Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

"Dunzo" is a term used by my other favorite co-worker. When she is SO over a boy, she is "dunzo". At the end of a particularly long day, she is SO "dunzo". When the workload seems overwhelming, we are both totally "DUNZO". And as of today I myself am completely "dunzo" with Stop & Shop. If I can help it, I will never shop there again. It's just not worth it to me anymore. I get a better deal at Russo's. Heck, Whole Paycheck is a better deal, go figure! I bought fruit, veg, cereal, milk, yogurt, tea, and a few other pantry items and my total bill was $85. EIGHTY-FIVE DOLLARS . I almost choked. And then I double checked my bill. Yep. $85. What a rip-off. I didn't even buy all organic, or all brand-name. Just regular crap. The other reason to finally drive me away was the woman monitoring the self-check and making mean commentary about the various customers in the checkout lanes. I don't expect anything but professiona...

I lost an onion in my car somewhere and OH MOLY HOLY my car stinks! Seriously, it smells like a corpse. I cannot find the onion anywhere. It's making me not want to drive anywhere. And I swear I can smell it from here. And before you ask, I KNOW it is an onion, and yes, I really did look EVERYWHERE. Barf. Seriously. Barf.

Any suggestions on what to do with a bunch of sad looking watercress? And I don't want to make salad. Because you don't win friends with saaa-laad.

So basically I can't ever go on a diet. Technically I am on Weight Watchers because I've paid up for three months, but you know I am not much of a counter. And I am totally a point bullsh*tter. As far as I am concerned a whole chocolate cake only has somewhere around 4 points. Right? Right! Well as it would turn out the only way I am able to lose weight is to only eat what I cook from scratch. With the exception of pasta, which I buy, I only eat bread & sweets that I make myself. The Electric Dough Hook bread recipe makes me enough bread to get through the week, and a slice or two of ginger cake is very satisfying. I make all my lunches, and most of my dinners. For breakfast it's yogurt & fruit, or if I am running out the door it's tea and toast. I've been packing lighter lunches, mostly veg and as a result I am losing about 2 pounds a week. I haven't really been too great about regular exercise, but I am definitely going to get back on that bandwagon. T...

Farewell Prize-winning noodle kugel! No longer king of the Most Emailed list, it would be as if we hardly knew ye, only the flame kindled on, and on, and on, and on.....

I hate being sick more than anything else and I can tell that I have been fending off a full blown flu for 2 reasons: 1) I've had a sore throat that ranges from wildly itchy to a mild throb in a matter of hours, and 2) I've stocked the fridge with food that is actually good for me. This weekend I made bread and ginger cake (with tons of ginger) and soup with leeks and spinach. I also made roasted white bean and feta dip, and roasted golden beets and also a very nice tomato sauce. I also have lots of fruit and some yogurt to sooth the scratchy throat. With the exception of the bread and the ginger cake, I packed as much garlic into everything as I possibly could. I've also been eating one clove of raw garlic before bed and I've been taking those Emergen-c packets twice a day in a little hot water. And I've been going to bed early. The downside of so much garlic is the gas it gives me. I am pretty sure one of these farts is going to set my pants on fire. But, uh, at...

Instead of being crapped out on the couch right now, I am supposed to be over at Masa trying out the new menu and drinking fancy tequila. I was invited to a tasting dinner and up until about about noon I was ready to go. But then the wheels fell off the bus - every bit of my body began to ache and the pressure in my head began to build. Which is why I am now at home, drinking very hot tea and eating toast slathered with butter and molasses while my face defrosts from the walk home. I will say though that I am really bummed out about not being at Masa. Granted I am not a fan of the .50 cent mussel, but I AM a big fan of their margaritas. In fact I occasionally get the worse craving for salt and tequila, and Masa is where I go to slake that thirst. So boo, boo hoo hoo. But really, it's better I am on the couch right now.

It is the Electric Dough Hook bread recipe from English Food. Yes, right now I am obsessed with this book. On the left are the two loaves, fresh out of the oven. I quickly rubbed them all over with a nub of butter to give them a nice sheen. The fruity loaf on the right is the Fruit Tea Bread, another Grigson recipe. I once had a slice of a fruit tea cake at the Waterford Crystal cafeteria in Waterford Ireland. Ever since then I have often find myself in the kitchen with some mixed peel, a pot of cold black tea and a prayer that THIS time I will finally recreate THAT fruit tea loaf. Not this time :( Fresh out of the oven. Wayyyy too hot to cut, but I did anyway. And well after the loaf cooled down. I am very happy with how this bread turned out. The crust is crunchy and the crumb is tender, just the way I like it. The recipe was unbelievably easy - I mixed it up and left it to rise this morning. I went out for a few hours and when I came home I punched it down, sorted of kneaded it a l...

I have a ridiculous number of cookbooks. I get them at yard sales, at the Goodwill, at used book stores, online, from friends, I steal them from my Mom and from my Grandpa, and from the NEMBF . I have at least read through all of them and have come to two conclusions about myself: 1) I am more likely to cook from a book that reads like someone talking to me, and 2) I am less likely to cook from a book when the recipe looks terribly complicated. What can I say? I am easily turned off by too many of fractions. Another conclusion I have come to is that there are some books where the recipes will never work for me. Ever. For example, I have never been able to get a Nigella Lawson recipe to work for me. I will still buy her books because as annoying as she is on tv, she is perfectly gorgeous on paper and she's good for ideas. I found out about black cake from Nigella, so I can't really hold anything against her. But nothing I've cooked from her books has worked out for me, and I...