I know it's been forever since I posted here...and this isn't a real post anyway. But I thought most people on my flist would get a kick out of the following article.

http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/8/15burns.html

I've had an odd realization. I hoard recipes. I love to get new cookbooks and flip through them and think about making this recipe or that recipe. I get several cooking magazines and religiously clip recipes from them that i then file away in a carefully designed filing system. I read several food blogs and obsessively tag any recipes that sound interesting. But do I cook any of these recipes? No. When I cook I almost never use a recipe (except for pastries, but that's different.) But I do enjoy the searching and finding and storing. And I get ideas from these recipes. Even if I never cook them, some part of them joins the rest of my "cooking brain". So I guess it's not a complete loss. And even if I didn't, I enjoy the process, so that's good enough, right? Right.

Just a friendly reminder to all you out there. The federal government offers a program to let people of a certain income level or below file their taxes online free. They do this by requiring every online tax preparation service to have a free version, but it's not well advertised. Here's the government site giving a bit more info and links to the actual tax preparation. Both TurboTax and H&R Block have versions on here.

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

Since it seems to be going around again:
http://kevan.org/johari?name=starkraving_mad

Evidently a group in Germany are researching how to make people temporarily autistic to increase their productivity/focus. No joke. I'd say this is kinda ludicrous, but from the teeny tiny description they give, I'd totally give that a try.

http://io9.com/349956/one-pill-makes-you-autistic-++-and-one-pill-changes-you-back

I made Korean-style short ribs last night from a recipe I found online and despite the recipe being full of everything good and being slow-cooked for hours while still on the bone, it somehow turned out rather bland. The flavor was good, what there was of it, but there just wasn't enough of anything. Sigh.

On the other hand, it did seem like a good base to work from to attempt a better version. And what's better than slow-cooked* meat for the winter time? Nothing. That's what.

I do so like winter food. There's less of the quality produce to be had, which isn't ideal, but everything is so warm and hearty and good. And I get a chance to use my slow-cooker. I love my slow-cooker. I realize that most people under the age of 50 don't have one, but really they're awesome. Toss a hambone and some beans in with some aromatics and spices before work and voila! dinner when you get home. And a mighty good dinner at that. Or slow-cooked meats or stews? Mmmmmmm.

*( Culinary Rant )

On a related note, I started up a del.icio.us account a few weeks back to file away interesting recipes from several food blogs and magazines i read. My username there is starkraving_mad, same as here. Anyone interested is welcome to check it out, although I will say that I'm doing this primarily for my personal use, so things are filed in a way that makes sense to me. Hopefully it also makes sense to others, but I've been told that my brain doesn't necessarily work as others'. Also, I'm marking things that I want for one reason or another - this does not necessarily mean the recipes I'm most likely to actually cook or the ones I would recommend to others. Anyway, it's there and will continue to grow over time.

Rachael gave me truffle salt for my birthday and it's the best thing ever. Seriously. Like instant truffle flavor added to anything. So far I've had it on eggs and I've put it in a zucchini-pasta-ricotta casserole. Love.

I never thought I'd actually say this, but I had entirely too much bacon last night.

A month or so back I was challenged by a co-worker to make a fruit pie with bacon. This is because another co-worker made an apple pie with bacon that 'tasted like bile'. So I got to thinking about how I would do it. I quickly settled on pear as the fruit to use. And I decided that perhaps a custard pie would be best. Bacon custard with pears on top.

So last night mirror_self and I got around to trying this out. We ended up making 3 different pear and bacon dishes. ( Bacon, Bacon, Bacon (And More Bacon) )

As of today I am the proud owner of my very first business cards ever. I'm so grown up.

I realize it's been nearly forever since I posted. I guess my life's been uninteresting. Either that or too interesting to get around to posting. I'm really not sure which.

Took the Miss trick or treating in the neighborhood last night. It was really great. We live about a block from a rather expensive neighborhood of huge single family homes, so we headed over there for trick or treating. There were mobs of kids all over the neighborhood and at least 3/4 of the houses were giving out candy. It was exactly what trick or treating should be. The Miss loved it. Every time we passed an older girl dressed as a princess or a fairy or something girly, she'd tell them 'I really like your costume.' So cute. She even remembered to say thank you at most of the houses without prompting.

Her costume was really cute too. She was a dragon princess. We went with one of the store-bought coat-costumes of a dragon (which was nice cause she didn't get cold), painted the fingernails and toenails glittery pink, added glitter and gems to the wings and a little crown on the head. I'll post some pictures soon.

(Also, I just realized that my Miss icon is like 2 years old. I should really get a new one.)

This was on BoingBoing yesterday, but thought I'd pass it on. Didn't actually read the article, just scrolled through to look at the pictures. Well worth the look.

I had a bunch of leftover rice from Chinese takeout this weekend and, well, wanted breakfast. So I made some breakfast fried rice that turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself. I've been meaning to start posting recipes every so often for a good bit now, but I never seem to get around to it. Maybe now that I've started, I'll do more. But then again, maybe not.


( Recipe under the cut )

elayla and I went to Charlie Trotters for our anniversary last night. It was really nice. I had the most beautifully prepared fish I think I've ever had in my life. (Which is to say the technical preparation, not specifically the flavors, although those were good also.) It was moist and practically fell apart in my mouth while still managing to be cooked through. Seriously. Awesome. Had a great rabbit dish that used just about the whole animal, which was cool. There was loin, leg, liver and KIDNEY! Sweet. Although I was very slightly disappointed that the food didn't really have a wow factor (well, for me at least, I'm sure it would have had a wow factor for a lot of people.) What I mean is that the food was really good, but nothing was really surprising. Several other places we've been (Alinea, Tru, Trio, etc), the conversation has been almost exclusively about the food while we were there. Here the food was very good, but the conversation was about other things primarily. But there were a few 'extras' that we both really appreciated. The valet was free, they gave you bottled water automatically and the coffee and tea at the end of dinner was also free. I always think it's a bit odd when you've just spent more money than anyone has a right to on dinner, then they're asking you if you mind tap water or charge you extra for bottled. So that was definitely a nice touch here. Also they sent us home with a little box of cookies, which we haven't eaten yet.

But possibly the best part of the evening was the sommelier. We asked for help picking out a bottle and she was very engaging initially, then steered us toward a great bottle of Chenin Blanc that went beautifully with the food and was only $38 (which is even more impressive considering that when I scanned the wine list I didn't see any bottles under about $45.) She came back and talked to us about the wine a few times randomly through dinner and when our bottle ran out too late in the meal to merit a whole new bottle mentioned that the wine we had gotten was available by the glass. We ended up also getting three dessert wines between the two of us. They had a Tokaij on the menu, so elayla had to get that, then we asked the sommelier for two other suggestions. We got a Recioto di Soave, which we'd never heard of but the sommelier was very excited about and was very good - very very sweet and tasted strongly of ripe apricots, but still not at all cloying. The other was a Pedro Ximenez that was great and not even on the menu. It had this amazing hit-you-in-the-face taste of blueberries when drank alone that faded into the background when drank with food. Perhaps because we got the 3 different dessert wines, we ended up getting 4 different desserts between the two of us, all at the same time. It was a lot of fun tasting the wines with each dessert and seeing which paired best. Although I do kinda wish we had gotten a 4th wine. 3 of the desserts each paired beautifully with one of the wines. So I'm curious if a 4th glass would have complemented the last dessert.

So when the designers were drawing up plans for the remote control for my DVD player, there must have been a discussion that went something like this:

Designer 1: See, we've got this space for one more button here. What should put in that space?
Designer 2: Maybe we could just leave it empty. Less clutter. More ease of use.
Designer 1: Are you crazy? It would be a blank space. We've gotta put something there.
Designer 2: Ummmm, a volume control?
Designer 1: No, only space for one button, not two.
Designer 2: You're sure we can't leave it blank?
Designer 1: Yeah, I'm sure.

....

And several hours later, they finally came to a decision. It was a groundbreaking decision. They would include a button never before seen on a remote control. And the amazing button will be called...."+10". And it will...skip forward 10 chapters on your DVD!

Now that it's already Tuesday, I figure it's appropriately late to do a weekend post.

Elayla and the Miss went to visit the grandparents for the weekend. It was really nice to have an entire weekend all to myself. Did nothing Friday. Did nothing during the day Saturday and played Risk Saturday night. (Yes, I'm a big dork, but you all knew that already.) Went for brunch Sunday morning and spent Sunday afternoon finding new and different ways to mix Corona and lime with mirror_self. Found out that while Corona is good with a scoop of lime sherbet in it, it's much better blended up with margarita mix and tequila. Mmmmmmmm.

I really like the Miss and all, but sometimes it really, really nice to have a few days without a little voice saying anything.

It's been brought to my attention that it would be nice to have a BBQ/picnic now that it's...errr...nice out. So I'm thinking maybe this Saturday at my place. Or in my backyard to be more exact. But before I commit to having this thing, I thought it would be good to see if anyone is actually available and interested. I'd provide brats and dogs and let everyone else bring sides.

Poll #981327 May 12 BBQ
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Would you be interested in coming to a BBQ/picnic at my place this Saturday, May 12?

Edit: Said BBQ/picnic would be a midafternoon until whenever people leave sort of deal with the actual grilling to be completed probably around 5 or 6ish.

I like the Golden Compass.