Befriend Eric and he'll make sure you're fed. Except for the sauerkraut. Watch out for that one.

A King Crab leg at Sonoma, steamed on the ship in the Bering Sea, flash frozen in a nitrogen bath, then split down the middle with a laser. It's served with a garum-lime sauce on the side that, although not at all necessary, is a perfect accompaniment to the moist, tender and briny meat of this morsel. This is the third one I've had in a week, and it's fawkin' awesome, and I'm not a person who normally uses the phrase "fawkin' awesome."

[pleasure meeting you, funnyjohn]

Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread

My sister sent me a 1-lb box for the December holidays. I've demonstrated a great deal of self-restaint waiting to open them now, four months later. The box will probably be finished off this time tomorrow. Hmmm... Walkers...

An unfrosted, milk- & butter-free yellow cupcake.

FYI -- Soy butter is evil and is not suitable for making buttercream.

Chocolate chip cookie dough and sweet tea.

Guacamole made with one huge, perfect, buttery avocado. Perfect extended hangover food.

Leftover improv stir fry with the following ingredients:
extra firm tofu
scallions
baby bok choi
garlic black bean paste
minced ginger
dry sherry
soy sauce
lo mein noodles
peanut and dark sesame oils

I like it, but want to try some sugar in next time, maybe Chinese rice wine in lieu of the sherry.

Lion Coffee Diamond Head Espresso and a bowl of French vanilla yogurt topped with granola and leftover grilled pineapple.

Hangover smoothie: soy milk, yogurt, banana, frozen berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries), honey mixed with aspirin and Vitamin C.

Homemade (by me) chicken salad sandwich and some delicious strawberries.

Salmon tacos (whole wheat tortillas, sour cream, lime juice, chopped green onions)

White beans with artichokes and mushrooms? Artichokes with mushrooms and white beans?

Didn't feel like cooking for real last night so I sauteed sliced mushrooms with five cloves of garlic (can barely taste it, should have used 10) and then threw in a bag of frozen artichoke hearts and a can of cannellini from Trader Joe's. A little oil, a little water, fancy vinegar, dried fresh oregano, and one I'm-sorry-but-I-still-have-two-pounds-to-lose wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese. With a few alterations it could have been soup, or it could have been pasta sauce, but as it was, it was delicious.

Text message from me to daughter: "Dont u dare eat my leftover Mexican food!"
Test message from daughter to me: "hahaha too late"

eating a deli eggsalad on rye.

.02: NBD? BD! INF! SS.

A bag of McVitie's miniature dark chocolate, green-tea-cream-filled digestive biscuits. They're no Banana Blacks, but I think they're growing on me. They're ugly, that's for sure.

Salad of Belgian endive, fresh mandarins, toasted almonds, and chevre, with a dressing of orange olive oil and blackberry balsamic vinegar. Other than the vinegar being a bit too mild, this is a great lunch for hot weather.

Yellow cake with raspberry buttercream.

baguette and thin slices of sotoccenere cheese

Edamame*, sprinkled liberally with salt
Frozen dim sum
Raspberry/lime seltzer

*The soybeans costs $1.39 at the Asian market, compared to $3.50 at Safeway/Giant and $3.00 at Yes! That explains the 5 bags in the freezer.

banana-pecan bread

ak-mak crackers, ciabot cheese

quesadillas (jack, cheddar, queso fresco)
guacamole
corn tortilla chips
Magic Hat Fat Angel

more banana-pecan bread

Pop-Tart... blueberry... sans frosting

squid in its own ink with a side of white rice. Bought some fresh squid on friday from A+H seafood, with the ink sacks intact and decided to make it on a whim, it turned out great.

Trader Ming's (Trader Joe's) Peanut Satay. These noodle boxes are good and they fit nicely into the busy day by being easy to heat and compact.

Interesting coincidence. I bought some squid there on Saturday, intending to use it in a seafood stew. It was under the ice in the bag, and I neglected to use it in the stew. I made linguini with frutti di mare last night, using the leftover seafood stew, and added the squid. Mine didn't have intact ink sacs however. One had an exploded ink sac, which disappeared while I was cleaning the squid.

bean burrito made from last night's beans, topped with a little sour cream

For all I know, when Borat says 'Sexy time', he's referring to having 'Grand Buffet'. Grand Buffet is 'sexy time'.

Editors note: How's THAT for a reference that'll be dated in a decade or so. Making us all look bad on archive.org. "When JJ said 'Dyn-o-mite!' he was definitely referring to the Duck a L'orange with mange tout and arugula salad with raspberry vinaigrette at Chez Pierre. That duck is dyn-o-MITE!. " --Seen on a Community Memory terminal circa 1976. I'm sorry, really sorry. 'Grand Buffet' rocks, though. We now return you to 'studying for 4:00 product knowledge exam' already in progress.

I pretty much hand picked them and benefit being from the same country as the guys that work/own the place. I forgot to mention i made a really good tapa, since people were getting impatient with the squid ink stew. basically took the tentacles of the squid and sauteed them, made a vinagrete (the best olive oil I have, some sherry vinagre, a little bit of garlic, some good rock salt) and poured it over the tentacles, really good and very simple

The first four alpine strawberries of the season. These beauties are reason enough to start gardening if you don't already. If you've tasted alpine strawberries, you know what I mean. If you haven't, well, I can think of no better example of how our modern desire for convenience has trumped true flavor. These are what strawberries were meant to taste like, and even the best local pick-your-own aren't as sweet, tender, delicate, fleeting, etheral, ambrosial. Strawberries like these make you truly happy to be alive.

Pickled Umes

Yummy. I like the little dried/individually wrapped ones that you can eat at your desk. Sodium!

Fresh fruit salad (apricots, strawberries, blueberries) dressed with low-fat vanilla yogurt. The yogurt is from here, available (sometimes) at OT Whole Foods.

Quesadillas on corn tortillas and frozen green peas. I'm down to dregs in the house.

Fresh nutmeg-squash pasta from the Dupont Circle farmer's market, tossed lightly with butter, salt, pepper.

A PB & J sandwich, with some of the strawberry jam I made this morning. Wow that is seriously good.

leftover goat cheese, beet and walnut tart, plus some asparagus (all cold, from the refrigerator )

Sitting at Modern Times Cafe (Politics & Prose) sipping an iced latte, trying to decide what I'll have for lunch. The revamped menu here almost gives me too many choices. Today's soup (yes, I eat soup year round) is white bean with escarole which looked really good, but for $5 each, they also have a great sounding salad of lentils, feta, parsley, olive oil and garlic or another salad with quinoa sun dried tomatoes, grapeseed oil and something else. I haven't even looked at the sandwich menu yet.

Leftover RTC chopped steak quesadillas on corn tortillas and a glass of cranberry juice. I am now officially out of cheese.

I ended up getting a lunch special: one side salad (the lentils qualify) and the soup. Although the soup is good, the lentil salad greatly outshines it. Yum! $8.25 for the combo which include three slices of baguette for the soup. Both portions are pretty large so I plan to eat the soup and bread, saving most of the lentils for later.

It amuses me greatly that this thread runs 13 pages, 489 responses, and 23,000+ views.

I am drinking pink plonk and eating a strawberry fruit bar while watching my children run through the sprinkler. Life is good.

brownie batter

An Okinawan doughnut that was a gift from the proprietor of the place where we ate dinner last night.

leftovers:
loin lamb chops marinated in balsamic, fresh mint, mustard powder and cumin then grilled to medium
couscous refreshed in chicken stock then mixed with zucchinni, yellow squash, red onion, chickpeas and garlic sauteed in olive oil with curry powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper
diet coke with lime for dessert

Homemade blueberry-banana sorbet.

(p.s., I love you, David Lebovitz, even though your book is going to make me gain ten pounds this summer)

Deviled eggs I'm in the process of making...for dinner.

Twizzlers. That is my dinner. At 11:51 p.m.

It's been a crap day.

Delivery udon! Oyako ankake udon: chicken, egg, and udon in a broth thickened with kudzu. Also cheese shumai with Chinese mustard.

what kind of cheese?

Good question. It had a dense texture and was kind of bland, rather like factory mozzarella. The menu simply called them "cheese shumai." They were listed among a number of appetizers featuring cheese, including "cheese gyoza" and "fried cheese," so factory mozzarella would not surprise me. They weren't bad on their own, but the Chinese mustard improved them quite a bit.