Salon praises Good Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. Read it.

You know what sucks? Having a nightly habit of waking up at 4:30am, worrying. Usually, it’s about people breaking into my apartment, at which point, I get up and turn on the light over the dining room table. Last night, it was carbon monoxide. Since the dumb incident, I haven’t been using my heater at night. (Or really, much at all.) We’re in the middle of a cold snap over here in California (and yes, I can feel your tears, East-coasters), and I’ve been loading up on comforters and sleepwear to keep warm. Anyway, I wake up, think about turning the heater on, listen to my upstairs neighbors argue (seriously, people, at 4:30am?), get a headache, wonder if I’m suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, consider airing out my apartment, decide against it because apparently I’d rather be dead than cold, move my carbon monoxide detector into my room, spend the next fifteen minutes wondering if the detector even works, and then decide that my headache’s because my damn neighbors are arguing at 4:30am. I go back to sleep. I wake up, not dead.

Speaking of not dead- and how pathetic is that for a segue- no one died last night in D&D. Er, no players died. We killed some stuff. Phaedra returned to us. I have a feeling Mynnyd shouldn’t really trust her, because he only knew her for a couple of days, and the next time he saw her, it was actually a succubus impersonating her. So, Phaedra’s disguised herself while in town because people think she’s a demon. The party doesn’t, but I think Mynnyd shouldn’t be entirely believing Phaedra’s really herself. Of course, Mynnyd’s also only slightly smarter than a rock, so he may well believe she’s who she says she is.

Stupid Trader Joe’s hasn’t had refried beans these last two Tuesdays. I wanted to make some Spicy Bean Dip quickly for the session. I did make it, but it’s not really quick when you have to go to two stores.

Ryan made damn tasty spiced peppery pecans last weekend. They were really good. The recipe was from the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating. I want to make them and, like, bring them into work. Because if they are in my home, I will make myself sick on them. So good.

I had a very bizarre dream last night. It was 1995, and the city I was in was under attack by Godzilla and Mothra. The population was scared but not panicking, even though we were going to have to sacrifice a lot of people to Godzilla for some reason. I was one of those chosen to get eaten, and he was picking me up to eat me when I decided I wanted to die in a classier manner. I ended up being coated in bread crumbs and wrapped in a huge flank steak- essentially, a human-stuffed braciole. So I got eaten, but apparently he didn’t chew (a pity, I bet that would have been tasty), because after some darkness, I was out and alive again. And not gross from like Godzilla poop or anything. I couldn’t find anyone, and no phone numbers worked except for 911. I got the county dispatch, and she told me it was now 1998 and my city had been completely wiped out.

Good dream, Sarah.

I went to BookBuyers on Saturday and picked up a Dungeon Masters Guide for 11.95, which isn’t a great price, but it’s a decent one. Considering that’s the only money I’ve spent on D&D stuff so far, it’s pretty good. Dennis gave me his Player’s Guide for free, and I found my brother’s old dice when we were cleaning out closets.

Game on for tonight. Here’s hoping Cooper doesn’t die. AGAIN. He’s died (I think) three times since I’ve started playing.

Homemade tortillas are good. Put lots of salt in them. I make a half recipe with the full recipe’s salt amount. (When I didn’t, they ended up tasting more like matzoh than tortillas, and yes, I know I’ve mentioned this before.) Mm!

Man, it’s cold.

So, this broccoli recipe? Oh, it’s so good. I hate myself SO HARD for loving it. Karen F. is a family friend originally from the Midwest. She brought this to a Thanksgiving dinner probably eight or so years ago, and the family fell in love with it. Well, not fell in love. Fell into a horrible relationship where the broccoli beats us up, but we’re so screwed up that we let it happen.

Ee. That was a bad analogy. Love-hate relationship. That’s better. Dysfunctional. Anyway, Sara mentioned it on her blog, so I figured I had to get it up macht schnell.

Oh, Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous this year. (It was fabulous last year, too, but in a different way- we had duck… mmmmm. I digress.) My aunt and uncle came and visited from back east. Hi there, Peg and Ted! Aunt Peggy brought a recipe for this incredible soup from The Inn at Little Washington. Oh, it was amazing. We ate the leftovers at Thanksgiving II last night, and Sara said, “I would totally just drink this through a straw.” I have a copy of the recipe; I’ll post that later.

If I had patience, I’d make creamed onions all the time. Er, and if I was skinny. Yum! But peeling all those little onions is annoying. I wonder if it can be made successfully using frozen ones. (Insert rant here from my mom, saying that the frozen ones suck and have bad texture.) (Insert counter-rant from my brother, saying they’re easier and he can’t tell the difference.)

What else… oh, Ryan made tasty cranberry relish and mincemeat pie. And of course, there was also Indian Pudding for dessert. I stole the cookbook with the recipe in it, so I’ll post that later, too.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, rutabagas! All wonderful!

I still have a curry recipe to post! Yipes!

Well, I’ve still got one more curry recipe to post. I’ll do that later, although I’ll probably fuss with the times so that this appears above it. I’m not very helpful.

On Thursday night, I went with Ryan and the ‘rents to see Jon perform. It was a good show. Hookslide and The House Jacks. Good times.

Friday was spent making curries. Whee! Actually, these weren’t very hard. A little time consuming, but not bad. So on Saturday morning, I packed them and a bunch of cookies and headed over to Lydia’s, where I spent the day. We ate, drank, and made merry with anime and video games. I felt very stupid playing a taiko drumming game– even though I am a musician, I can’t say I have many skillz in rhythm. I’m sort of hopelessly white. I also felt stupid, although less so, playing Katamari Damacy. I kept forgetting what the controls were. But I still made a couple wee stars. That’s a bizarre game. We watched a fairly new anime showing in Japan called Yakitate!! It’s about a young man with really warm hands who wants to create Japan’s national bread. No, really.

On Sunday, I went over to Jon and Ryan’s and played video games that don’t make me feel inept. Well, game. I dearly love the Ratchet & Clank series, and can’t wait for Jon to get the third. Ryan made tons of cookies, I made tortillas that turned out disturbingly like matzoh (next time, more salt and rolled thicker), and Jon made yummy nachos (using the joy-sucking America’s Test Kitchen method).

I went to the grocery store last night to buy ingredients for my part of Thanksgiving. I was assigned two things- Crescent Rolls and Heart-Attack Broccoli. I thought about making buttermilk biscuits instead, but the Crescent Rolls are traditional. (And also used to be almost the only thing I would eat at Thanksgiving- Crescent Rolls and cranberry sauce.) I ended up sepnding $25, which seems rather ridiculous. Okay, a fifth of that was unnecessary, but two pounds of butter for five dollars? That’s a good price! Five dollars each on butter, broccoli, Velveeta (I know, shut up), and Ritz Crackers (what did I just say?). The Crescent Rolls were on sale, and I bought some little containers of the right size for one-person leftovers. I have a lot of Gladware and such that’s not really the right size in which to freeze lunch-sized portions.

I think that’s it. D&D tonight.

Matar Dal

Yellow Split-Pea Curry

1/2 lb. yellow split-peas (about 1 cup)

2 1/2 cups water

1 1/4 tsp salt

Big pinch of ground turmeric

1 1/4 tsp ground cumin

2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Pinch of garlic powder

Pinch of sugar

2-4 Tbsp vegetable oil or ghee

Pinch of cumin seeds

2 red or green chiles

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

3/4 tsp freshly grated ginger

1 bay leaf

1/2 lb. slab of bacon or chicken livers, chopped

2 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

Pinch of monosodium glutamate (optional, can you even find this?)

Pinch of seasoned salt (I used Old Bay)

Pinch of paprika

Wash spilt peas and soak in water for 20 minutes. Boil spilt peas in their soaking water. Add salt and turmeric. Boil for 2 minutes, removing scum. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat. Add ground cumin, lemon juice, coriander, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and sugar to the pot.

Heat vegetable oil or ghee in a large saucepan and cook cumin seeds, chiles, onions, ginger, bay leaf, and bacon or chicken livers for 3-4 minutes. (Or, cook bacon alone until almost crisp, then add other ingredients and cook them.) Add tomato paste, MSG, and seasoned salt. Stirring, add the boiled peas mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and mix well. Cook slowly for 15-30 minutes, adding water if mixture looks too thick.