Oh, how I love Mark Bittman and everything he stands for. Simple, real food that tastes fabulous. Make perfect sense, really. One of his recipes just worked for me this week — I had all of the ingredients either in the fridge or freezer, so multi-grain pasta with butternut squash, ground lamb and kasseri was officially on the menu. Well, not quite officially, since my version was more of a brown rice pasta with pumpkin, double the ground lamb and feta. But close enough. There is not a doubt in my mind that we will make this recipe again. It was really, really tasty, easy to prepare and hearty and healthy and the kind of meal that makes you happy there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Jump from the classy Mark Bittman to this Good Housekeeping recipe for red-cooked chicken with stir-fry vegetables, clearly devised to make the average housewife feel like she was cooking something classy. Perhaps not exotic enough to serve at the royal wedding or even to guests, it was a delicious middle-of-the-week meal … pretty much just dump everything into your slow cooker, add some vegetables at the end, sprinkle with chopped scallions (see, now there’s that classy touch again) and enjoy. I did serve it with some brown rice which sopped up the sauce in a most lovely, if not classy, way.

I’ve got to be honest — as far as recipe test drives go, this one had to be the worst effort ever. I didn’t have a whole lot of the ingredients in this crock pot Asian beef with mandarin oranges — including the oranges — but I persevered anyway. No beef broth, so I mixed chicken broth and red wine 50/50. I tossed a little orange juice concentrate into the liquid since I didn’t have the mandarin oranges. Several other omissions or substitutions later and … it was delicious! I know it would be better with bok choy instead of broccoli (which got mushy in the slow cooker even though I added it toward the end) and the crunch from the water chestnuts would be most welcome, but all in all, this one’s a keeper.

When in graduate school a couple years ago, I spent most of my paid time crushing undergraduate dreams and my free time cooking\baking everything from fried twinkies to fresh eclairs to homemade pizzas. Upon returning to the real world and discovering that outside the hallowed halls of academia — with working almost 9-10 hours a day, sleeping for barely 8, and spending 3 getting ready for work, contemplating exercising, and not finishing the dissertation, allotting my remaining three hours of free time to daily cooking did not seem wise. However, since returning to the East Coast, I finally decided to return to the world of human food consumption. Surprisingly, my local Chinatown helped. Why?

Three reasons:

Reason 1: Fresh, cheap produce. For $4.92 two weeks ago, I purchased cilantro, bok choy, spinach, tomatoes, and scallions.

Reason 2: This relates to reason 1. You can easily use the fresh vegetables to spice up a pre-made dish. I tend to purchase Udon noodle packages for a buck from the grocery store. In the morning, I chop enough vegetables for a small Tupperware container. When I arrive at work, I combine the udon and vegetables together in the same bowl, microwave them with water for about two-three minutes, and then add the broth’s seasoning package. If I have extra time, I’ll add chili sauce, lemon juice, cilantro, minced garlic, and/or scallions to create a flavorful broth. You can use ramen noodles. However, Udon noodles only contain 1-3 grams of fat per serving and typically cost only $1-1.72. If you want to feel uber-healthy, certain companies make buckwheat noodles, but those are typically dried and do not come with seasoning. If I’m in a fancy mood I’ll add a store bought package of Pad Thai to the vegetables and serve inside a porcelain bowl.

Reason 3: Food whimsy, experimentation, and remembrance. During my pre-adolescent summer years, my mother typically purchased a dozen seasoned pre-cooked crabs from the local seafood market. Upon discovering Chinatown distributors actually sold bushels of live crabs, I purchased 6 for $3.50. Admittedly, upon returning home and watching their snappish sauciness, I felt guilty using them for consumptive purposes. But, since I had had two different conversations with acquaintances from different perspectives (one, a vegetarian and another, a carnivore) who both believed carnivores should experience um, ‘preparing’ their own food at least once in their lives, I bucked up and contemplated the most humane possibility. After placing them in the refrigerator for half an hour and then in the freezer for another hour (or two) to instate dormancy, I slowly dropped them in (while trying to avoid analogizing myself with Jack the Ripper). With the deed done, but the guilt remaining, I tried to re-invoke my childhood by serving them with a seafood spice packet (received free from a local grocery store).

So, if you haven’t had time yet, do explore the ethnic food markets in your area. I not only found apple soda for my friend’s wife, but actually tried dried sweet potato as another dried fruit alternative. Even if your store’s pricing does not mimic the Chinatown in my area, they can offer a bit of whimsy, experimentation, and remembrance.

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. Hopefully the weather will stick around long after September first, the day Owen starts kindergarten. I’m not fretting too much about it, since he’s only going for a half day — one that’s shorter than his preschool day. That’s right, folks — my son will be released for the day at 11:05.

Even though he doesn’t have to bring a lunch yet, I’m always looking for fun lunches to keep him eating colorful and nutritious foods. I’ve hit the jackpot this week, because Parenting magazine knows what’s hot — bento box lunches.

Mother of God, this is lunch on steroids. Once I got past the fact that it’s probably not as easy as tossing an almond butter and jelly sandwich together, I realized that they really would be fairly quick and simple to do, especially because the creativity part is taken care of if I use Parenting‘s ideas. I can chop, right?

Some ideas I will definitely steal — I’ve got to remember how sticking anything on a toothpick makes it taste better. Well, it does when you’re five years old. The edamame stacked on a toothpick looks so damn cute. If I ever pack him chicken nuggets, hot dogs or the like, I’ll stick the ketchup right inside of it — that’s handy. And I can’t credit Parenting with this one, but I’m on that hot dog octopus pictured above like white on rice.

What seems easy — I can definitely cut lunch meat into strips and loop it to look pretty, like they did in almost every box, and I can even get a few cute cookie cutters to make shapes out of veggies. And I can chop — did I mention that already? And, my kid already likes homemade sushi, so I can do a traditional bento box for him too.

Problems — Some of the fancy folded sandwich pieces, like the bunny’s ears and the flower petals, won’t work with the sprouted bread we use, which is more crumbly than bread made from wheat flour. Yeah, that darned gluten is good for some things, I guess. I’m also thinking that using rice and quinoa, although adorable, just wouldn’t get eaten. If my kid has 15 minutes to eat with a gaggle of friends and needs to use a fork, it ain’t happening.

I can definitely work with these ideas to make fun lunches. I’m inspired — how about you?

A friend of mine recently started a raw food diet, and when I got the opportunity to split a case of kelp noodles with her, I jumped at the chance. Trying a new food is a beautiful thing, and when it’s this healthy for you, it makes it all the more exciting. No-carb noodles with all the nutrition of a sea vegetable and can be served like your favorite pasta? Yes, please.

They are so easy to use too — just rinse and plop in your recipe. You can heat them through, as I did here or just use them cold or room temperature. I’m not sure there’s a wrong way to eat kelp noodles. There’s another positive — they’re a forgiving food.

Speaking of forgiving … I ate “pasta” and didn’t leave the table bloated — score!

We bought some salmon to eat with the kelp noodles, so I went with some flavors I love combining with that flaky, oily, heavenly little pink fish — garlic, ginger, miso, lime juice, sesame oil. The recipe just created itself from there (based on what I had in the house) and this nutritious, vegetarian dish was born.

Kelp Noodles with Almond-Miso Sauce

Ingredients:

• 12-ounce package of kelp noodles
• 1 huge broccoli floret, chopped
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• sesame seeds for sprinkling
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 teaspoon miso
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Saute the broccoli and the onion until tender and golden. Add the kelp noodles and heat through.

Meanwhile, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together.

Add the sauce to the broccoli and kelp noodle mixture and quickly heat through. Remove from heat and sprinkle in sesame seeds, cilantro and red pepper flakes.

The less you heat the noodles, the more you’ll probably like them, at least that’s what we found. They are pretty wonderful no matter what, but the longer you cook them, the more rubbery they become, whereas fresh from the package they have a delightful crunch. (The five-year-old called it a “pop.”)

Owen, by the way, loved these noodles (you’ll notice the dot of sauce on the tip of his nose — consider that proof), and if you’re a savvy parent, you won’t cut them to your desired size as the package suggests. No, your desired size will be the long, slurpy strings that make your kid grin from ear to ear.

It’s tough being hungry and writing about food. At least I have a varied selection of recipes to drool over. But before I go eat my lunch, let’s start with dessert….

There’s almost nothing better than a fallen chocolate cake and this chocolate tahini gooey cake adds a new twist or two. Not only is there tahini in the batter, which I can imagine will add a wonderful creamy texture and nutty rich taste, but she uses just a bit of millet flour and chunks of chocolate melted into the batter. Why haven’t I thought of that?

I love this recipe and hate it at the same time. Although I’d love to try the wild garlic and white bean curry, I wouldn’t know where to begin looking to find some of the ingredients: wild garlic leaves, fresh curry leaves, kaffir lime leaves, cilantro roots … anyone? Bueller?

Now, this bean and rice salad with Asian citrus dressing I can handle. It’s the perfect side dish to serve with anything off the grill. Beans, rice, veggies and a dressing with sesame oil, soy sauce, orange and lemon sounds just about perfect.

On the surface, there’s nothing special — and certainly nothing unique — about this recipe for fettucine with peas, asparagus and pancetta. It’s been done before and we see it every spring in some incarnation, showing us a great way to use spring veggies. It’s the ratios I like in this one … there are tons of chunks, and the focus is one the “stuff,” not on the pasta. There’s lots of lemon, just enough cream and fresh basil and parsley bathed in parmesan cheese.

Owen doesn’t ask for much food-wise. When you come right down to it, the kid will eat almost anything that isn’t in the squash family (though we have recently found that if you braise zucchini in a lemongrass coconut sauce, it becomes heaven in a five-year-old’s eyes) so meals are pretty easy around here. When he asked for “that rice with the egg in it” this week, I knew I had to cook up a batch of fried rice for him.

But this post isn’t about the fried rice (which in our house consists of whatever’s in the fridge and some eggs with tamari stirred in … if you want a real recipe, Pia’s pork and shrimp fired rice or Jeff’s grouse fried rice are what you’re looking for) — it’s about the garlicky Asian cabbage that I made as a side dish.

There’s this marvelous little Thai place down the street from us whose signature dish is the Yoong Tong special noodles. Rice noodles, ground chicken (or maybe it’s pork….), a sweet and salty garlicky brown sauce and lots of cabbage — that’s what I was thinking about when I was tossing things into the Le Cruset with my cabbage tonight.

As usual with my recipes, all measurements are approximate and you need to use your own taste buds and cooking preferences to make this recipe your own. I’m so sure the next time I make it I won’t look at the recipe and it will come out with a different personality just as delicious as this batch.

Garlicky Asian Cabbage

Ingredients:

• half a medium head of cabbage, thinly slice (I used my food processor)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 3 large scallions, sliced on the diagonal
• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar (but I really just sprinkled)
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce (again with the sprinkle … or was it a drizzle?)

Heat a skillet over medium heat, add a bit of oil and toss in the cabbage and garlic. Stir until the cabbage begins to wilt, then add the scallions. Add the fish sauce, tamari and vinegar and cook for a few minutes. You want the cabbage to be cooked but still crunchy, so if it’s mushy you’ve cooked it too long (You’re allowed one do-over since you still have half a head of cabbage left!).

Add the hoisin sauce and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat and serve.

I loved this cabbage served with the fried rice, but it would pair nicely with chicken satay, any Asian-inspired rib dish, stir-fried tempeh or your favorite.

As the weather gets warmer, I’m sure I’ll be less drawn to soup recipes. We even grilled a couple of times last week and it was magic. The collection of recipes today still has a couple of soups, but also just some recipes I loved and had to share and also some I’ve recently made.

I don’t know why Heidi Swanson and I are so obsessed with lentil soups, but she’s published another one, and I’ve fallen for it. This coconut red lentil soup recipe sounds just perfect to me, with the addition of quirky ingredients like golden raisins.

Tyler Florence’s teriyaki sauce I’m sure is delightful as written, but I messed with this recipe last week to outstanding results. More orange juice, less soy sauce (I used tamari) and onion instead of scallion (use what’s in the house!) made a spectacular salmon marinade.

More soup … I’ve been working on perfecting this pumpkin coconut soup to my liking, but it’s not quite there yet. I want it to have a slightly more Thai flavor, but the curry powder makes it more Indian. I haven’t found the right balance of Thai curry paste to other spices yet, but when I do you’ll be the first to know.

Belgian brownies sound a lot like flourless chocolate cake to me … with a little bit of flour. Or even chocolate souffle with all of those eggs. Either way, these get a big yum from me.

Every time I plan on making this recipe for orange hoisin shortribs, the lazies overtake me and I just buy a package of Trader Joe’s Korean BBQ Shortribs instead. They really are delicious and the five-year-old literally craves them. Someday, though, someday….

I’m a fan of just about every vegetable. Like anything, however, I do like some more than others. I could totally eat broccoli every day of the week and twice on Sunday, but I’ve recently found a new favorite. Bok Choy has found a soft spot in my heart. The little quasi-cabbage is delicious and so simple to make. I think for a long time I dismissed it, figuring that it was just another one of those bitter greens that have become so trendy. What I discovered, however, is that Bok Choy is a mild and delicate vegetable, with a lovely flavor and pleasant firm texture that holds up with cooking.

Lately, I’ve been pairing it quite a bit with steak, substituting it for my beloved broccoli. The leafy green really lends itself to a quick braise, and that’s usually the treatment that I give it. One of my favorite styles is to give it an Asian flair, with a little spice and plenty of salty umami.

Asian Braised Bok Choy

Ingredients:

• 2 bundles of bok choy
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine, or Sherry
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

Chop off the very base of the bok choy and discard. Don’t chop too much off, though, the base is delicious. Roughly chop the remaining bok choy and rinse thoroughly of all dirt. Over medium high heat, add the canola oil, followed by the bok choy. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Let cook for 2-3 minutes until the bok choy wilts slightly. Add the garlic. Add the wine or sherry and allow most of it to cook off. Repeat with the soy sauce. When the bok choy is tender and cooked through, and most of the liquid has evaporated, sprinkle the pan with sesame oil and seeds and stir everything together.

In my continuing quest to discover the ingredients for the Mandarin sauce on my favorite Chinese food restaurant’s Mandarin Chicken, I came across this rather tasty number in the back of my recipe box.

I have a vast array of recipes my Mom collected over the years of her life. It’s fun looking through these old recipes because many are very old and have been handed down from generation to generation. Some of them are handwritten and some were cut from the back of a box of some cooking ingredient. This particular recipe has no other information so I don’t know where it came from. I was somewhat surprised to find this recipe because Mom never cooked anything like this that I can remember.

How many of you out there have a card file full of these old recipes from a relative sitting in a cupboard somewhere? What condition are they in? I have a few that are only partially there now so it will be a lot of work to try and figure out what  the ingredients are and the amounts to use that are missing either from something spilled on them or part of another recipe card sticking to it. I am working on creating a database to store all of my recipes to keep them from being destroyed, and I am also scanning some of the older ones to save digital images of the markings added to them. I hope that you’re also doing what you can to preserve the history of your old recipes too.

Oriental Chicken

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup

Directions

Coat the chicken pieces with 1/4 cup of cornstarch; set aside.

Beat the eggs, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the flour and baking powder until no large lumps remain. Mix in the chicken until evenly coated.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Drop in the chicken pieces; cook until golden brown and no longer pink on the inside, about 12 minutes. Set the chicken aside; keep warm.

Reduce the heat to medium-high and stir in the sesame oil, ginger, and green onion. Cook and stir until the onion is limp and the ginger begins to brown, about 1 minute. Pour in the water, vinegar, and sugar; bring to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in the soy sauce and add to the simmering vinegar along with the ketchup. Stir until the sauce has thickened and is no longer cloudy. Stir in the chicken and simmer until hot.

I like to serve this over pasta, but rice would work just as well. Add some fresh vegetables on the side and you have a filling meal that is fairly light.

Don’t you just love those days when you’re trying to get all of the little this-and-thats out of your refrigerator and into a meal before it all goes south? Really, you hate that, you say? While I’ll admit that it can be annoying trying to be creative all of the time, most often I welcome the challenge to make a meal out of seemingly unrelated leftovers.

This week, I had some crab meat left over from making Brian Boitano’s crab and avocado crostini this weekend (in a nutshell, disappointing even after I doctored the heck out of it …. I wanted more flavor) and some broccoli florets that needed to be cooked up, pronto. I thought about a pasta, but I have actually never made crab cakes before and I just felt like trying. I didn’t have to share my foibles with you if I bombed, right?

Good news — I didn’t bomb, and there was only one call to my dad for advice on how moist they should be. He told me that the less a crab cake stays together, the higher quality it is. Strange advice, but I interpreted that to mean not too much breading and enough moistness so it’s not dry. The advice I did ignore was to add mayonnaise and that no matter what I did it would taste like shit because I used hoisin sauce and gave it an Asian flair. The dadster, he’s fond of traditional crab cakes. And yes, he really did use the word “shit.”

Everyone who actually tasted them loved them, so Steve Degon’s not always right.

Hoisin Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces crab meat
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs + more to coat
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 egg, beaten

Gently mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Unlike with meatloaf, it’s not unpleasant using your hands for this. Form into 4 crab cakes and refrigerate for a short time until they firm up slightly. Saute over medium heat, about 3-4 minutes on each side or until they are browned and firm.

Variation: coat the crab cakes in breadcrumbs before refrigerating. I did half and half, because my dad said it wasn’t necessary but I couldn’t help thinking it would be crunchy goodness. The verdict? We liked the breading on the outside and that’s how we’d make them all the next time.

I served these with some stir-fried veggies: broccoli, red pepper, onion and a can of baby corn that the five-year-old convinced me to buy this week at the super market. Sometimes, he just knows….

After browning the vegetables, I deglazed the wok with white wine (maybe a 1/2 cup or so) and added hoisin sauce and tamari, one turn of the pan each, to the mix. After heating through, they made the perfect accompaniment to the crab cakes, and I got to use up my leftover broccoli.

The moral of the story is to listen to your dad’s advice … and your gut instinct. The combination of the two will make the perfect dish for your tastes.

We all know that a stir fry is a really quick and easy meal. I make them pretty often, especially during the week when I don’t have a lot of time. The only problem I have is that they can get pretty boring. Sure, you can try different sauces (those I usually make my own) or meats, but that will only get you so far. Last night I took some extra time in the super market, thinking about what I could do to add some spark to my latest stir fry, and I was pretty happy with the results.

I didn’t change much, to be honest, but the meal felt really fresh and different. I bought my usual broccoli, because I love it and can’t stir fry without it. I usually go with chicken, but this time picked up a pork tenderloin and cubed it for my meal. It was a nice choice. It offered a different flavor and texture than chicken, but still went really well with all the typical stir fry flavors (ginger, chili, et al).

I was also looking for something different to add to my dish, and as I was perusing the vegetable aisle, something a bit outside of the box caught my eye: a package of cole slaw mix. You’ve seen them before, they have sliced cabbage and carrots all ready for some cole slaw dressing. I figured cabbage and carrots would go great in a stir fry, and by buying them this way I wouldn’t have to do any chopping. I’m not going to argue with that!

The final difference is one that I’ve done before and I find it’s the most important change that I can make to a stir fry. I bypassed the rice, which I find can get pretty tiresome. When I opt for something different, I usually go with Udon noodles. I’m just crazy about the big, slightly chewy noodles. Last night I tried some rice noodles, like you find in Pad Thai. It added some welcome change to my stir fry and I was really happy with the results.

Alright, so adding noodles and cabbage may not be groundbreaking advances in stir fry, but I know they were outside what I usually do and made all the difference in the world. Do you have any great stir fry secrets?

There’s not much of a recipe here, but we loosely followed some ideas from the new Food Network Magazine’s over 11,000 stir-fry combinations. We stir-fried zucchini, edamame, red pepper and onion with some wild blue shrimp and stirred in fresh basil at the end of the cooking time (notice the steam at the bottom of the picture!). It was delicious with a soy / hoisin sauce with lots of fresh garlic and ginger over Asian rice noodles.

Around my house we tend to get into a food rut. We eat the same old things week in and week out. Now, I can eat cheese burgers every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and be happy with that, but my wife likes variety in the dinner menu. We have watched many of the cooking shows on TV for new recipe ideas and have spent a good amount of time searching the web for new ideas as well. The biggest problem with all of that is most of the recipes we have found use ingredients we have never used, or in some cases, never even heard of and we have no idea where to even get these ingredients. So is there a simple and easy way to prepare the same old thing that will make it new again?

I don’t know if this really makes the same old thing new again, but it is a simple and easy way to make a tasty dish out of just about anything. What I like to do is whip up a batch of my tempura batter and then deep fry it. I have tried some of the ready-made tempura batter mixes in the past and have not cared for them at all so I came up with my own we have used this batter for many different things. We have used this on chicken, fish, hot dogs, onions and even leftover pork roast to create tasty treats to add to the menu.

Tempura batter

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• water, just enough to give the consistency of pancake batter

Whip the eggs, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Mix in the flour, corn starch, and baking powder until no large lumps remain.

Add the water until the pancake consistency is obtained.

This recipe will make enough batter for about 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

After mixing up the batter, take whatever it is you are planning to deep fry and coat it with corn starch. This step is the key as it helps the batter bind to your  meat.

Dip the meat into the batter and coat thoroughly.  Let the excess batter drain off and carefully drop into 350 degree oil. You can use a deep fryer or a pan of oil on the stove for the cooking. cooking times will vary depending on the size of the food you are cooking. I have found that the best results for chicken breasts are to either cut them into uniform bite size pieces about 2 inch square or 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick strips. Most chicken breasts are so thick in places that the batter tends to get a little over done before the chicken is cooked through. For the bite size pieces, cook 5 to 8 minutes. So the next time you are struggling to find a way to freshen up dinner, try this simple tempura recipe. I am sure you will be happy with the results.

How much do you love sweet and sour chicken wings? That gooey glaze, licking your fingers when they are sticky and covered in that gooey glaze, the golden-brown, appetizing color of the wings, covered in that gooey glaze.

You guessed it: for me, it’s all about the gooey glaze.

But to get that gooey glaze, you need sugar, and lots of it, right? Well, not necessarily. I’ve been experimenting with agave syrup as a sugar replacement in baking with great success (like in berry muffins, banana coconut muffins and Halloween orange muffins) , and tonight I decided to use it to make sweet and sour chicken wings. C’mon, doesn’t that picture say it all? They were fabulous.

I based this recipe on these sweet and sour chicken wings, but I didn’t want to use all that sugar. We honestly don’t eat refined sugar in our house because it just doesn’t make anyone feel good. This time of year, I’m particularly interested in protecting our immune systems and with so many healthy substitutes out there, I just can’t find a need for refined sugar.

Plus, have you seen my kid on sugar? The last time was a family party when my well-meaning mother-in-law made him some gluten-free brownies. It was very thoughtful and he loved them, but not long after he was out on the lawn in the dark, running around in his pajamas making alien noises. I know he’s weird, but the sugar definitely had something to do with that behavior.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Wings Sweetened with Agave Syrup

Ingredients:

• 12 large chicken wings, with wing tips cut off
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Whisk together ingredients for sauce, then coat chicken wings in about 2/3 of the sauce. Line a cookie sheet with foil and arrange the saucy wings. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Flip wings, pour the rest of the sauce over them and cook for another 25 minutes.

Take them off the foil before they cool, or they will stick. Ask me how I know.

You can play with this recipe a bit if you like. Try adding some fresh minced ginger, or some five-spice powder. A little oyster sauce or hoisin sauce would be lovely as well.

Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

Are any of you familiar with Cathe Olson? I discovered her long ago, when the nearly-five-year-old was just a wee one, first starting on solid foods. She’s got a wonderful cookbook out called Simply Natural Baby Food, which really takes you into preschool and beyond with creative, healthy recipes for feeding your family. She was deceptively delicious long before Jessica Seinfeld burst onto the scene… four years before, in fact.

Recently, a number of her recipes have crossed my path and I thought dedicating a whole column to her recipes would be worth it, especially if you’ve never had the pleasure.

Honestly, I didn’t imagine in my wildest dreams that a recipe for vegetarian Shepherd’s pie would ever catch my eye. And then I saw Cathe Olson’s: lentils, winter greens, miso… that’s gotta make the taste buds sing sweet, sweet songs.

I adore broccoli, any way you cook it or not cook it. Broccoli can do no wrong. So when Cathe Olson made my favorite cruciferous vegetable into a vegan soup, I was enamored. The only problem? Cashew creme, which is delicious but a huge no-no in this house. Probably Owen is so allergic to it because it was my creamy soup go-to while I was pregnant, so I’d use a combination of almond milk and plain yogurt to get the creamy texture this broccoli soup recipe calls for.

Millet used to be a favorite of ours, but we really don’t eat grains that much anymore. I may just revisit millet to make this healthy millet granola recipe. No sugar, only agave or maple syrup, and tahini, sesame seeds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. Talk about your healthy fats and nutty flavor.

Yummy… honey-curry dressing! I can just taste this slathered on a salad brimming with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Finally, Asian noodle salad with toasted sesame is a flavorful, versatile dish with some surprises… not your average Asian ingredients.

Which Cathe Olson recipe will you be trying first?

Want to know a little secret? It’s a weird one: Keith doesn’t like cooked carrots, not because of the taste, but because he is convinced that they give him a stomachache. Sure, I could make rollicking fun of him (sometimes I do) but instead I always look for ways to use carrots raw so that he can enjoy them.

This year, our CSA farm has a plentiful carrot harvest (which is a good thing because the tomatoes got the blight). We always munch on carrot sticks, often dipped in hummus or nut butter, but we have so many that I’ve had to get a bit creative. I did cave and make a cooked carrot thingy with chick peas (I promise I’ll post it), but for the most part, I’ve been respectful to my husband’s weird carrot issues. After all, we have no mayonnaise in the house because of my mayophobia. What a marriage.

Tonight I created a carrot and snap pea salad that would go wonderfully with an Asian marinated chicken, the orange pan-glazed tempeh we tried not too long ago, or anything with that oriental flair. It did not go wonderfully with our rosemary lamb chops, but planning was not my strong point this evening.

Carrot and Snap Pea Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots, cut on the diagonal into very thin slices
• 2 cups snap peas, halved
• 1/2 cup chopped chives
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon tamari
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seed butter (but any nut butter will do)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• crushed red pepper to taste

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and toss all other ingredients together with the dressing. Serve and enjoy.

Should you decide to take a trip to Las Vegas, you will inevitably encounter three things: extreme heat (in the summer, not the winter), thousands of slot machines, and buffets. While you can avoid the heat (air conditioned hotels) and the slot machines (plenty of places to shop) you can’t avoid the buffets. Especially in a town that has increasingly been connected with pricey, celebrity chef venues. Which means, of course, mucho dinero.

As many of these new restaurants feature small portions for high prices and long waits (even with reservations), the lure of the buffets seems even stronger. Even at some of the higher end places, such as the buffet at Wynn’s, the amount of money dished out gives you a much better selection of food. Thing is, there are so many buffets in Las Vegas that it’s hard to choose one or two for your gorging pleasure. Well, if that’s your issue don’t worry. Here are 10 tips to make your buffet experience a successful one.

1. Do your research — Thanks to that wonderful invention called the Interworldweb, there are plenty of research options to find buffets t0 pique your interest. For example, lasvegasadvisor.com has a whole section on buffets that includes photos, costs, and customer reviews (Garden Court Buffet at Main Street Station is one of the best, while the Emperor’s Buffet at the Imperial Palace is rated one of the worst). You can also go to the individual hotel websites for buffet information. Though, they may be somewhat biased in the opinion of their own services.

Another form of research: ask the locals. These are folks who go to these buffets on a regular basis and can separate the good from the bad. Instead of pointing you to some of the larger resorts, these folks may direct you to the smaller, local establishments that normally cater to the local citizens. It’s these places that are normally the best in town.

2. Bigger doesn’t always mean better – Just because the buffet, and the dining room it stands in, seem huge, it doesn’t mean the quality of food is the best. Take the Round Table Buffet at Excalibur. It looked impressive from the outside; however, once I got in and saw the selections … well, I might as well have been dining at my local Old Country Buffet or my high school cafeteria. On the other hand, while Harrah’s Flavors, The Buffet was small it had some very good food.

3. More expensive doesn’t always mean better – See number 2, just replace “large” with “costly.” Just because a dinner buffet is $35 doesn’t mean you’ll get the best quality and selection of food. Again, research these places before paying $100 for you, your wife, and your kids. You may get some very expensive slop instead of good food.

4. Get there early — Especially when 1) You’re hungry, and 2) You’re in the city during a big convention or heavy vacation season. This is particularly important for dinner. Arrive any time after 6:30 at most buffets and expect to wait in line. After a long, hot day pounding the flat pavement of Las Vegas Boulevard you’re not going to want to wait to eat.

5. Small portions! Small portions! – I know your first instinct at seeing all of the food surrounding you is to grab a plate and load it to the point that it’s heavier than you are. Bad idea! You’re going to waste a lot of those items, and get fuller faster with that plan. Instead, give the buffet a once-over and select some items you want to sample. If you enjoy what you eat then get some more during your second or third time around. Don’t worry, there will be plenty for everyone.

6. Try something different — Here’s a simple rule: if the selection you’re looking at is not something you make at home give it a try (unless it has something that will give you an allergic reaction). Many of these buffets now feature not only Italian and Mexican specialties but Chinese, Japanese, and even Korean items. There’s no harm to try something new. If you don’t like it then push it aside on your plate.

7. Chew, swallow, repeat — Don’t worry, the craps table isn’t going anywhere. No need to shovel the food down your gullet. All that’s going to do is make you feel bloated and increase the difficulty of walking down the Strip during those chilly 106-degree summer days. Just chew, swallow, take a sip of liquid, and contemplate the flavors of what you just ate.

8. Eat a vegetable, for Pete’s sake! — Take a good look at the buffet. See those leafy things in the bowl, or the stringy, beany things on that plate? Those things are called vegetables and they should be a part of the buffet experience. Not only will they aid in digestion, but it will give you the energy required to stay awake for that 10:30 topless review show.

9. Watch the desserts — They may look wonderful, they may smell wonderful, but the taste may be less than wonderful. Unless you’re buffeting in a resort that highlights pastry shops in their selection of dining items (Paris and Venetian, for example), be wary of the dessert offerings. Especially the cakes and pies, which can look like your mom’s original recipe but taste like your drunk uncle’s recipe. If you’re dying for some sugar you can always tackle the sundae bar or, like at Harrah’s, grab some tasty gelato.

10. When done, take a walk — Believe it or not, Las Vegas is a walking city. So, when you’re done eating your and your wife’s weight in crab legs, get up, stretch your legs, and walk around the streets and shopping midways of Sin City. By the time you reach your hotel you’ll be ready for that $7.99 steak and shrimp special.

I rather enjoy Japanese food of any persuasion, but I gotta say, I had never heard of okonomiyaki before Mothering Magazine published a recipe for it. What is it? A Japanese pancake or pizza. Now that can’t be bad, right?

Really, as you read the recipe for Mothering‘s okonomiyaki, you realize it’s probably better than pizza or pancakes. You basically cook pizza-type toppings right into the pancake. Um… yum! I hereby dub okonomiyaki: dinner pancakes. This particular recipe has chicken, napa cabbage, green beans, scallions, carrots, green pepper and zucchini, so it is really an all-encompassing meal.

I wanted to see what other combinations traditional okonomiyaki come in (and I was dying to find a dipping sauce since maple syrup just won’t cut it for these pancakes), so I perused the internet and found a bunch of fun recipes.

First off, let’s just say that using mayonnaise as a sauce is just completely unacceptable, as this site suggests, so I’ll be hunting for some of that tonkatsu sauce they also mention. What do you know? It’s as easy as blending Worcestershire, ketchup, mirin, ginger, garlic and this and that. Cool.

Now this okonomiyaki is looking a lot more like pizza, and definitely making my mouth water. But there’s that dreaded mayonnaise again — for the love of all that’s holy, don’t ruin a good thing….

Apparently, okonomiyaki is so addicting that there’s even a blog solely dedicated to the little Japanese pizza with big, big flavor. Even without the mayonnaise, I’m sure of it.

So, we’ve learned that okonomiyaki is an eggy, cabbagy pizza-ish food with a delicious sauce that needs no mayonnaise to make it great. I’m so sure I’m trying this as soon as we get some cabbage from our CSA farm (which I turned down today in lieu of chard… bah.

I’ve had — and made — chicken wings about a gazillion ways, but I wanted to try a recipe I’ve never done before, and you can’t go wrong with Tyler Florence. His teriyaki chicken wings with sesame and cilantro were divine, and met rave reviews, with one exception.

With just a few tips and tweaks, you’ll be able to make these wings easily and to everyone’s taste satisfaction.

The sauce was completely, utterly perfect. Tyler Florence’s unique twist on teriyaki sauce uses grapefruit juice and everything fresh: giant chunks of garlic, red chiles and ginger, all boiled down with the rest of the ingredients. I would change nothing about this recipe, but I did find that when I doubled the recipe, I ended up with a ton of extra sauce (sitting now in my fridge, waiting for the next use). If you’re doubling the amount of wings, you probably only need to 1.5 times the sauce.

Speaking of doubling the recipe, there were some other little quirks I found; mainly that the cooking times were way off. It took much, much longer than 20 minutes for the sauce to boil down and thicken, and much longer for the wings to get crispy as well, so leave yourself enough time.

One thing I don’t know how to fix is the way the wings stubbornly stuck to the pan. I sprayed the pans first, even though that wasn’t called for in the recipe, and after crisping them up, they are swimming in the melted skin fat, for crying out loud. How they stuck then is beyond me, and then they stuck even worse after they were sauced and glazed. I scraped my little heart out with a spatula and saved most of them, but I’d sure like a trick for this piece.

Although everyone loved the wings, I did have some complaints from the cilantro-haters in my family. Yeah, I know it’s just wrong to hate cilantro, but it happens, and it happens a lot in my family. Instead of judging them, let’s just accommodate for them. Heck, they accommodate for my mayophobia with gourmet potato salads that are mayonnaise-free, so it’s the least I can do. Next time, I’ll serve up a platter sprinkled generously with cilantro and sesame seeds as Tyler suggests, and I’ll also serve a plate plain. Incidentally, I used much less cilantro than the recipe called for (and still got complaints), so you may want to cut back a bit.

All in all, these were pretty easy to make and were a big hit with the crowd. I’d definitely make them again.

I don’t mean that they didn’t exist, of course. I just mean that, until 1921 when Teddy Roosevelt made George Washington Carver’s work famous, people in America thought they were a pretty useless weed. And it took even longer for people to not only figure out they weren’t, but to make peanut stuff: peanut butter, peanut butter cookies, peanut oil, and most importantly, peanut sauce.

Now, strangely enough, peanut sauce seems to be a staple in Thai cuisine, which is confusing to me. Especially since peanuts were brought over to China in the 1600’s as a crop. This conflicts greatly with my elementary school history education, since weren’t we supposed to be mystified by this little legume’s delicious properties? So why would we bring a weed to China? And how did it then move down and become so popular in Indonesia and Thailand?

Frankly, I don’t care who “invented” it. I would like to take them out to dinner and maybe a movie afterward. I would like to take them behind a middle school and get them pregnant. (30 Rock reference, anybody? I swear I’m not actually that creepy.) But though I crave peanut butter sometimes,  I can’t stand what I call “peanut butter mouth”,  that sticky sensation that leaves you smacking your tongue like a dissatisfied cat and wishing for a giant, cold beverage. But still, I yearned for peanut butter, and there are only so many times I could eat peanut butter cookies and not get fat. And then I hit upon the solution: peanut sauce.

Because peanut sauce, assuming you don’t have a peanut allergy, goes well on everything. Marinate tofu in it (or, well, anything, but tofu retains it nicely). Put it on rice with some chopped up vegetables and you have yourself a meal. Use it  on grilled meats. Dip shrimp in it. Put it on pasta instead of oil to keep it from sticking. Use it as a salad dressing. I think, personally, you could tweak it a little and put it on vanilla ice cream, but I’m crazy like that.

What I’ve used it most recently on is the abundance of sugar-snap peas that have exploded from our garden since the near-constant month of rain we’ve recently had in Boston. The peanut peas with sesame seeds (got to come up with a better name for that) were a pretty big hit at our July 4 barbecue. By which I mean that I was not the only one scarfing it down. It’s a sure-fire, kid-friendly side dish that’s perfect for summer. There is no cooking required, sugar snap peas are in season (and often available at farmer’s markets locally grown — huzzah, environmentally-conscious food!), and if you, like my family, grow sugar-snap peas, it’s perfect for that abundance you’re going to find yourself facing right about … now.

Easy Asian Peas
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
(serves 6-8 as a side dish)

• 6 cups of sugar snap peas
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbs. sesame oil
• 2 tbs. soy sauce
• A “schmurble” of honey (around 1/2 tbs.)
• Black pepper to taste
• Sesame seeds for garnish (around a quarter cup, toasted if desired)

Clean and halve the peas (I suggest doing this on the couch, with your feet up, while watching television. I watched the Dogs 101 marathon on Animal Planet and I firmly believe that the puppies on my screen made this taste better by cute osmosis). Place in large bowl/whatever you plan on serving in.

In a small, separate bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, water, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, and black pepper until smooth. The whisking should go in three distinctive stages:

1. Holy crap, this peanut butter is never going to break up
2. The peanut butter is breaking up, but it is super weird/clumpy/oh my god, I have failed as a chef
3. Hey! Look at that! It’s a pretty and consistent sauce!

The point being: keep whisking.

Pour sauce over peas, mix until all the peas are covered, mix in sesame seeds if desired

Serve. Be complimented on your culinary genius.

Did you ever create a recipe so good that you were surprised it was actually your brainchild? I do it often, actually. I can never quite believe that tossing together the ingredients in my fridge can yield such amazing dishes. This is not to toot my own horn; If I can do it, anyone can do it. All you need to know is what tastes you like together.

I tend to blend traditional flavors together and then add a unique twist. This time, I made a pretty standard Asian cole slaw, paying attention to the textures — crunchy almonds, creamy almond butter dressing — and the flavors — fresh cilantro and ginger, scallions, red pepper flakes. Delicious, but I couldn’t resist adding the mango for a contrasting sweet flavor and that fun surprise.

Mango Cole Slaw
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Ingredients:

• about 6 cups shredded cabbage and carrot
• 1 cup mango, diced
• 2 scallions, sliced
• 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste (I used 14 shakes, probably about a half teaspoon)

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss all other ingredients together with the dressing. This dish went well with pork tenderloin last night.

The fun part about it is, depending on what you’ve got in your fridge (or have the forethought to buy), you can come up with endless variations. This would be great with sprouts added, or some julienned jicama. How about some sugar snap peas or snow peas? What would you add?

Way back in May, I wrote about the trials and tribulations of making green salad with shrimp. My favorite version of this salad featured an improvised recipe for spicy pan-seared shrimp. What I didn’t realize was how convenient this method for preparing shrimp would be! This shrimp recipe is quick to prepare and requires little-to-no advance planning.

Why so convenient? I use frozen, peeled shrimp. Pop a handful in a colander and submerge them under running cool water. They’ll thaw in minutes. Insta-protein! And since shrimp are small, they take on the flavors of a marinade quickly and cook in minutes, perfect qualities for impatient cooks like me who are hungry and want to eat half an hour ago.

I love these shrimp in salads, but they would also be great mixed in with stir-fried veggies or served alongside some sesame noodles. And while I haven’t counted the calories, there isn’t a whole lot of added oil or sugar in this recipe, so they’re definitely on the healthy side.  (Full disclosure: They do have a fair bit of salt, which probably accounts for at least some of the tastiness.)

This method (quick marinade and pan-searing) also works great for scallops and cubed chicken.

This recipe has a pan-Asian spin on it, but I’m sure there are other marinades that could work. Maybe garlic, lime juice and jalapeno for a fresh Mex feel? Garlic, red pepper flakes and dry white wine? Are you sensing a theme? This preparation works because the marinade has strong flavors. If you have other marinade ideas, share them in the comments.

If you don’t have sriracha on hand, no matter. You can use your favorite hot sauce or sub in a shake or two of cayenne pepper. The corn starch is also optional, but it helps develop a crunchy crust on the shrimp.

Spicy pan-seared shrimp
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Ingredients:

• 12 large shrimp, peeled
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sriracha or other hot sauce to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cooking wine
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• a sprinkle of garlic powder (optional)
• canola or other vegetable oil

Directions:

• If your shrimp are frozen, thaw per directions.
• Prepare marinade by combining soy sauce, sriracha, cooking wine, cornstarch and garlic powder in a medium bowl and stirring well.
• Add thawed shrimp to marinade and stir to coat. Marinate for approximately 20 minutes.
• Heat heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to coat bottom, so shrimp will not stick. Heat until oil begins to shimmer.
• When oil is hot, add shrimp to pan one at a time. Take care to avoid any spattering oil and do not crowd the pan. There should be space around each shrimp, and you should hear the shrimp sizzle as they cook. Do not add the remaining marinade to the pan.
• When the tails of the shrimp begin to look pink, turn the shrimp to brown the other side.  Cook until the second side is browned. This will only take a few minutes.
• Remove shrimp from heat as soon as you are finished cooking, so they don’t grow tough.

Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….

I appreciate it when a restaurant celebrates, rather than undervalues, the vegetable selections of the meal. A huge hunk of meat with a spring of parsley doesn’t impress me, but I can tell you that I would be so desperate for something green on my plate — and in my belly — that I’d down that parsley like it was the last morsel of food on earth. I know, I can always order a side salad (and I do) but a good chef will accent his dishes with delectably prepared veggies that go with the entree selection.

For our wedding anniversary, Keith and I went to Ming Tsai’s restaurant, Blue Ginger. It had been several years since we’d been back there (since we moved) and a visit to one of our favorite haunts was long overdue. Now, I won’t go saying that Ming’s menu selections are all about the veggies; I was left wanting more, as always. However, he does incorporate vegetables into his dishes like all good chefs should. Let me tell you about them….

For my appetizer, I ordered the fois gras shiitake shumai in sauternes-shallot broth. This is quite possibly one of the most delicious things I have ever put into my mouth, and for just a brief moment, I considered not sharing with Keith (who saved half of his appetizer for me). As it was, I tried to trick him into believing that I had to eat two of the three because it was too hard to split one, but alas, he didn’t fall for it.

The broth was chock-full of shallots, a vegetable, and there were shiitake mushrooms in the shumai filling, but the use of vegetables I loved the most in this dish were the edamame sprinkled throughout the broth, and topping each shumai. The bright green was perfect, and I wish Keith’s cell phone took better pictures so I could share it with you.

Keith’s appetizer was tea-smoked salmon and beef carpaccio with fresh wasabi emulsion — yeah, I know. But the best part was the jicama and avocado — for lack of a better word — guacamole that was served with it. It made the raw meat refreshing; and that, my friends, is the way to serve veggies.

For dinner, I had the rice paper-wrapped salmon with lobster-sake sauce with wild mushroom risotto and shaved fennel-herb salad. The salad was heavy on the fresh cilantro and mint, which made the dish. Sure, I would have served the whole shabang on a bed of microgreens, but the cool and light fennel and herbs balanced the richness of the rest of the entree.

Keith’s dinner was the tea spiced pork loin with black bean-garlic pork belly with spring pea-wild mushroom fricassee and two basil puree. Basically, there was a huge puddle of veggies under his meat, but it was alll so… cooked. I’m voting for that bed of microgreens again to lighten things up.

I don’t know, maybe I’m too veggie-oriented if I can find fault wth Ming Tsai, arguably one of the most creative and whole-foods centric chefs out there right now. I commend Ming’s artistry and the fact that he values veggies enough to make them part of the whole (no a la carte here) but still I crave more. Do I need an intervention?

In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, I’m not super-comfortable in the kitchen. In fact, one of the reasons I started writing for CliqueClack Food is because I had a baby and wanted to become more comfortable so I could feed my family well. So it should come to no surprise that I don’t really have a ton of my own recipes. In fact, when I decided to write this post so Cate would  have something to do with her potatoes, it was the first time I ever actually wrote out a recipe.

All of that is a very long-winded way of saying that the recipe I’m about to publish is really just a guide. Play around with the amounts to suit your taste. For instance, I don’t completely loathe mayonnaise like Debbie does, but I’m not a huge fan of it, so I put in as little as possible. You may want more. You would be wrong, but hey. To each their own. If you’re brave (and awesome) enough, you could even up the mustard quotient– which is something I would actually recommend.

This potato salad is super-simple, and can generally be made with things hanging out in your refrigerator.

• 5 lb. bag of red potatoes
• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• 3 celery stalks
• 1/2 cup of mayonnaise (I like the Kraft olive oil mayo)
• 1/3 cup yellow mustard
• 1/3 cup pickle juice
• 6 pickle spears (Claussen Kosher Dill spears)
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 1 tsp. paprika
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut the potatoes in half, keep the skins on and boil them up. In a separate pan, boil your eggs. While your potatoes and eggs are boiling, slice your celery and chop up the pickle spears. Drain the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces and put them in a large bowl.Chop up five of the eggs, leaving one aside.

While they’re still hot, add your celery and pickles. Add the mayo, stir everything up, add the mustard and stir it again. Put in your 5 chopped eggs, then add the pickle juice and stir it up a third time. Add the salt, black pepper and white pepper, and stir it all up a final time. take the 6th egg, slice it and place on top of the potato salad. Sprinkle the paprika over the entire dish.

The key to the whole dish is the pickles, which is why I use Claussen. They’re just the best-thhands down. I HATE potato salad that tastes sweet, hence the focus on the pickles and mustard. The pickles also take the place of the onions that most people seem fond of putting in potato salads.

Some folks are also kind of confused by the fact that I put eggs in my potato salad. I honestly started doing that because my mom puts them in hers, and I just got used to it. It’s definitely still potato salad, and not egg salad, but the eggs are nice because they add a different texture, not to mention some protein. Overall, the recipe is a little weird, very simple, and people seem to dig it.

Ever think it would be fun to open your own sushi restaurant? To tell you the truth, it’s not something that ever occurred to me… until recently. If I were ever to open my own restaurant, I could see it being a sort of bed and breakfast type place, or a garden cafe, or even a gourmet trendy spot, but definitely not a sushi restaurant.

It seems too limiting to me, and even though I love eating and making sushi, I think I’m probably just not Japanese enough to give it a real go. Plus, I’ve just been given a glimpse of what it might be like to run a sushi restaurant, and it’s not as easy as you might think.

No, I didn’t spend the day behind the scenes at my local haunt, nor did I even host a sushi party. I discovered the online game Sushi Go Round. Holy raw fish, Batman, this is one fast-paced jaunt into everything sushi.

Basically, you need to make sushi rolls (they give you a recipe book to refer to) and serve them to customers in a timely fashion. If you’re slow, send a little sake their way. Oh, and you’ll need to order ingredients as you run out of them. Your goal is to make a certain amount of money each day and to keep a good reputation.

Each level brings another type of sushi you need to learn to make and serve, and it’s a huge waste of time if you screw up the recipes. This leads to disgruntled diners, who, if you’re fast enough, might just get drunk on sake.

One tip I’ll give you — do not attempt to play this game when your four-year-old is coaching you (back seat driver!). It will just annoy you, you’ll lose your concentration, your customers will leave unhappy and it will give your restaurant a bad reputation. Damn kids! Try it when his daddy is giving him a bath… you’ll win on the first try.

Have you ever played Sushi Go Round? Tell us your experience, and if you’ve never tried it, what are you waiting for? We love beginners’ stories!