A swing and a miss....

Well, maybe that's not quite fair. 1 for 2?

I made chicken with black olive butter today, and you could really only fairly call it "incredibly boring"

After mixing together black olives, lemon juice, room temperature butter, and italian parsley and smothering skinned chicken breasts with it, I broiled the chicken, sprinkled with thyme, rosemary, and black pepper, 8 inches from the heat for about 20 minutes. Then topped with a little more of the aforementioned chilled herb butter. Borrrrrrring.

On the bright side, today began my experimentation with re-creating the moon dusted potatoes from the Flying Biscuit. I diced potatoes and cooked them over high heat in a non-stick skillet with just a dash of olive oil. My first version of moon dust consisted solely of the stuff I can tell is part of the original: rubbed thyme, paprika, salt, pepper, and cumin. Attempt #1 turned out fantastic, but not identical to the ones in the store. More moon-dusting experiments to come...

Back...and in full effect

I know you missed me.

Cooking has definitely become my coping mechanism, which I'm pretty happy about. I mean, think about it. Some people cope with tough times by drinking. Getting angry. Other non-productive actions.

I throwdown in the kitchen. Not too bad, I think.

So when Roommate asked me if I felt like cooking for some (now mutual?) friends tonight, I was happy to do what I do and take it to the next level.

Gametime started with some mini appetizer fajitas. (PS-many props to Guests 1, 2, and 3 for the role they played). We soaked some chicken, shrimp, bell peppers, and onions in a mixture of lime juice, rum, salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and chili powder. Tossed the shrimp into one frying pan and everything else into a second. While it was cooking up a bit I tossed together some freshly chopped onion, tomato, and cilantro, some lime juice, and a dash of cayenne to make a little pico de gallo. Finished the two skillets with a bit of flambe to get that crispy feeling on the outside. The fajitas were definitely a major victory and will enter rotation as part of my personal dinner cookbook.




Up next was a salad. Much credit to Roommate #2 for putting together the bulk of it. In fact, I don't even really know what was in it, except that it was fantastic. I can recall peaches, sun dried cranberries, a mix of phenomenal greens, goat's milk feta cheese, onions, and cucumbers. But I know I'm not doing it justice.

The only role I played was in the from-scratch vinaigrette. My new blender got balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, pepper, basil, and olive oil. Top notch. I'll be looking to perfect that into a recipe sometime soon, because this was a huge favorite.



Main course was chicken stuffed with prosciutto and herbs. I butterflied some chicken breasts, smashed them down a bit with some salt and pepper, laid a slice of prosciutto on top, and covered with grated romano, parsley, and basil.



Then rolled them up, fastened them with a couple of toothpicks.



Sprinkled some freshly chopped rosemary and italian parsley on them and baked them with some cremini mushrooms and a garlic chicken stock, basting often.


Removed the toothpicks, sliced them, and finished with some freshly ground pepper and grated romano cheese.



Yeah. Food was definitely 100% on this Sunday evening.

I want my baby back baby back baby back

Chili's, eat your heart out.

I started cooking ribs almost a full year ago at the request of CK, Kretzalicious, Roommate Patrick, and A. Balthrop as preparation for this year's Memphis in May. You see, the aforementioned had just attended last year's Memphis in May and came away with the only logical conclusion.

T, you should enter.

I'm not one to turn down a good competition. Plus, this seemed so far out there that maybe I could actually have some success with it. After a few months and countless batches of almost-right barbeque sauces, I settled on a homemade recipe that I could fall in love with. And I was about 1/3 of the way into mastering ribs on the grill.

Unfortunately, the motivaiton and interest level waned, as these things are prone to do. Ribs once a week became too much for even my roommates, and experimenting with ribs certainly can be tough on the pocketbook. And none of us were rich. So the end result--a phenomenal barbeque sauce and the ability to make above average ribs on the grill.

I digress. Fast forward to Arlington, VA, where the property manager has made it very clear that there is to be no grill on my balcony, or else risk a multi-hundred dollar fine. Grrrrrrrreat. So today I do ribs in the oven.

Fortunately, I already know my way around an oven and how to cook things to perfection in there, even if it won't give me the smokey flavor of charcoal and hickory on a grill. I covered the bottom of a baking dish in 12 ounces of beer (I used Yuengling) and liquid smoke and placed the ribs meat side down in the baking dish. 275 degrees for three hours while covered in aluminum foil let the beer and liquid smoke steam the meat tender. This technique is tough to do on a grill, but makes the meat so fall-off-the-bone tender it's hard to get them from the dish to a plate. I must say. But after you're done baking them, remove the aluminum foil, flip them over, baste them lightly with barbeque sauce(The sweeter your barbeque sauce, the less you should lose right here. Sugar burns quickly.), and broil them for 10 minutes until they start to get crispy on top. Take them out, rebaste with your BBQ sauce, et voila! These ribs were A++ on a scale with a peak of A++++. I'll get the last two pluses if I can find a way to get that charcoal and hickory flavor in there. I'm already brainstorming. But don't let the lack of perfection fool you. They. Were. Good.



Up in the corner, you are seeing some garlic mashed potatoes. Always use yukon gold potatoes for your mashing. They've got the perfect amount of starch for creamy, smooth mashed potatoes. I like mine cooked with the skins off in water with cayenne and garlic cloves and mashed with heavy cream, butter, salt, pepper, and a bit more cayenne. Not hard to tell I got my major food on.

Packs a Wallop!

I loved the title of this recipe when I first stumbled across it on recipezaar a couple of years ago. And "packs a wallop" is right. This ish is SPICY. I don't even know why it took so long for me to make this again, cause it's a fantastic stew. Thick, hearty, spicy. I'd make it if I were you. It's got a great thickening method: cooking potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers in beef broth, pureeing them with a great mixture of spices, and then adding more veggies and the beef, letting them slowly cook, and getting my food on. Kinda makes me wonder how it would be in a crock pot. Speaking of which, I brought a crock pot a month ago and haven't used it. Anyone have any ideas?



Oh, and I tried another slice of that pie. Worked out quite a bit better this time. So by "chill for several hours" they actually meant "24." Jack Bauer wouldn't have made that mistake.

2 out of 3 ain't bad....

Three completely and totally unrelated foods on the menu today.

It's a Sunday afternoon--what else would I do?

So first and foremost, a chocolate peanut butter pie that I've been craving for days. But this is no ordinary chocolate peanut butter pie. This one has.....

Tofu.

Yeah, no joke. Tofu+peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla, and sugar. All into my brand new sexy food processor. Wait, did I just call my food processor sexy? It's been way too long--might need to see a therapist about that one.

Anyway, the recipe only says to let it chill for "several" hours so after about three hours I tried to cut a slice. It didn't turn out so well...



I'll let you know tomorrow if it settles a bit more. On the plus side, the taste is fantastic, but I'm still going to see if this is the first big failure of my DC cooking.

The rest of the day went a bit better. I made my first DC batch of my barbeque sauce. No recipes here though, kids. This one's under wraps in case Caren (aka CK aka DJ Dirty Red) can ever hook a brother up with a bottler or a distributor.

So if any distributors are reading, callllll me!

Oh, and no pictures because honestly, who wants pictures of barbeque sauce?

Finally, my Kung Pao Chicken (with variations) kept me satisfied late into the night.



I don't really like roasted peanuts so I dropped those and replaced with celery, water chestnuts, and baby corn. Plus some soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, thai chili paste, and crushed red peppers. Dinner+Lunch. I got my SERIOUS food on.

Oh, and by the way, my roommate ain't no joke either. Check him out:

Impromptu Stir Fry Entertaining

I knew that 20 pound bag of potatoes from Costco would come in handy.

So I come home and my roommate has some friends over. I'm hungry, and thinking about putting a little something together for me. But hey, why not cook for everyone?

Who else thinks like this?

Of course, I haven't shopped for entertaining, so I can only work with what I've got on hand. Oh, and one of the girls is super-calorie conscious, so the deep frying has to be held to a minimum (notice I said "minimum" and not "nonexistent")

Some frozen chicken breasts, snow peas, carrots, and potatoes.

Yikes.

Stir fry+french fries was the only thing that made sense to me. I don't even remember what I used, except I stayed mild. The only interesting things about this dish were the fresh cilantro added at the end, which I've decided I LOVE in a stir fry. It adds this freshness to the stir fry that totally changes the final product. And a bit of finely grated parmesan at the end.

Steak. Period.

It doesn't get much more classic (or good) than steak and fries. And the best purchase I've made since I've been here (yes, period. Above and beyond the apartment, the living room furniture, the bedroom furniture, or even the wok) definitely comes in handy.

A deep fryer.

Toss in the sliced potatoes at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, and you've got some fantastic fries.

Steak on the grill? In the broiler? Oh no. I pan seared my steak in melted butter for about 3 minutes on both sides, sprinkled on lots of freshly ground black pepper and some various seasoned salts, a pinch of cayenne, and stuck it to bake in the oven for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees for medium rare. I suggest checking using the Bobby Flay method of poking with your finger to estimate donness (the squishier, the rarer). And the butter seals in the juices in the steak while it bakes, so it comes out with all the juices sealed inside. Always remember to let the steak sit for a few minutes after you take it out of the oven while it continues to cook. It lets the juices cool and thicken just a bit so when you cut into the steak ALL the juices don't come out....and I can get my food on.

Thai-riffic

I blame Andy Balthrop for making me think of that title, what with his incessant reference to me as T-riffic. I apologize profusely if (if???) you don't like nerd puns.

One night off, and I was back at it tonight in the kitchen. A friend of mine was in town on business. She made it to the housewarming party pretty late and has otherwise been living off bad DC restaurant food and (worse) hotel food. Shudder. Poor girl. So I thought I'd shoot her some food happiness.

It's rare that you'd think of the main course as a light soup, but the intense flavor of this hot and sour seafood soup I made definitely cemented its place as the main attraction tonight. I served it with a side of what I'll call Basil Chicken Risotto.

The hot and sour soup was inspired by the remarkable Nigella Lawson. She makes a Thai hot and sour soup with shrimp that provided a great place to start.

Unfortunately, Nigella assumes I have access to ingredients that just aren't that easy to find, unless I hit up an inconveniently located (at least compared to the Harris Teeter 7 minutes away) international super market: kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce (there is no excuse-NONE-for Harris Teeter not to carry fish sauce), a stalk of lemongrass, and tom yam hot and sour paste.

But I still wanted hot and sour soup, and I wanted shrimp and scallops. My version:

Chicken Stock
Red Curry Paste (instead of tom yam hot and sour paste)
Zest of lime (instead of kaffir lime leaves)
Lime juice
Soy Sauce (instead of fish sauce)
1 Jalapeno
Sugar
Sliced button mushrooms
Peeled shrimp, bay and sea scallops
Fresh cilantro

After bringing about 6 cups of chicken stock to a boil, I added the zest of a full lime, the juice of a full lime, a heaping tablespoon of red curry paste, about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, a coarsely chopped jalapeno, about a tablespoon of sugar, and about 7 sliced mushrooms (of a variety of your choosing), and brought back to a boil. I love my seafood, so good pound of shrimp and a pound of sea scallops will kept it coming. After bringing back to a boil I immediately removed from heat (remember that thing about not overcooking your seafood? A few tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro and I had all the dinner I needed.


Tell me that color isn't just fantastic.

The risotto was fun, too. Nothing crazy complex--I used medium grain rice cause I didn't feel like spending six bucks on arborio rice. Cooked the rice in water, chicken broth, lots of unsalted butter, diced onions, a bit of lemon zest, and about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan and 1/4 cup of grated romano. Similar to this recipe, if you want more specifics. I finished it by topping with chicken that had been diced and stir fried in lemon, pepper, and basil. Added a bit of minced cilantro to bring it all together, poured a glass of a fantastic Sauvignon Blanc, and got my food on.

ATL vs. DC

ATL: 1
DC: 0

How Depressing.

Housewarming Party--The Recap

Wow.

All in all, I'd have to declare last night's Dinner: Impossible to be a success. Every dish was completed, the food seemed good enough, and lots of friends got together, met each other, and had a good time.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the night--only a few pictures. About halfway into the process I got so focused on producing food that pictures never happenned. Depressing. So you'll just have to imagine.

Spinach Artichoke Dip/Pita Chips

This was the first thing to come out. Who would've thought that such a simple combination-- cream cheese, parmesan, spinach, garlic, artichokes, and sour cream--could turn out so fantastic? The warm combo of flavors is just one of my favorite tastes, and so filling! I swear, I could make a meal out of the dip alone. An early scare that the pita chips were burnt turned out to be a false one--they were garlicy and crispy and made me happy.

Sushi

Sushi ended up being my Moby Dick of the night. I grossly overestimated how much sushi I could roll in an hour. Add to that the new sushi rice recipe I used, which actually made the rice even stickier, and we had a disaster in the making. After about 5 rolls and 10 nigiri, I had to call it a night with the sushi, which meant I really only made it through half of what I was hoping/preparing for. It also meant there was a ton of leftover avocado.

But what did get produced went well--a shrimp tempura roll, a couple of rainbow rolls, some good old fashioned california rolls, even some carrot, avocado, and cucumber rolls. My discovery of a place that sells masago makes me endlessly happy. I never even had a chance to use my unagi sauce!

That being said, I think it's time to reserve sushi making for parties of 4-5 people. Because the sushi threw off my timing for the rest of the night and made everything else way more stressful than it needed to be.

Caesar Salad with Roasted Parmesan

Probably about as boring as it sounds. This was an addition for any vegetarians that might have come through, and it just didn't get the loving care or quality control that everything else I made got. Plus, it was the first thing out after the sushi, so really I was just trying to get through it to the more interesting stuff.

"I've understood everything you've done until now," Kevin noted as I wrapped a bottle of wine in aluminum foil. I was hoping to wrap the roasted parmesan in strips around the bottle of wine in a kind of corkscrew pattern and let it cool, then add it to the salad for an added presentation flair. I think I overcooked the parmesan, though, so it wouldn't hold its pattern after it cooled. So it just ended up being a regular old caesar salad. Thank goodness it wasn't more complex, though, because by this point I was already about a half hour behind schedule.

Cedar Plank Smoked Salmon

Definitely the home run of the night. I had never marinated the salmon before tossing it on the cedar planks, and that definitely had a huge impact. The salmon got about six hours of soaking in olive oil, butter, a generous helping of garlic, lemon juice, coriander, chili powder, cayenne, parsley, tarragon, fresh dill, garlic powder, sea salt, zest of lemon, and freshly ground pepper.

I also baked it at a lower temperature and over a longer period of time, which really gave the cedar plenty of time to infuse into the fish and provide a great backdrop of flavor and made the fish much softer on the inside. When it was almost done, it got a drizzle of high quality maple syrup to finish off the flavor. So. Good. I was surprised it turned out so well, since I wasn't working from a recipe at all and had never used this sauce before.

Of course, it's helpful to remind any guests that "smoked" salmon means there will be...well...smoke. So yes, we opened our share of windows.

I heard on more than one occasion last night "Best salmon I've ever had" and one "I hate salmon and this is great." So there was probably some exaggeration, but compliments never hurt!

Peach Strawberry Shortcake

At this point I was pretty drained. But the bulk of the hard work had been done, and people were still working on the salmon, so I knew I was still doing ok. I learned that heavy whipping cream can handle a little more vanilla extract and cocoa powder than I actually used, and I probably cooled the angel food cake was a bit too much, as it was something of a challenge to get out of the bundt pan. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get a single bite of the angel food cake, so I have no idea how that one worked out. But maybe that's a good sign, since it was gone by the time I finished the cutting the Chocolate Yeast Bread.

Chocolate Yeast Bread

My new obsession. This bread is really the perfect light dessesrt. It's sweet, with a great aroma, but nowhere near as rich as a brownie or a cake. I made it a couple of weeks ago, and adjusted it just a bit to get it to rise more. I'm not a baker, so I can't take credit for this recipe. Try making it yourself!

Overall

Everything worked out. Thank goodness. And a shout out to Alyse, the only person I let into my kitchen to help out. She did manage to show up and help at JUST the right time. And much much love to everyone who came through. Thanks for the 16 bottles of wine (everyone one of which got consumed last night, haha) and the scattered other presents. You guys rock! I did manage to get one picture at the end of the night that is kind of telling of how everything ended up.

Housewarming Party--The Timeline

I've spent a good portion of my evenings this week planning the details of how the Saturday Housewarming Party is going to go down. The guest list, a plan to get all the shopping done in three hours, and most importantly, the timeline.

If you ever cook for a large number of people, or plan to create a large project on a deadline, a timeline is absolutely imperative. I worked backwards from my service time to figure out when I'd need to start everything, and how much time I'll need. One word: wow.

Chocolate Bread Starter: 8:00am
Salmon Wood Soak: 12pm
Salmon Marinate: 12:30pm
Chocolate Yeast Working the bread: 2:15-3:00
Chocolate Yeast First Rising: 3:00-4:30
Angel Food Prep: 4:00pm-4:25
Angel Food in Oven 4:25pm
Chocolate Yeast First Prep: 4:30-4:45
Chocolate Yeast Second Rising: 4:45-5:15
Angel Food Cooling 5pm
Rice Prep: 5:00-5:15
Rice draining: 5:15-6:00
Chocolate Yeast Second Prep: 5:15-5:30
Final Rising: 5:30-8:00
Sushi Vegetable prep: 5:30-5:40
Mix dip, Refrigerate: 5:40-6:00pm
Rice Cooking: 6:00-6:25 (put on water at 5:50)
Sushi Rolling/Plating: 6:35-7:30
Prep pita chips: 6:40-6:45pm (then bake)
Bake Dip: 6:45pm-7:15pm
Batter Shrimp Tempura: 6:55-7:05
Fry Shrimp Tempura: 7:05-7:15
Parmesan Prep: 7:30-7:40
Parmesan Roasting: 7:40-7:50
Prep: 7:40-7:50 (including wood prep)
Baking: 7:50-8:10
Salad prep: 7:50-8:00
Bread prep: 8:00-8:15
Bread in oven: 8:15-9:00
Fruit Chopping: 8:15-8:35
Whipping Cream: 8:35-8:50
Plating the desserts: 8:50-9:00

Call this my attempt to be like this guy. Saturday is gonna be funnnnnn.

Dear Gordon Biersch

I've landed in Columbus, OH for the week on business--so no cooking for me this week :-(

But, I've got an open letter to Gordon Biersch-Columbus to write.

Upon arrival, I met up with the Canvass Director here in Columbus, and we dropped into Gordon Biersch for a quick meeting. I had only been to Gordon Biersch a couple of times before--always in Atlanta for Young Democrats functions. I remembered how tasty their Fried Calamari was. Mmmmm, fried calamari. Lemon Juice. The wonderful blend of tomatoes, garlic, and onion that makes for marinara sauce. I'm sooooooo all over that.

The calamari came out a few minutes later, slightly overcooked. And by "slightly overcooked" I mean "as crispy as a bowl of cheerios.

For those of you at home, the cardinal rule of seafood is not to overcook it. The natural flavors of shrimp, scallops, and calamari come out best after just a few short minutes of cooking. 2....3 minutes are usually enough.

Of course, this was wayyyyyy beyond that. The calamari was so overfried it had lost every single bit of it's natural moisture. Words fail to explain how disappointed I was.

I had ordered the fish of the day--grilled swordfish. It wasn't super expensive, and well prepared swordfish is one of my favorite treats. If only I had known when I ordered it how they treat their seafood.

My swordfish arrived overcooked and underseasoned. It was chewy on the outside instead of crisp, a classic sign that it had been cooked for a long time at too low of a temperature. And swordfish is already a very dense fish without a lot of natural oils, so it needs a lot of seasoning to carry it. Not so--I did my best with the table salt and pepper, but in the end everything was seriously bland.

I guess it wouldn't surprise you to hear the vegetables were overcooked, too.

So for those of you at home, learn one lesson. Always. ALWAYS undercook rather than overcook. You can always cook something longer. But once it's overcooked, it's....over.

And avoid chain restaurants. Their food is usually boring. Yawn.

Sorry, Chili's lovers! ;-)

My Easter Brunch

Yesterday, one of my roommates made an egg and cheese "biscuit" (actually, on a hamburger bun). Nonetheless, it reminded me of a fantastic breakfast food I haven't had in quite a minute, so I woke up this wonderful Easter morning craving a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit.

One problem: no biscuits.

I could steal one of the roommates' hamburger buns. Or I could make it on some of the sub bread I have here. But sheesh, all my bread is whole wheat, and a hamburger bun just doesn't seem right. I could make biscuits from scratch? Yikes, no baking powder. Or buttermilk. I'm not going ANYWHERE right now.

But I do have a tortilla.

Preheated the oven to 300, and warmed up my tortilla while I was cooking some heavily whisked eggs+milk over medium-low heat (I was going for more of an omelette feel than a scrambled feel). Three slices of bacon, and some cheese gave me the setup for a yummy breakfast burrito.

Rolled it up, tossed it in the oven for five minutes, and got my food on.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." -John 3:16

“For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”- Romans 5:10

Happy Easter, everyone :-)

Nachos!

Last week, when I mentioned I was making nachos, my rooommate thought I was referring to the kind you get at the movies.

I suppose this was before roommate had really gotten a chance to get to know T's cooking.

So tonight, nachos! But more like the variety you would get at a bar. Except better.

The great thing about Nachos is how versatile they are. I almost always make mine with chicken, but how you prepare the chicken can completely change the dish. For tonight's version:

Dried Basil
Ground Cumin
Garlic Powder
Chili Powder
Lemongrass
Ground Red Pepper
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Preheat your oven to 350. I heated some olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and tossed the chicken, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes, in, along with bits of cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, and dried basil. I was only cooking for one, though, so it's important to remember a little bit of those spices goes a long way. None of them got anything more than a significant pinch.

Also add any sauces of choice here. I'll usually use worscheshire or liquid smoke, but tonight I wanted to go for something a little sweeter. So a few splashes of teriyaki later, and my kitchen was starting to smell good.

I reduced to medium-low heat...you don't want the chicken to cook too fast, or it won't allow the flavors to really congeal. I gave it about 10 minutes, and then added the lemongrass, red pepper, and four or five twists of ground black pepper. Of course, whenever I'm cooking for just me, I up the spice level a bit. For you kids at home, a twist and a half should do it. Then I gave it another five minutes or so in the frying pan. The chicken should be starting to brown before you take it out.

As the chicken was finishing up, I shredded some lettuce, diced a quarter tomato, and set it aside.

Take your favorite tortilla chips and scatter them in a single layer on a baking sheet or broil pan or whatever else you have handy. It's important not to double layer them, or the bottom layer will get soggy. Also, use less chips than you think you need, or you'll end up with a ton of empty chips at the end. Very little is more depressing
than an empty chip. Spread out some jalepenos, to taste, alongside your chicken. I want a jalapeno in every bite, so I probably use a bit more than you...

On a side note, this is a time when it's actually pretty important not to use fresh jalapenos. I made this mistake the first time I made nachos, , and Neighbor Taylor got to watch me drink three glasses of water after my first bite. Turns out fresh jalapenos are kinda hot.


Anyway, cover your new creation with cheese. I'm feeling way too lazy, and not particularly good at blending Mexican cheeses, so I just use a prepackaged Mexican blend of shredded cheeses from Harris Teeter. Yes, Harris Teeter. No more Publix or Kroger for me. Just Harris freaking Teeter. Which, thank God, is still superior to the likes of both Safeway and Giant. If you like cheese anywhere near as much as I do, you'll need more cheese than you think. Way more.

Stick it in the oven for about seven minutes, just enough to melt the cheese. Spread the lettuce and tomatoes on top and get your food on.

In other news, I need to figure out how to make these shorter. No way anyone wants to read 605 words about nachos. What's the saying about brevity?

The Beginning

So I'm bored. Really bored. And when I get bored? I cook. A lot. I blame Bobby Flay.

When a friend asked me about a recipe for salsa that I made six months ago, I realized I had absolutely no idea. And I loved that salsa.

So I'm going to log everything interesting that I make, complete with recipes, pictures,
stories, and reviews. Hopefully it'll be lots of fun. And hopefully, it will last longer than my other ill-fated blogging ventures.

I'm hungry.