I learned something today. It is not acceptable to substitute buttermilk for butter and milk. Seriously. Don't.

poeticdream rocks hardcore. she bought raw milk for us to enjoy and experiment with. it's good plain, but methinks raw milk + organic chocolate == scrumptious organic hot chocolate; also, I want to make smoothies of raw milk and wheatgrass. i'll report back on this later!

it's expensive, but it's also very yummy. I'd love to buy it in bulk and freeze it. next step: buy a chest freezer.

I love me new Jamaican Beef Patties! I bought mine frozen from the supermarket, but they are dead easy to make, as a simple google search will show.

I think I will pair one up with some red stripe beer tomorrow whilst reading the new Harry Potter book.

+

+

= my weekend.

At what cost, you might well ask? Well, I'm here to tell you from experience: Jamaican beef patties are not without their downsides. But (butt?), if you can stand it going in, you can stand it coming out, right?

so we just made this tonight. simply awesome. we didn't have seasoning, so we omitted it, and it was still scrumptious.

the pounding the chicken flat part is crucial. with a hammer. a lot.

or maybe that's just a good way to get out agression. all i know is, it makes yummy chicken.

sodium benzoate + ascorbic acid (vitamin C) = benzene. suck. yet another reason to avoid drinking a lot of soda.

the food industry's product dating is vague and not very helpful. currently they say things like "best by september 2005". i don't know what that means; it leaves room for doubt: can i eat this? should i eat this? the consumer is unsure.

labels really should offer guidelines with less ambiguity: "best by september 2005; college students eat until april 2006; will kill you after december 2006."

from msnbc, but also reported many other places: Eliot Spitzer's inauguration plans include some Rochester favorites.

so, anyone up for a drive to Albany on new year's day? I have the day off of work! *wink* *wink* we'll just make up fake press passes and pig out on garbage plates until we puke.


another story from 13WHAM

i just got the wickedest craving for licorice allsorts. i'm going to go crazy until i eat some, i swear.

we made empanadas for dinner tonight. mmm, boy howdy are they good. you should try them if you haven't already.

vive le recipe!

abby likes green tea! she drank chugged 8oz of cold sencha tea.

here's to weird babies!

first a wonderful organic turkey for thanksgiving, now a big ol' pot of chili cooking on the stove.

this is what i like about the holiday season. it's a wonder i'm not fat.

tonight poeticdream and i made sushi at home.

thanks to the japanese kitchen and the essentials of japanese cooking, it was pretty easy.

robin has the sticky rice down stone cold, a+, wonderful. our ingredients were nori, rice, smoked salmon, mango, apple, capers, and cream cheese, oh, and tamago (egg) and pesto for the tamago rolls. we tried different combinations and roll techniques. i learned how to make a passable futomaki, but am still stumped by temaki (hand rolls).

i think my favorite so far was a roll with salmon, cream cheese and capers.

pictures will be forthcoming. my assignment to you is: go, make sushi at home! enjoy! it love you long time!

hmm, let's see how many posts i can make today.

after abigail_m and i picked poeticdream up from work i tasted a divine concoction she prepared for me: 2x sipping chocolate + 1 shot of espresso + half and half. omfg good! (and it would have been $$$ if i had had to pay for it; ahhh the perks of having a beautiful barista babe for a wife)

we went to mall*wart and bought cat food, random stuff we didn't need, and wipes for abby. we then sojourned over to tj maxx and found some mixing bowls we liked, a pink argyle towel for abby, and a bowl with a kitty inside it. the clerk at the register scanned the towel and the kitty bowl. that's it. she bagged it all. i, incredulously, paid and failed to hide my excitement as we left. eight mixing bowls for free! yay!

after this bit of serendipitous good luck, we went to goodwill and i bought way too many pants (frank can have some of my extras) and OMG robin bought me an awesome retro IBM MUG, shaped like a computer and monitor! seriously! (pictures forthcoming).

then, dinner time rolled around, finding us at suzuki's sushi (the best li'l sushi shop in town). the damage ($53.57) included:

• miso soup for the abby
  
• tea (duh)
  
• pork dumplings
  
• flying fish roe maki (when abby was eating it i couldn't help thinking that my baby was eating fish babies. meta-cannibalism!)
  
• futomaki!
  
• unagi nigiri
  
• breakwater maki (tuna and avocado)
  
• salmon sashimi
  
• shittake nigiri (yes, shittake mushrooms on top of rice—heavenly)
  

the people there were extremely friendly and exuded quality service. the food was wonderful and the atmosphere was excellent. if you find yourself in rockland, eat at suzuki's!

at the apex of this wonderful day i rediscovered a thai delight: kratong tong / krathong thong. ("golden cups")

• one recipe (i really like the thin, crunchy shell of this recipe—it's very close to what the old thai restaurant here served
  
• another recipe
  
• a third recipe is here, though i dislike the filling suggestion

all in all, it has been a completely wonderful day.

poeticdream, abigail_m and i had a good day doing laundry, then going to belfast and eating at a cute little ice cream shop/soda fountain/crepery run by an adorable little old grandma ("Scoops", if you're ever in belfast); crepes and ice cream and soda for a very reasonable price, highly recommended.

then at the coop, i found framboise AND kettle corn. kettle corn! made here in maine! that i don't have to go to the rochester public market for! yay!

ima go downstairs and munch munch munch. then maybe take a bath with abby, eat yummy sandwiches with robin, then drift off happily to sleep.

my new favorite food is avocados. i like to eat them right out of the peel. plus, the pits are nifty-looking.

TACO BELL IS GOING TO BE OFFERING THE CHEESY GORDITA CRUNCH AGAIN!

straight from the horse'sdrive through window attendant's mouth: "next wednesday we'll have that again."

OMG YEAH BABY!

now if they'll only bring back the green sauce. they could have a field day with their talking sauce packets, I mean, come on, it's green.

THE RAPTURE, FEEL THE RAPTURE, BABY!

mmm, miso soup...

poeticdream and i were at wegmans to get hamburger rolls and pepsi. i forgot that friday evening is the ideal time for shopping at wegmans, because they give away so many free samples.

the full monty included:

• california rolls and avocado rolls from the sushi chef;
  
• cookies;
  
• berry smoothies from the coffee and drink bar;
  
• fruity vitamin drinks, terra chips and pretzels from the organic section;
  
• turkey pepperoni from the deli;
  
• beef with irish cheddar from the cheese bar;
  
• quesadillas with shrimp, mozzerella, and bruschetta from the seafood section;
  
• and, finally, small cups of raspberry iced tea from the coke sample machine.

it's a really smart idea on wegman's part, since we ended up leaving with a good deal more than we intended to purchase, due to our sample-hungry, vulture-like, food scavenging rounds of the store.

if i were homeless in rochester i would live off of wegman's food samples.