Little Darlings

I'm not going to say much, as you just need to make and taste these for yourselves, but before I say anything else i should give credit to the "Pioneer Woman" of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which site led me not only to Crash-Hot Potatoes but these darling babies.

She calls them Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. I call them showstoppers. Delicious.

I call them eaten.

Snack + Snack + Snack + Snack = Dinner!

Shop at the farmer's market for beautiful ingredients and then cook and consume until you're full. This is how I like to eat. Tonight we made dishes and dined with Tony, working collaboratively to create a veritable feast of:

1. Kale, blanched, fried in garlic and olive oil, and dressed with white wine vinegar.
2. Molly Katzen's Salita (relish or diced salad) of strawberry, avocado, lime juice, apple (my substitute for jicama), and crystallized ginger.
3. A salad of Fennel bulb sliced with onion, lemon, olive oil and basil.
4. Crash-Hot Potatoes, recipe originally here, but found by me here.
5. Honey-Apricot Parfait With Greek Yogurt, Walnuts and Cinnamon from the NYT website but brought to my attention by Serious Eats.

Accoutrements: San Francisco sourdough loaf from the farmer's market, Brie, vinho verde picked up at Trader Joe's because I wanted to try vinho verde (sour in a good way, I thought), and white wine (which I think was from Ian and Christa, but before that from New Zealand).

None of the dishes took long, and I say any one of these things would make an excellent snack. I'm planning to make everything again someday, but especially these potatoes, which can be spiced with anything you like.



The photo above is from a previous incarnation. Tonight, they were seasoned with pepper, shallot salt and Zatar, a Middle Eastern spice blend with sumac, thyme leaves, white sesame seeds and salt.

Famous Original

Here's a pet snack peeve: when I pick up a "mint" at a restaurant after a meal, unwrap the plastic and put it into my mouth, and then find it's not mint flavored at all but some weak, fruity something-or-other. I don't mind so much if they're cinnamon, but they're almost always knock-off cherry or strawberry. Bleah. You hear me, Hibachi Hut? Because sometimes you let me down.

Luckily, this mint was the real deal. It tastes like the original Starlight peppermints. Thanks, Famous Original Ray.

Death Row

A summer lesson: It gets hot in snack jail.

And when your aging box of Lemonheads looks like this on the outside:



It might mean all the lemon drops on the inside are melted and stuck together. Like this:



And you're not going to get to eat any.

Boo.

Reach for the stars

Wowza. Spacey Tracy makes a nice pickle.

This jar of Spacey Tracy's Garlicky Dill Pickles (made in Rhinebeck, NY) was part of a thanks-for-cat-sitting gift from Ian and Christa. I am enjoying their bright, sharp flavor; peppercorn and apple (from apple cide vinegar) tang; and ultimate strong, garlicky finish. The spears are crisp and crunchy, too.

I have never been able get my ponytail as high and sassy as it is pictured on Ms. Spacey, but I think I'm spirited enough to deserve this perky pickle. Dare I dream of trying one fried?

Pizza sans party

I had some leftover pizza from the new place in the neighborhood (Barosa Brooklyn). Not bad.

Pros: crisp and tasty crust, good cheese coverage, reheated well.

Cons: prosciutto tasted slightly soapy and was quite unevenly distributed over the surface of the pie, cheese a little bland.

Pretty decent, overall. However, I must add that I have never really gotten the whole cold pizza thing. I'd like mine warmed and flavorfull, not cold and blank, thank you very much.

Street Smartie

I will now admit that one of the reasons I liked Smarties (the sweet and tangy USA version, not the chocolate kind known abroad) as a kid was because I thought that they kind of looked like pills and I could pretend I was taking some sort of illicit medicine when I snuck them out of my desk at Hoover Elementary (go hornets!).

Other things in my desk around that same time: a small vial that had once held lemon-scented perfume and could still be used for sniffing (I had not heard of aromatherapy back then, but I love the smell of citrus to this day) and a paperback copy of Black Like Me (I can still smell that lemon perfume whenever I think about this book).


p.s. Valley of the Dolls is too classic to miss.