Hi Mi Mi

Baby Naomi Faith is Hannah's new little sister.

Uncle celebrates with panna cotta, strawberries, and black pepper.

Cranking wood and pink balls

Still whacked out from jet lag today, but I stayed lucid enough to unpack some Korea loot. There wasn't any time to see the sights and wander and explore. So I visited the 24 hr Target equivalent across the street from the hotel. Random cheap goodies ensue.

At the Home Plus, I found things such as Crunky ball chocolate (Nestle Crunch in centimeter cube form) and Milk Ball candy. I just love saying "Crunky." And who can resist a cow holding a giant strawberry on a pink spotted milk can?

And I found the most awesome super #1 tie. White and grey and pink. With sequins! Pink is the new Black in Korea. All the boys were sporting pink shirts and pink hats and pink phones. The girls, not so much pink. Pink is the manly color of the moment. Wear it. Own it. Love it. Did I mention SEQUINS? Hawt!

And someday, I will be wearing a panda eye mask and a panda face mask. Panda branded cigarettes will hook naive impressionable me into a lifetime addiction to nicotine. But I will look stylish smoking cigarettes through a hole in my panda face mask. Bonus points for irony.

And in the hardware department, I found a hand crank coffee grinder, wooden spoons, no-underage minors signage, and wood panel shelf paper. Yes, I schlepped Korean vinyl shelf paper halfway across the globe and through customs.

Fiesta!

The long awaited Mexican feast I've been obsessing about all week. Thinking, dreaming, planning for days! Most items made from scratch. Strawberry agua fresca with mint syrup. Serving anything in a tall skinny glass makes it fancy. Grilled corn, potatos, and poblano peppers. Tomatillo serrano salsa. And carne asada tacos with roasted tomato garlic salsa and mango jicama slaw.

Will power

I need adult supervision when I go to grocery stores. It's impossible to practice restraint and self control. I want to try everything I see. It's like I'm five years old.

Crazy soda pop. Rather than the usual screw top cap, pressure generated from carbonation forces a glass marble in the upper chamber to seal tightly against the opening. The pinch in the middle keeps the marble from settling into the bottom after it's been forced down by the bundled punch mechanism. A marvel of pointless physics and engineering.

Anything sporting panda illustrations or panda logos will pretty much guarantee a spot in the shopping cart. 

The first of the string beans this season are ready. I started with an equal number of green, yellow, and purple bean seeds. For some reason, the yellow beans have taken off, followed by purple, and the more common green beans are withering away before producing flowers. A lone strawberry survivor. And it wasn't even all that tasty. Slugs got to all the other ones.

Nowhere near a peck of pickled peppers. But we don't need that much quantity as these peppers are intense enough to strip varnish. The radishes will turn a shade of flattering pink as it pickles.

Looing assorted items. This is the start of a master loo juice sauce base that can be passed down many generations. Each time it's used, you add a little more spice, a little more water, a little more soy sauce. It's supposed to darken with age and bloom with complex flavor like a fine wine. If you treat me right, I will bequeath this sauce to you upon my death.

Loo lo. Loo gee. Loo zhu. Loo hsiang goo. 

Sautéd dandelion greens. My mulching efforts over the past year have cut down the number of weeds growing in the yard. So I actually paid good money at the farmer's market for these weeds.

Chocolate blood orange sorbet refuses to freeze. The flavor is incredible, but WHY WON'T YOU FIRM UP?

Tonight's batch of chicken stock yielded over a gallon and a half. I'm not going to will this to anyone upon my death, so you'll have to make your own.

Fruit bars

Preserving lemons in salt like they do in Morocco. One must be very resourceful to deal with this year's lemon bounty. I've never tasted preserved lemons before, so I have no clue whether these are done correctly or not. My own dried oregano totally trounces the jar from the Spice House.

My impatience and laziness means the pie crust is too warm and squidgy. But that's okay. It's just messy and ugly.

Ugly crust has no affect on the tastiness of strawberry rhubarb pie.

A lovely pine nut basil pesto. And a killer spicy chimichurri sauce. I've forgotten which is which, so there may be culinary failures in the future.

I'm growing heirloom watermelon radishes in addition to the normal purple and pink ones. How awesome are those colors?

Rhubarb sorbet in the future. I love rhubarb.

Chard stems roasted over piperade, and drizzled with vinaigrette. Similar to the insanely complicated rat-patootie dish from the Pixar movie, but with only 5 minutes of effort instead of 5 hours. A little casserole ugliness is an acceptable tradeoff for 5 hours of my life.