It's late and I'm tired

and I haven't eaten a thing but junk food and coffee all day long. So imagine how I'm swooning over the following:

Migas in the morning, courtesy of homesick Texan

Pumpkin Pancakes via Joy the Baker and Pancake Maker

Quiche Lorraine via Smitten Kitchen. I mean, she has a NEWBORN! What is she doing with leeks?

And in a very useful "Cooking the Blog" post, Wednesday Chef cooks from the NYTimes and has a thing or two to say about it:

Melissa Clark's Coconut Barley Pilaf

Whatever the outcome, it looks fabulous. Head on over and see for yourselves.

Oh, one last thing. Joy has something to say about buttermilk:

The best buttermilk substitutions

Migas and pumpkin pancakes are definitely on IcedLatte's table this weekend.

Ah, the Happy Meal

The experience with a 5 year old lovingly rendered in the NYTimes this week. My kids often get Happy Meals for lunch on Saturday. They get plain burgers, apple dippers, and milk. What they really want is the toy. Most often they eat the bun, ditch the pickle, nibble the burger, and finish the apples. Kids.

Cooking with Dexter: Happy Meal Me

However, I'm completely grossed out by ground beef now thanks to the Sunday NYTimes frightening article about beef processing. It takes a lot to gross me out, too. I'm so completely offended by the "It's not my fault, must be the wholesaler/supplier/feedlot, blah blah blah." Belly up to the bar. You're going to get sued anyway, wholesaler/supplier/feedlot.

E coli Path shows Flaws in Beef Inspection

First the water supply. Now this. I guess I'll stick to candy corn and Diet Coke.

What if I used bacon?

Taking a leaf from a Top Chef improvisation substituting bacon for pork belly, how about if I made this with slab bacon--which I conveniently have arriving along with the rest of a cryovac'ed pig--instead of pork belly.

Chashu via norecipe

Almost oil-free miso all-purpose dressing

Image via Wikipedia

My latest. Tossed blanched haricots verts and snap peas in it. Delicious. This would work for a whole variety of salads, noodles, chicken, fish, most especially tuna. It is adapted from a Crescent Dragonwagon recipe from way back.

More Miso!

2 inches fresh gingerroot, peeled, finely chopped
1/4 cup white miso paste
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (seasoned or not works)
1/4 cup mirin (or sweet sherry)
2 T tamari soy sauce
2 T honey
2 T tahini
pinch cayenne pepper
1 T sesame oil

Tricky instructions: mix everything together and serve. Think you can handle it? This makes a lot: enough for a salad and then some.

Brown Bag Lunches at Cafe NYTimes

Monsieur Bittman asked readers of his NYTimes food blog to give him a hand and post ideas for interesting brown bag lunches. There are nearly 300 comments. Interesting read, full of good ideas:

Some Help, Please

Just when you thought you were free of eggplant!

You weren't! Mark Bittman has a recipe for roasted vegetables, Thai style. It looks remarkably like my crockpot ThaiThai vegetable stew, which I cribbed almost completely from a PassUBy KYSO recipe, only I'm lazy and she's not so I throw my stuff in the crockpot. I don't use peanut butter 'cause nuts make Little Latte get very hive-y.

I might try this. Or I might stick with the crockpot version of PassUBy's recipe.

Roasted Vegetables, Thai Style

Oh, God no. Not more eggplant.

Oh, yeah, baby. And from a new mother! I remember when I was a new mother, wandering around my house, scratching my head. It all looked so terribly familiar. So utterly strange, though, to have another warm mouth to feed. And with stuff from me! (That still wigs me out a little.) I felt like I'd had a really good day if I showered.

But Deb, at Smitten Kitchen, is not only hauling her little love bug all over town, but she's posting gorgeous eggplant recipes. STUFFED eggplants, not just "slice it up, throw it on the bbq, mash it with some olive oil and slap it on some pita." I feel quite unnerved by her.

BUT I no longer have to 1. Carry a diaper bag, 2. Worry about running out of diapers, and 3. Buckle 50% of my kids into carseats. I can just jump in the car with a purse, mentally check where a potty at the grocery will be, and help Little Macchiato snap her belt in place while I run to the store to get the ingredients for this:

Lebanese-style stuffed eggplant