mexican food: the amateur photographer's worst enemy

I'm pretty sure I've never taken a good picture of a Mexican dish. Sure, you can add some herbs for a pleasant touch of color, but it ultimately looks like greenery on top of a sloppy mess of what might or might not be edible food.

the need to knead

I worked in a bakery for nearly five years. While my role was more focused on cakes and pies, I did get a lot of experience in making bread.

cavity shmavity.

Guess what day it is...

National Jelly Bean Day! Yum.

*Thanks to Gimbal's for making me aware of this special day and for sending me some delicious samples!

swour (it'll make sense in a second)(i hope)

I'm definitely on a sweet and sour kick lately. Isn't it interesting how our taste buds transform and develop over time?

well, i do eclair!

I may or may not have had a birthday recently.

I definitely did have a birthday cake.

spring cleaning (for real) #OXOSpringCleaning

I know it's not quite a natural progression* to move from a post about sloppy joes to a review of products meant for bathroom cleaning, but I do like to surprise you folks from time to time.

*And though a connection can be made, I think I'll avoid going there...except to say that Kramer's misadventures in this episode of Seinfeld disgust me greatly. It might be the only episode I can't watch over and over again.

spring cleaning

As a rule, I'm not crazy about chicken wings. I never order them* and rarely make them. I think it's because they always leave a trail of orange sauce from the corners of your mouth to your fingertips and possibly on all articles of clothing in between (and even those in the next room, too).

*One notable exception is the dirty south wings at the New Public House in Blowing Rock, NC. The wings were coated in a fabulous sweet and spicy blackberry bourbon glaze and it was so good, I wished for a piece of bread to wipe the leftover glaze off the plate. And yes, I ate them with a fork.

blessed be

There seems to be ample evidence that many of my favorite side dishes could almost double as a dessert--I've posted several that have plain ol' granulated sugar as an ingredient (exhibits A, B, D, M, and R, for starters). I must have a sweet tooth or something.

pizza...for breakfast...for dinner

As I've gotten older and the number of my responsibilities has exploded grown, I've come to appreciate some things at which I used to turn up my nose. High on that list is takeout (or, even better, delivery) pizza.