fivebyevif

SimuCon this weekend. I tried to keep up with the jokers and the drinkers last night, but by 2:30 I was drooping and had to have Mike haul me home.
It’s been a long week, turning into a long month. I’ve had to be a leader. It’s tiring.
We’ve been eating out [...]

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Though I’m not classified as a vegetarian, I usually only eat meat once a day (at dinner). I buy and eat a lot of vegetarian products because there are quite a few of them that are great fake-outs for the real thing.
(I also like firm tofu cubed up and thrown into a [...]

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You know you’re getting old when you see that Boca Burger is making a version of its “chick’n” patties that comes on a bun with cheese and you think holy crap that’s awesome I am so going to pick up some of those.
And then that’s the most exciting thing you can report for your morning.
Elsewhere: [...]

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FYI, this is the recipe for the dish I had when we went to Niche a couple months ago. It reminded me of a happy cross between pork barbeque and pasta. If that sounds appealing to you, then I recommend giving the recipe a go.
Whatever you do, try to find a [...]

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So I go to my doctor, and I says, “Doctah, doctah! Every time I get down to 150 pounds, I stop losing weight!” And he says: “Let’s run more tests!”
You were expecting a punchline, perhaps?
Well, there isn’t one…yet. There might be in ten days when either a) everything comes back fine and [...]

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On the first day of Spring, I sucked sixteen gallons of water out of my basement.
Eff you, Spring!
Well, the story got done. Which is to say I wrote something I am more than less happy with, and sent it to an editor, who I hope thinks the same. Then I sat [...]

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My lofty goal this week is to not eat out until Friday.
Two reasons: one, money. Two, that eternal goal of trying to get to 130. I’ve maintained here at 150 since December, which is great, but I’d like to dump altitude if at all possible.
It helps that I’m 1,000 words from a first [...]

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Update: The Cook’s Illustrated recipe (which I used) is online (for now). I recommend saving a copy if you like it, as CI is known for taking its recipes down after a month or two.
The basic almost-no-knead bread recipe is here. The author of that blog has added rye flour, but I’ve used [...]

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Dear Missouri Italian-American Restaurants,
No.
No, I am putting my foot down on this one. I have withstood the storm of provel, the so-called “cheese” you like to put on everything. I accept that when you say “toasted ravioli” what you really mean is “breaded and deep-fried pasta travesty”. And I can understand that [...]

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The next time I say, “I think I’ll hand-knead, roll, and stuff 80 tortellini!” — eh, you know I love it.
And a test boil tells me that it’s pretty tasty stuff. For my second try at rolling out pasta, I think this Midwest hippy from California with zero Italian heritage did a pretty good [...]

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