My family has a problem - none of us like blood oranges. We all find them to be a bizarre combination of tart and bland. Yet foodies all over seem to adore them. What are we doing wrong?

The logical answer would be to just give up on the damn things, they're not our taste etc., etc., however we just got a large bag of them from our co-op.

Please, please help us discover the joys of the blood orange!

Since it's a lovely week of traditions and cultures overlapping, I thought I'd represent too. Today is Norouz, the Persian New Year. Part of the celebration is having a haft sin table.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haft_sin_table

As you can see most of the items are food. Here's mine!


The sabzeh is a bit lackluster as it's just started - but I am so happy that it's even sprouted at all. I have a notorious black thumb.

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The tool:

For the first time in a while I was by myself in the house and so I decided to cook somethings I usually can't.

( Pan Fried Gurnard with Salad )

( Naked Chicken )

( Manuka Smoked Garlic Salt )

( Crispy Crunchy Chicken Bites )

So I'm not sure how many of you have been watch but Food Network has a new show called Ultimate Recipe Showdown, where real people submit recipise and have a chance to win 25 grand!

So, I've entered in my cookie recipe and I really want your opinion and if I even have a shot. I do have a picture of the cookie, but it's so blurry you can't see it. :\ So, does hte recipe sound like porn heaven to you guys? Feel free to try it and tell me if you think it has a chance. :] I also entered my bruchetta and my buffalo chicken bites.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup soft butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar [I prefer the richness of the dark brown sugar]
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups of quick cooking oats
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffee bits

Preheat the oven to 325 degress and get your cookie sheet ready to go. I use a Slipat so I don't need to grease. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and both types of sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and honey and mix until well combined. add the dry ingredients and mix until they're just mixed. Add the oats, chocolate chips, and toffee bits and fold them in well. Drop walnut sized rounds on to your cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Soooo, sound good? Sound yummy? I hope I hope I hope....

I am trying to make breakfast sausage.
Being from peasant stock from the deep south of the US, my baseline for such things is plain ole Jimmy Dean sausage. (Shush yo' mouf!)
And thanks to the magic of the intarweb, I found a recipe that purports to recreate that formula:
   16 ounces ground pork (I ground my own, from a chunk of pork loin)
   1 teaspoon salt
   1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
   1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
   1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
   1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
   1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
   1/4 teaspoon coriander
   1/4 teaspoon MSG (such as Accent flavor enhancer)

I skipped the MSG, but otherwise followed this formula pretty closely.
And the results are... odd.
The taste is okay. Not quite right, but with some experimentation I can get it there.
But the texture and appearance isn't right. Specifically, plain ole grocery sausage browns very well, and ever goes darn near black without tasting burned.
However, the stuff I made wanted to stay fairly light and browned very little, even when it was done through and through.

Of course, here's the money shot, three patties of Jimmy Dean near the top, three patties of my sausage at the bottom:



Any idea what's going on?
Insufficient fat in the ground pork? What would you use for additional added fat? It's not like I have a slaughtered pig hanging around to butcher. Maybe some salt pork?
Next time I want to try a pork butt (instead of loin) and see what difference that makes.

Any and all advice would be most appreciated.

PS: *snicker* He said "pork butt".

So coming home from an interview in Cambridge, I saw this little beauty outside of a bar (Atwoods) and we...obviously I thought of all the wonderful bacon fans here...
soooo, I give you-

A bit of the mixture actually settled at the bottom, creating a creamy cinnamon custard base.

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It's just warm enough now to sit outside in our glass-covered sun-room when the sun is shining. Today my daughter brought me this breakfast out there:



Mango juice, slices of yellow melon, fresh bread and homemade tapenade - mmmmhh!

Made shrinmp udon tonight with shitake mushrooms, basil and mint.



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A while back, someone made a post about healthy Baked Spicy Garlic Chicken Tenders, and the picture they posted made me cry it looked so delicious. So it was either try to make them or die.



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I'm not Jewish, but my boyfriend is. I'm learning more about Jewish traditions and I since baking is one of the things that I do best, it's also the best way for me to participate in and contribute to the celebration of all these new Jewish holidays.

Tonight, I made chocolate raspberry hamantashen from this recipe at The Kosher Blog.

Esthetically, they were a disaster. I've never watched anybody make them, so I didn't know what they should look like, how much filling to put in them, or what texture the dough should be.



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(my cat thought they looked okay.)