"The Floating Green Douchebag"! Awesome!

I once had a woman ask me to make her cocktail with Sweet'n Low (during a mad-crazy rush, of course). My easy out was "We don't have Sweet'n Low," but then she whipped out two packets from her purse. I was too busy to fight her, so cringing, I made the cocktail. She loved it.

Every summer I look forward to making peach and plum fruit leather, and this year I will definitely try strawberry, too. I really need a dehydrator!

One of the very best recipes I've ever gotten from Serious Eats is for the Whole Grain Pancakes by Elizabeth Barbone. I make them frequently and often keep a stack in the fridge to heat up for a quick snack. They are great!

I just got back from my first trip there, and in addition to all the great pintxos, we had fantastic gelato at Oiartzun in the Parte Vieja (despite the gruff service). And we were really delighted by the meal we had at our hotel, the Astoria 7, which is a little further away from all the prettiness of the shore and old town, but there was an amazing roasted vegetable salad that was one of the highlights of our trip to Spain, and the meaty main courses were really solid, too.

The first and only time I've made ice cream sandwiches was cinnamon cookies with espresso ice cream. I am all over that maple-pumpkin combo when October hits.

The service is really friendly here. I love getting a roasted barley iced tea from the fridge and drinking it next door along with my five-dumplings-for-a-dollar.

The wild mushroom pie I had at Oven & Shaker in Portland recently was one of the best pizzas I'd eaten in a long time.

crêpes. toppings included various homemade jams, apple butter, sugar and lemon, and cheese. it's a new year's day tradition for me.

i'm digging on that purple yam pie. so clever!

marinated eggplant

equal parts miso paste and mayonnaise with a splash of rice wine vinegar mixed together and used as a salad dressing.

it was a really good call on your part to doctor the mix, which i wouldn't have ever thought of. i've made it a few times now with really great results, learning through trial and error not to stretch the dough too thin to get a satisfying chewiness. thank you for writing this up!

on my last several trips to spain and italy, i've made myself meat and cheese sandwiches to eat on the plane. more than once, i didn't finish the sandwich and forgot i even had it, walking straight through customs on the way home without incident, even when i was standing on line right next to the contraband-sniffing beagles.

once on my way back from thailand, during the height of mad cow disease hysteria, i had packages of instant rice porridge confiscated because they contained dried pork. a bummer, but at least they were cheap.

when i go to spain, my favorite thing to bring back is dried, ground laurel leaves, which i have yet to find here in the states. coming back from france, i love supermarket chocolate bars. they're cheap and totally not fancy, but they're really good, so i like to stock up.