Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I threw together some fast food between commercials...

http://cassaendra.blogspot.com/2009/10/tv-party.html

I ended up making okonomiyaki...it's a very easy, cheap, and filling dish to make, utilizing, in its basic form, only flour, water (or dashi), eggs, and shredded cabbage.

Mentioned it here:
http://cassaendra.blogspot.com/2009/09/okonomiyaki.html

This was quite enjoyable since I have not eaten okonomiyaki in a while.

This Cook and Tell was really exciting! Everyone's pancakes look great. For mine, I tested out a different, diner-style batter that worked really well on my griddle. Thin, but not too thin, which got me pretty even heat distribution on the griddle.

Here are the kinds of pancakes I made (about half of which are from Kenny Shopsin's cookbook): trail mix w/ peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, and M&M's, brown sugar-glazed banana, pear gorgonzola, chocolate raspberry, turkey with colby, and strawberry banana. They were all really delish, especially the pear gorgonzola and chocolate raspberry 'cakes.

Full write-up with pictures (including pictures of the above-mentioned pancakes, as well as a couple of Shopsin's pancakes that I had made previously, like the mac'n'cheese pancakes) here:

http://beachcitycooking.blogspot.com/2009/09/pancake-madness.html

recent bento talks here make me miss "hot bento" shops! especially the ones you can pick and choose bento fillings to create your own bento... they are a lot of fun!

I've been on a Greek kick for over a week now, and I'm not over it yet, thank goodness! I found recipes on the internet for homemade gyros made with ground beef and ground pork and spanokopita turkey meatballs. Both recipes were easy, and made a lot, so I was able to share with friends and co-workers. The gyros were served with a regular tzatziki sauce, and then this was extended by adding cumin, coriander and dill with the meatballs. For some unknown reason, none of the 3 grocery stores in my town know what plain, unsweetened yogurt is, so I drove over 25 miles to the next largest town hoping to find plain yogurt, and was absolutely ecstatic to find organic, greek-style yogurt. Also, I was in the middle of trying out new recipes for no knead bread, and I made naan instead of pita bread because I could just cook it in the skillet.

I didn't get pictures, but did make the following:
- Casserole based upon grandmother's beloved mushroom rice; adding extra veggies and lentils to make it a meal.
- Quinoa-lentil curry, based upon an amalgam of recipes found online. This is definitely going into regular rotation! Included were chopped onions, shredded carrots, chopped apple, raisins, and squash.
- Grilled corn and black bean salad, with chopped cucumbers and red peppers and a dressing that includes lots of garlic and cilantro. I always roast extra corn for just such a use.

Fall Flavored Red Lentil Soup with Eggplant
http://cantaloupealone.blogspot.com/2009/09/fall-flavored-red-lentil-eggplant-soup.html

Hits the spot veg or not, and I am not. :)

Sadly I have dieted so much that there are times when even these taste good.

We grilled chicken legs with bbq sauce, nitrate free organic hot dogs and bell peppers stuffed with rice, goat cheese, thyme and sauteed red onion and tomato.

And a homemade potato salad for the side.

For future reference:

Banana Jam

3 lemons, 8 bananas, 3 cups of sugar, 3 cups water, a chunk of ginger about an inch on each side, cloves

Remove the rind from the lemon in very fine strips. Squeeze them and reserve the juice. Boil the water and sugar together for about 10 minutes. Add the lemon juice, rind, the ginger and a few cloves. Simmer for 1/2 - 3/4 hr., stirring often to avoid scorching. Remove the ginger before transfering to jars. One or two cloves may be added to each jar.

Deep fry some of them, as would be done with plantains in South America, and serve with barbecued meat.

Freeze some for later use and use a few on this:

http://pinchmysalt.com/2007/09/27/tired-of-banana-bread-try-this-recipe/

It is amazing!