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.

Certain conversational gambits should come with warning flags. I've decided that any conversation I start that begins with the phrase "So I was on the elliptical, and I was thinking…" should be treated with the same level of skepticism and distrust given to any conversation that starts with "There was this one time at band camp…" Nine times out of ten, it's going to be a boring, dull recitation -- but it's the pesky tenth time around that'll get you when you're not looking, and make you wish you carried a big fat wad of mental floss in your pocket.

This page explains in truly gory detail exactly how you would make a turducken. (Photos are worksafe, but page contains words that aren't.)

Yes, I know a couple of you are vegetarians … you know who you are. Just don't even read this, ok? You'd cry. But for the rest of you carnivores, you're about to encounter instructions like these:

I love to cook, but I love my laziness more. Most of the time, this intersection of personal interests yields little of interest, but every now and then, I have a eureka! moment that's worth sharing.

In the past couple of years I've come to appreciate the goodness of an off-the-cuff pan sauce. A bit of stock, a bit of wine, some aromatics, and then a bit of thickening agent (either some kind of fat, or arrowroot starch dissolved in water) for a good mouthfeel. Reduce, plate, eat.

Yet another from the Jody Vault, in his attempts to provide me more interesting ways to serve up the healthily-cooked poultry we seem to be consuming a bit of these days. (Reminds me. I need to do a Penzey's order soon. Mmmm, Penzey's...my personal crack dealer. Any of the locals want to go in on an order?)

While we're on the Moroccan theme tonight, here's another from the vast set of recipes that Jody sent me a couple of weeks ago - good for those of us who are trying to up our veggie counts by whatever means are necessary. He calls this his Moroccan version of "veggie delight."

I have to admit, I don't even know what "veggie delight" is. I'm somewhat afraid to ask. Asking questions like that always seems to get me in trouble...