I will document each occurrence. This time, Preston models a fierce new safety orange dog collar for that early 2000's state penitentiary look. Heidi Klum and PetSmart would approve. Work it for your bitches Preston!

My poor planning requires that I make some curried cous cous to tide me over because ratpatootie will take over 4 hours to make. Hunger and ratpatootie don't go together well. Why do I attempt time consuming recipes late at night? I wonder how the French do it?

Ratpatootie ala Pixar is delicious, but painstakingly slow to make without interns and sous chefs. Costco needs to sell interns and sous chefs.

Hidden talents

If I block the front door, you can't go out and leave me behind.

You see, I'm smart. I just don't apply myself.

Salmon encrusted with wasabi peas. It's main entree and savory snack, all at the same time. Apples, radishes, and fennel dressed with sherry vinaigrette. The radishes are cut into teeny tiny matchsticks because I'm showing off.

Squeeze play

Still weeks to go until Halloween and I'm already hitting the candy pretty hard. I always have to buy more candy on Halloween day because I've eaten most of it by then. Will I ever learn? Yes, my OCD is showing.

Preston has a new nemesis.

Perfectly curled Preston tail. I did not know it was physically possible for his tail to bend this much. Maybe 12 years of me accidentally stepping on it has loosened things up.

Texas toast

I was going to get some cheap ass vodka for pie baking and other nefarious purposes. But I was suckered by marketing yet again. How could anyone resist vodka made in Texas?

This week's Dinner with Davy guest is Flip. Tonight, we have rosemary garlic potatoes. Half baked bread with roasted garlic spread.

And stracoto with porcini mushrooms. The sprig of rosemary counts towards our green veggie requirement for this meal.

Sadly, Flip wasn't under the influence of Tito's Texas Vodka. He's normally like this.

Preston thinks licking fingers does not count as begging for food.

Wanted: bacon honey

Walking Preston on garbage days gives us a great excuse to snoop on the neighbors. I am totally jealous that someone is getting bacon of the month club.

I wash my bacon sorrows with barbeque. Cilantro honey bourbon glaze. But it's not the same. I want bacon of the month club. Someday... after I marry for money, I will join the bacon of the month club.

Hope autumns eternal

Itty bitty baby bananas emerging from the flower. I hope the feral bats and feral monkeys don't eat my bananas. That would be bad.

I hope my papayas ripen before the winter storms kick in. That would be bad.

Italian trombone squash is making some interesting shapes. I should eat these now before the skin gets tough. That would be bad.

I should probably harvest some persimmons before the feral squirrels eat them all like they did last year. That would be bad.

Preston has discovered the giant water dish in the backyard. He won't go back to drinking from his water bowl. The vet says that's not all that bad.

Pig latin

It's been ages since I've seen one of my favorite Sachi's. We will catch up and reminisce with the aid of pork dishes. Sachi brings gifts of beautiful irises. Are irises edible?

A bit of wine, some manchego, and a nibble or two of salame while I finish up the other courses.

We will be guinea pigs* to my new invention. Interactive caesar salad. Slightly grilled romaine lettuce for a bit of smokey flavor. And the components of a traditional caesar dressing broken out and treated as their own individual side dishes of fried eggs and warm bagna cauda. Just mix everything together however you wish when you eat it. This was a bit too interactive for my tastes. I'm essentially lazy, so I'd rather not play with my food on the plate and would prefer something pre-tossed. Sometimes, it can be too much work to eat something. But I have to admit it looks nice on a plate.

But the old standby of tomatillo braised pork loin never fails. It's doubly wonderful today because pork is cheap this week due to the Jewish holidays. I have 18 lbs of pork in the refrigerator.

I kleenz krumms auf u.

*there was no lipstick on the above mentioned guinea pigs

Bad ass

Tomatoes again. No fresh basil leaves in the house, but I have emergency pesto. See... thinking ahead.

Preston's butt cancer lump is getting bigger.

Moon, my ass

It's the Autumn Moon Festival time of the year now. But I celebrate with rigatoni and meat ragu rather than Chinese food and moon cake. I should probably learn to cook Chinese food at some point in my life, but I've always despised moon cake. Moon cake. Ick. I was not even tempted to buy moon cake at Costco this year- and I'm normally a sucker for anything Costco. Moon cake. Ick.

August moon in September. Chinese mythology says there is a bunny that lives on the moon. Western mythology says the moon is made of cheese. I say, mmmm... braised rabbit with cheese souffle.

Preston is totally uninterested in the August moon. He might like Costco moon cakes though. And he definitely loves cheese and bunnies.

Magically delicious

Preston no longer stricken with sympathy jetlag.

Rigatoni magically appears from the kitchen larder. One of the benefits of fully stocked freezers and pantries. Bring on the earthquakes!

Cracker jack

Eggs and salsa. I'm guessing that jet lag food is the same as hangover food.

A fluffy clean furminated Preston is not jet lagged, but happy to just hang with me.

Manly tattoo. I'm telling everyone I got tattooed while stationed overseas in Korea. And I barely remembered what happened because I woke up in a gutter after a month of drunken debauchery. That's my story.

New bathroom shelves are needed to hold the items kicked out by the proliferating pandas. The lower shelf is slightly droopy because power tools and travel loopiness shouldn't mix.