Thanks, esmerel! She taunts me from California with cupcakes I can't have unless i make one of these recipes: Smitten Kitchen's "chocolate whiskey and beer cupcakes" or "Chocolate Guinness Stout Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Bailey's Buttercream Swirl"

What's sad is that my brain doesn't know if it wants a beer or a cupcake.

Saturday lunch is a long-standing favorite of ours. It's a chance for Jeff and me to talk without the artificial constraint of a lunch hour, or the tiredness that comes after a work day. Most are unmemorable quick outings; today's will stick in my mind for a while, but not in a good way.

Our last experience at Spice of India was a little odd at times, but the dinner showed some promise. Enough to give it a second try, anyway. Everything I've heard and read indicated that it was better visited at lunch.  That's what we did this time, except this time it was on a Saturday. Thirty minutes after opening we were the first customers in the door; the satellite broadcast of a Bombay radio station was switched on as we walked in the door.

How I managed to forget to document this recipe last year, I do not know, but I did.

This is the bread dip of great evil I break out only once a year: PHE*.  When you read over the ingredients, you'll understand why; our arteries really can't cope with having this dip with any greater frequency.

Ingredients

• 1 head garlic, roasted. (At least ten cloves. You want more than that. Be bold.)
• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 can (about 6 fillets) anchovies
• salt, if desired
• white pepper, if desired

Directions

Roast the garlic. (We assume you know how to do that.) Mash the peeled garlic cloves together with the anchovies into a smooth paste. Melt the butter into the cream.  Add the anchovy-garlic mixture. Simmer on low until flavors meld.

Anthony Bourdain rails against the current crop of TV chefs and names names:

We KNOW she can't cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So...what is she selling us? Really? She's selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She's a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that "Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!" Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, "Hell…I could do that. I ain't gonna…but I could--if I wanted! Now where's my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?"

Via Jody, of course.

(Snitched wholesale from www.verygoodtaste.co.uk...)

Here's a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don't worry if you haven't, mind you; neither have I, though I'll be sure to work on it. Don't worry if you don't recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

While I wait for today's Godot -- Adobe CS3 -- to attempt (yet again) to reinstall Adobe Acrobat CS3 (of which install, I might add, there are several known problems, especially regarding upgrading) ... well, guess what, kids, you're stuck with me for a little while.

If you want to know how to keep a webmaster from getting anything done, deny her access to her email and her web browser. After a few tumultuous minutes of foaming at the mouth, she will subside into quiet, trailing whimpers while she waits for the pain to stop.

Over the past week or so, I've been asking myself the question every self-respecting traveler asks well in advance of his/her trip—"What's gonna go in the bag?" My goal, admirable but perhaps ill-advised, is to make everything except my toiletries bag fit in one bag, which I will check.I will live out of that bag for a day short of two weeks. Thankfully, the vagaries of flight will deposit me in a land known more for sunshine than for snow. It's far easier to pack for sand and sun than it is for snow and cold. No boots, no sweaters, no scarves.

I wish I could remember who started me on the path to tea, but I know that it has been a quiet presence in my life's background since college, as I believe Sperry drank tea regularly. I have no doubt that in the passing years I have been offered many a cup and turned them down due to lack of familiarity.I believe it may have been Gareth, when he stayed with us a few years ago, bringing a box of tea with him and having a cup during even the hottest days of summer.

I've held off posting this recipe because it's reverse-engineered from a non-public recipe either created or modified by someone I know. However, since I can restrict access to this post, it seems silly not to post it, because I'm getting tired of periodically searching my email for it.

This is how I make the drink tech staffers know as 'apple pie.'

All stories aside from this past week (a massive website upgrade, a pulled hamstring, and How I Got Out Of Jury Duty) here's what's on my mind: breakfast at the geekfarm a week from today.There will be a few stragglers staying on past Sunday. I feel this growing urge to stage a geek feeding. Jody was kind enough to point me to this recipe from epicurious.com. I am rapidly beginning to suspect that while this bread is neither French nor toast, it is nevertheless a moral imperative that I make it.