At the store I picked up some redskinned potatoes. I rinsed, cut and boiled them in salted water. Then I softened some scallions in clarified butter and tossed the potatoes in the hot pan.

Lastly, I cooked a minced shallot in plenty more clarified butter, added some sliced button mushrooms and salt, cooked most of the liquid out and then added some sliced bok choy. Into this I tossed some red pepper flakes to give it some spice. I didn’t add anything else to this and it was good, but it could have maybe used some lemon juice or a fresh herb to give it a more interesting flavor.

The fish with mayo was good. I wouldn’t have done this with store-bought mayonaise, but with homemade it didn’t have that heavy mouth feel that mayonaise sometimes has. The lemon flavor came out and was delicious.

I still haven’t had that egg salad. Maybe tonight.

Every 10 minutes I opened the oven and basted on more of the soy & tare mixture. After 30 minutes I flipped the bird breast side up and basted it again. Repeat this process until the bird looks like it might start burning, or an hour has gone by. I also put a 1/4 cup of water into the dish if the juices in the dish were burning, or starting to. Normally I’d check the temperature, but after an hour at 400°, this bird is cooked. I removed the bird and let it rest on a plate. I tossed the potatoes a bit in the pan and put them back in the oven to crisp up a bit more while the meat had a rest.

Chop up the bones from 2-3 chicken backs, or use duck parts or turkey parts or whatever poultry bones you have. Extra meat and skin is good, too. Put them in an oven-proof saute pan or pot. Roast in a 400˚ oven for 45 minutes or so. You want the parts well browned, but not black at all. Take your bones out of the oven and put them on the stovetop over medium heat. Splash about ½ cup of sake into the pan and use it to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Once all the brown bits are up, add another ½ cup of sake, 1 cup of mirin, and 2 cups low-sodium soy sauce. Stir this into the pan, kick up the heat, bring this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a slight simmer. Let this cook for an hour. Pick out the bones and strain through some cheesecloth.

This stuff is salty and amazing. I can’t wait to use it.

Take 4 cups oats (old-fashioned rolled), 1 cup chopped almonds, 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, 1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened) and toss it together in a really big bowl.

Melt 1 stick of butter and stir in 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp salt and 1/2 cup honey. Pour this over the oat mixture and toss it all together by hand. Put this on a rimmed baking pan and put it into a 300 degree oven. Stir this on the pans every 10 minutes or so, until it is a nice even golden brown, probably 35 minutes.
While it is cooling, roughly chop the dried fruit: 1/2 cup each of golden raisins, apricots, cherries, and cranberries.
Once the oats are cooled, toss it all together in your big bowl and store in an airtight container. Eat it with milk or yogurt or ice cream.

Taken from the King Authur Whole Grain Baking book.

Bring almost 3 cups of water to a boil. I use less, I like my oats dryer. Dump in 1 cup steel-cut oats, some salt, 2 teaspoons each espresso and cocoa powder. Stir and bring it back to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until done. Maybe 20 minutes? Once most of the water is gone you can just turn it off, cover it, and let it soak up the rest of the water. It is also great to do the night before, it keeps in the fridge for more than a few days. Oh, once it’s all finished cooking, stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar. More if you like it sweeter. Or use honey. or whatever you like that is sweet. Eat this in the morning, plain or with nuts or coconut in it. Totally awesome.

Based on this recipe: Mocha Crunch Oatmeal.

This comes from Once Upon A Tart…, the cookbook, and the restaurant. Erin and I happened upon it when we were looking for breakfast in New York. We ordered some quiche and tart and this salad. I took a cameraphone pic of the book and could only decipher the ingredient list, so here is what I did with that:

Grate 3 or 4 medium carrots into a large bowl. Take a handful of mixed olives (about a cup, with pits) and pit and rough chop them and add them to the bowl. Finely chop almost a full bunch of cilantro and two scallions, into the bowl. Rinse and drain two cans of chickpeas, mix into the bowl. Stir this up really well, making sure all the ingredients are well distributed.

For the dressing, in a smaller bowl: One or two cloves of garlic, finely minced. the zest and juice of one lemon. 2Tbls ground cumin, 2tsp paprika, a strong dash of red cayenne, 2tsp salt, generous grind of pepper. Whisk this until combined. Whisk vigorously and add in 3Tbs of olive oil.

mix the dressing into the salad, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour before serving.

1) cook noodles until almost done, drain and rinse cool
2) slice pork, cook in frying oil in high heat until cooked through
3) add sesame oil(s) with garlic, leek, and peppers. cook over high heat for 3 minutes, peppers should soften.
4) reduce heat and add noodles with soy sauce and sherry. stir-fry for 2 minutes
5) add beansprouts and continue to cook for 2 minutes. add water if noodles start to stick.
6) stir in the parsley and serve with toasted sesame seeds on top.

This is from a Thai & Southeast Asian cookbook I bought at Borders on clearance. It was delicious. I’m really glad I used spicy sesame sauce, it added the heat that I expect from any asian dish. And I probably wouldn’t use a pork chop in the future, it was a bit too tough. Maybe if I would have cut it properly, against the grain.

I toasted some leftover waffles and made a sandwich with bacon and egg. Next time I should make some maple-flavored waffles so that I can emulate this: Dunkin Donuts Waffle Sandwich

Crispy Waffles (adapted from serious eats)

Whisk together in a batter bowl: 8.25oz All Purpose Flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/4tsp salt.

Whisk together in separate bowl: 2 egg yolks, 1 3/4cups milk, 1/2cup canola oil.

Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg/milk mixture. stir until all wet but still lumpy. Let batter sit while you whisk 2 egg whites to rather stiff peaks.

If after whisking your batter is still quite thin, stir in two tablespoons of flour. Fold egg whites into batter.

Be sure to use enough batter in your waffle maker to fill it. Waffles without enough batter suck.

Eat with syrup, bacon, jelly, eggs and coffee.

1.25 cups (6oz) All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt

whisk these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. it’s important to whisk them, this is in lieu of sifting. Who does that for cookies?

1.5 cups (3.5oz) of rolled oats
1 cup (4oz) pecans chopped and preferably toasted in the oven until nutty smelling
1 cup (5oz) dried cherries or cranberries, chopped. look for some with less sugar.
4 oz chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. I usually use the ghirardelli bittersweet bars from the grocery store.

stir these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

in a small bowl, crack the egg and add the vanilla extract. whisk together slightly with a fork.

12 Tbls (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cold but soft. (20-30 sec. in the microwave will soften it)
1.5 cups packed (10.5oz) dark brown sugar

with a sturdy spoon, cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl. mix until it is a uniform creamy texture, then mix it a while longer. stir in the egg mixture, one half at a time, adding the second half after the first is completely integrated.

once mixed, stir in the flour mixture in four batches, waiting until the batter is completely mixed before adding more flour. After the flour is all added, stir in the oat mixture. It won’t appear to be able to all fit, but if you keep folding the batter, eventually you’ll get a uniform mixture.

Throw the batter in the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

These cookies should be made rather large, approximately 3 tablespoons, each. flatten each cookie into a puck-like shape and place on a cookie sheet. These can be baked on two cookie sheets at once. Bake for 6 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets, moving the top sheet to the bottom, and vice versa. Then bake about 6 minutes more. Make sure not to overbake!

If you make these, let me know the results. I think I should make them again, ASAP, just to get some better pictures of them.