Beet with pretty stick

A pilgrimage to the ceramics store mecca yields items such as sponge on a stick. $2.65. I spent many minutes at the shop inappropriately fondling the pottery wheel I've been lusting after. Alas, I can not afford the thousand dollars to buy it. Pottery wheel! How you tease me! My attempts at marrying wealthy have so far failed miserably. Marry me please? I'll feed you.

So like most of America, I drown my sorrows by eating an entire rack of baby back ribs. This time, hickory smoked with a cilantro bourbon molasses glaze.

And roasted beet, radish, and gorgonzola salad. My current kitchen gadget obsession is the mandolin slicer. So far, I've managed to keep my fingertips. But it's only a matter of time before I slice off something important.

And for healthy-like snacking- Jewel toned beet chips! These turned out very beautifully translucent. I might not have sliced off my finger tips going overboard with the mandolin slicer, but my hands still wound up bloody beet red.

And then I made an empanada for dinner #2. Because I felt peckish.

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.

Winter stores

It's the tomato sauce time of the year. This year's Summer of Garden Neglect has produced much less bounty than last year. But we will make do and be grateful for with what we have. Thankfully, supermarkets and Costco have been invented so I'm in no danger of starvation this winter.

I went totally nuts at the Super H Mart bulk bins. All sorts of flavored and dried and pickled fish products. The octopus jerky and candied anchovy snacks were especially delicious. All you pasty white people gagging right now need to get over your food prejudices and keep an open mind. Delicious is delicious in any culture.

I only bought this because she reminded me of those WW2 Rosie the Riveter "We Can Do It." posters. I had no clue what these were when I threw her into the shopping cart.

Tomato sauce. And crimini mushroom tapenade. If I had a basement, I'd totally have a giant freezer chest. And I'd buy an entire hormone free grass fed cow to fill it.

I made Nancy chocolate toffee chunk cookies for Greg's party tonight. I even followed the recipe. It was painful to do so.

Laying it on thick

Sunchoke gratin. Late spring and summer produce are about to show up at the markets. Fall and winter items must be cleared out of the refrigerator to make room for the new seasons.

Carrot apple ginger soup. With a smidgen of cilantro. The idea is to take advantage of pectin locked away in unpeeled apples to help give the soup an unctuous texture without muddling up the plant flavors with dairy or gelatinous meat broths. The texture turned out great, but I'm not really sure I can credit the apples. I didn't make a batch without the apples to compare. And pectin's jelling effect probably doesn't do much at warm soup temperatures. Tastes good though, so no matter. These would be great with some toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top, but I didn't want to wash another pan.

Roasted orange beets and garlic- possibly for a salad later in the week, or some sort of marinade or sauce. Orange beets don't stain fingers and cutting boards and clothes and walls and napkins and dog noses like the more common red beets. I think orange ones are also slightly milder and more subtle in flavor, but that may be psychological. I'm easily swayed by pretty colors.

Today's bounty from the Super H Mart includes items such as Ca Ca flavored glazed chip snacks. Assorted shaped and filled mochi. Traditional Chen Pee plum candies, and coffee drinks named "Let's Be Bitter." In addition to being swayed by pretty colors, I am easily tempted by entertainingly named things. I will also be conducting comparison tests on cans of coconut milk.

And I couldn't resist trying the little crabs at the giant kimchee bar. Cute little itty bitty crabs! I'm such a sucker for little kawaii things.

A sucker for things like mini-me bananas. These mini bananas sliced and served with melon baller scooped ice cream would make great banana split sundaes for toddlers and dieters. I would top it with a tiny swedish lingonberry instead of a full sized maraschino cherry.

Sambal grilled corn. And Davy sauced ribs. Sometimes, there's nothing better on a weekend than grilled corn and a frosty beer. I had forgotten how good grilled corn can be. We will aim to grill more corn this summer. The pork ribs were so tender that it fell apart like pulled pork. Messy and delicious. This batch of Kentucky Davy Bourbon sauce included dried mangos and oregano. Now that I've realized bbq sauces are incredibly easy to make, there's really no reason to buy sauces and marinades that include xanthum gum and lecithin.

House boy

Goodbye to the insanely large house in Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln's house would fit inside the master bathroom with room to spare for an alligator moat. 5000 square feet is pretty much insane for any family with less than 30 people. Such a short trip. We never did get to visit those bourbon fudge packing monks.

It's impossible to resist things like "Boy Bawang" and "Ppushu Ppushu" at the store.