Stuffed Delicata Squash - dedicated to my mom

When my mom came to visit last month, it seemed like every stall at the Farmer's Market was loaded with delicata squash, which neither of us had ever tried before.  She commented that I'd have to figure out what to make with them, and let her know.  A few weeks later, I got two of them from my CSA, and looked up some recipes for inspiration.

Divisive Crock Pot Curry

Nov 3: Clearly I'm terrible at posting every day, since the only thing I posted yesterday was the one I attributed to Monday.  So this post is technically posted yesterday, ok?  (Speaking of time travel...)

Last week I made a beef curry dish in the crock pot that came out NOTHING like I planned it, but I still found it delicious.  My husband, on the other hand, couldn't even eat it, and used the words "burnt rubber" at one point in his description.  *shrug*  The measurements probably aren't perfect, since I didn't think I'd be posting it, but it's close.

Ingredients:

• Beef chuck roast (about 2lb)
• 3.5 cups chopped winter squash
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1-2 cups stock (mine was chicken because that's all I had)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2 tbsp thai red curry paste
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (I find it turns out better in the slow cooker than real garlic)
• 5 oz frozen spinach (half a bag)

Put vegetables on the bottom of the slow cooker, top with meat, throw all other ingredients over top.  Cook for about 8 hours on low.  Add the spinach at the end, and cook until heated through.

If your slow cooker runs at a lower temperature than mine, maybe you will end up with the result I expected: chunks of squash, and meat that can be broken into pieces.

If you've got one of these lovely new Rivals that boils on the "keep warm" setting, your squash will have disintegrated, and the meat will shred apart, giving you a very thick, almost chili-like consistency.

I'm gonna post every day in November!

I just learned about NaBloPoMo, and I've decided to sign up and post every day in November.  Except, of course, that I failed on day 1.  My excuse is that it was my birthday...and as a birthday gift, I'm postdating this so that it LOOKS like I posted every day in November.  Muahahahaha.

I've got a few old food experiences to post about, but chances are, I won't be cooking or buying enough interesting things to fill a whole month - so be prepared for some informative posts about nutrition, random ranting and raving, and maybe a bit of science.

I also wanted to point out that I've joined the Real Food Media blogroll!  You can see the widget in my side bar over there ---> and discover other blogs about cooking/eating quality food.

One more contest!

This one is from Nourishing Days.  They're giving away a $25 gift certificate to Actual Organics.

I've never tried any of their products, but they have a lot of health & beauty stuff.  Skin care, toothpaste, hair care, perfumes... anything you could want, really.  All made from organic, natural ingredients.  I personally use all sorts of chemicals on my hair and skin, but I know going natural is important to a lot of people.  Also, they have lots of travel/sample size products, so that $25 could go a long way!

Click here to go to the blog, and enter the giveaway!

A gift to apologize for my laziness.

I've been a pretty lazy cook lately... even when I make something really awesome, I haven't taken pictures of it.  For example, I made these "Sloppy Ottos" (a German-inspired ground beef recipe) and it was a total keeper, but I didn't take a picture.

Anyway, to make up for not posting anything, I'm letting you in on a few giveaways from one of my favorite blogs, JoyfulAbode.

1. Sanuk Footwear

Click here to find out how you can enter to win a product of your choice from Sanuk footwear!

I hadn't heard of this company until now, but they make some really cute stuff.  They have LOTS of sandals, and slip-on "surfer" shoes with fairly minimalist soles.  They look so comfortable.

Click here to check out the Sanuk web site!

Assuming I don't win the giveaway, I might just ask for the Scurvy in purple for Christmas.



2. Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate

Click here to find out how you can win a jar of Coconut Cream Concentrate!

This I have a little more experience with.  I eat a lot of coconut products - coconut oil for cooking, coconut milk in place of dairy like cream or milk, coconut flour for baking, shredded dried coconut in just about every dessert I make.  I even tried coconut water (that liquid in the middle of the coconut), which some people drink as a workout recovery drink, but I'm not a fan.

My latest coconut purchase was "creamed coconut" although I haven't really figured out how to use it yet.  It seems to be basically the same stuff as JA is giving away, just a different brand.  My one hint to you - don't put it in the fridge if you ever hope to be able to get it out of the container - that stuff is ROCK SOLID once it's cold.  I moved it back to room temperature until I can decide on a recipe.

Go to Tropical Traiditions and look at their products!

There are lots of ways to get entries for this giveaway, and they include "liking" TT on facebook, and subscribing to their newsletter, which are things you should do anyway because you'll get recipes, tips, and alerts about sales.  Yes, they have a ton of coconut products, but they also sell things like oils, vinegars, honey, snack foods, condiments... all made from quality ingredients.

Turkey, Leek and Potato Soup

I've had a few turkey necks and turkey wings in the freezer for a while.  I bought them because of the price - they were marked down because they were about to expire.  I decided it was finally chilly and autumnal enough to make a big pot of soup with them.  =]  I made this a two-day project, but you can definitely shorten it to one day.

Planning ahead and freezing food

I think it started when I read Diana's latest post, about Mabon.  I don't celebrate any pagan holidays... heck, I barely celebrate secular ones.  And I was a little surprised when I realized her post was about acting like a squirrel and not about eating one.  The idea of putting away food now, and being grateful for my foresight later, really touched me.  I don't can or dehydrate, but I do have plenty of freezer space.  I have cooked and frozen some meat recently, but I've been slacking on the vegetables.

So here's what I made last night:

Herbed Squash and Fennel

• 4 bulbs fennel
• 1 red kuri squash (also known as a hokkaido or potimarron)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• sage
• thyme
• rosemary

Peel and chop the squash.   Slice the fennel crosswise into about 1 inch slices.  Put in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs, and mix.  Roast at 375 for about 45 minutes, until the squash is tender.

I liked it.  The fennel stays rather firm when roasted (it was my first time cooking it that way) but it's sort of a nice contrast to the softness of the cooked squash.  It tasted very autumn-y.  =]  I'm not sure how the squash will turn out after freezing... I've seen mention of it being frozen in chunks, but I've only ever frozen mashed/pureed squash before.

I didn't get a photo until after we had eaten.

Closeup!

And here it is ready to go in the freezer for later.

I also roasted the rest of my tomatoes to turn into tomato sauce, since some of them were getting a little soft.  I've got plans to blanch some green beans and freeze those, too.  My bag of veggie scraps is getting awfully full, so I need to make some stock.  And tomorrow when I pick up my share from the CSA, you better believe I'll be thinking, "which of these things do I want to freeze for later?"

Pretty multicolored tray of tomatoes.

I also just wanted to share this picture because it makes me laugh every time I walk in the kitchen and see it.  We had a visitor last weekend and decided to restock our liquor collection, since we were down to one tiny bottle of rum.  (I say "we" but my husband really doesn't drink.)  I think we bought enough to last us about 5 years.  We then took a wine tour, where I bought a few bottles along the way, including two of my favorite Bellwether ciders.  Now I can't figure out where to store it all.  =P  It looks pretty, for now, anyway! (Thanks to Kia and Toyota - we paid for all of this using the cards they send to my husband for selling cars.)

Shiny!

I've got a plan in the works to photograph and post an entire weeks worth of meals.  And I mean EVERYTHING I eat, which has been 3 meals a day recently.  I'm not sure if I'll start tomorrow (Saturday), Sunday, or Monday.  But stay tuned.

Bacon, spinach, and leek frittata

I made a frittata that was particularly good a while back and took some nice photos, so I thought I'd share.  Here's the final product - you can find the recipe and step-by-step pictures by clicking the link below.

30-Day Primal Blueprint Challenge!

I refuse to get preachy about my nutrition and fitness choices on my blog, but I do want to share something I'm excited about.

Today is Day #1 of the 30-Day Challenge over at Mark's Daily Apple.  There will be challenges and contests, and lots of neat prizes, including a WHOLE COW!

If you've been thinking about doing something to improve your health, give it a shot for 30 days.  And try to win a few prizes while you're at it.

Click  here to check out the contest!

For the sake of honesty: I had a bagel this morning.  Not the best way to start out a challenge, huh?  I guess I need to be extra primal the rest of the month to make up for it.  

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about why I believe in the paleo/primal, low-carb, high-fat, grain-free lifestyle.  Just let me know whether you want general answers, or lots and lots of science and numbers.  =]

Traffic light veggie sautee

I'll be honest, this is too simple to call it a recipe.  But it makes for some pretty pictures.

This "recipe" is inspired by things my parents used to cook during the summer when I was growing up.  My dad still makes something like this - I remember him cooking it for me and Matt a couple years ago, to go with his famous cornmeal-and-rosemary-breaded perch.

My parents would buy vegetables from farm stands on the way home from work in the summer, so when it hit the point in the summer where these particular ones were cheap and plentiful, this sort of thing would appear.  My dad worked a lot of overtime, so he didn't cook all the time, but he did the majority of the grilling.  So while he was grilling, he and my mom would throw this together inside on the stove.

Ingredients: green bell peppers, yellow summer squash, red tomatoes.  Use whatever you've got, of course, but if you have 3 colors, it makes it so much prettier.

In a large pan, heat your fat of choice over medium-ish - I used duck fat.  (Yup, I'm STILL using up the fat from that duck.)  Throw in the vegetables.  All of them.  At the same time. 

See how pretty this is?

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the peppers and squash are soft enough.  At first, the tomatoes will release a frightening amount of juice.  But that juice will mix with the fat and reduce into a sauce that coats the other vegetables, and it will look like this picture. 

Less pretty, but more yummy. 

Feel free to peel your tomatoes if you don't want bits of skin in it, but they don't bother me.

You can just season it with salt and pepper.  Garlic is a nice touch - I used garlic powder this time because I forgot about it until it was already done cooking.  Or, do something more creative, and tell me about it in the comments.

Last weekend I actually had time to check out the u-pick section at the farm where I pick up my CSA vegetables.  We have u-pick privileges at 3 different farms included in the price of our share.  I came out with cherry tomatoes, basil, and dill.  I didn't plan on picking flowers, but a few of these were so big and fluffy that I had to take them, even if they were a bit past their prime.  They remind me of muppets.

I used my phone, since I wanted to play around with the changes to the camera UI that came with the new "froyo" update.  This made it difficult to really capture the colors.  Also, see that Munchkin box?  Who's up for a game?  It's been too long.

All About Meatza! General instructions, and my Spicy BBQ Meatza.

I debated with myself about posting this at first, because to me, a meatza is sort of a boring/basic food.  But then I remembered it's really not a typical food, and I've just been too immersed in the primal/paleo culture for too long.  =]

A meatza is just a pizza with meat for a crust.  As you can imagine, there are endless variations.  You can make a traditional pizza analog to crush a pizza craving, with your favorite pizza sauce, melty mozzarella, and your favorite pizza toppings.  Or you can load it up with more toppings than usual since you'll probably wind up eating it with a fork anyway.  You can even get really creative - I've seen Mexican meatzas, curry meatzas, and Batty just made a Shawarma Meatza that looks awesome.

1. Choose your meat.
You've got lots of options when it comes to meat.  Just about any ground meat can work, regardless of how lean or fatty it is.  Beef, pork, venison, veal, turkey, chicken.  You could even use sausage!

2. Prepare your crust.
Now that you've chosen a meat, you've gotta turn it into a crust.  The simplest way to do this would be to just take that plain meat and smush it into a thin layer on a large baking dish, baking sheet, or pizza pan.  Or you can add fresh or dried herbs and/or spices, finely diced onion, minced garlic, whatever you think you want your meatza to taste like.  Or you can use a meatloaf or meatball recipe, complete with egg and whatnot.  My preference?  To just add some dried spices and dried minced onion to the meat.  How thin you make it is up to you - I think anywhere from 1/4" to 1" would work.  Adjust your cooking time accordingly.

3. Bake your crust.
At about 400 F, until it's done.  Probably 10 minutes or so on average.  After it's cooked, pour off as much of the fat as you can.

4. Add toppings.
Add sauce, cheese, veggies, meats, etc., in whatever order you please.

5. Melt cheese/cook toppings.
Throw the meatza back in the oven long enough to heat or cook your toppings, and melt the cheese if you used it.  I like to broil it for a minute or so at the end to brown the cheese (especially when  I know I'll be photographing it).

Click below to see pictures of my "Spicy BBQ Meatza"!

Quick and easy meals, and a random moth

I don't always have 2.5 hours to cook a duck... sometimes I do things that are quick and easy, or that can be prepped ahead of time.  Here's a few that I made recently, with limited photos.

Buffalo wings

I found some chicken wings on sale recently, which I don't think I've ever cooked before.  (When I say I found meat "on sale" I almost always mean the use-or-freeze-by date was 1 or 2 days away so it was heavily discounted.  This often happens with meat that people aren't sure what to do with, like turkey necks, or that ground beef-pork-veal mixture that makes THE BEST meatloaf).

I used Alton Brown's recipe for buffalo wings.  Well, I used the technique anyway... for the sauce I mixed roughly equal parts of Frank's Red Hot and melted unsalted butter (I finally figured out where to find the Kerrygold in Wegmans!).  Just going by what I remember from working the grill at Crossroads back in the day.  =]

The key is steaming the wings for 10 minutes, then letting them cool/dry in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Heck, you could steam them in the morning before work, then leave them to cool until you get home.  They take 40 minutes of roasting time, but it's pretty hands-off, so you can still lift weights or play Starcraft.  Or whatever it is YOU do in the evenings.  They came out great - even Husband, who doesn't like meat on bones so much, said they were good.  They do get a crispy skin as if they were fried, and they were more moist inside than most commercial wings.  Heck, I'd consider paying full price for chicken wings just to do this again!

Freshly-steamed chicken wings.

Sorry I have no pictures of the finished product, this was back when I wasn't sure if i'd ever be able to get them off my camera.  I served them with Steamy Kitchen's Kale-llaloo.  This was fantastic!  It's basically the same as my usual kale "recipe" but with added coconut milk... but that coconut milk adds a perfect amount of sweetness.  I cooked it a lot longer than 5 minutes at the end, until the sauce had thickened.

Mexican beef

I threw a chuck roast into the crock pot (still frozen, even!) and added onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and taco seasoning mix, and cooked on low most of the day.  When I got home, I shredded the meat, and served it two ways:

For Husband, in tortillas with sour cream and salsa.

For me, in a bowl, with sour cream, salsa, and avocado.

Frittata

My favorite kitchen item (a Le Creuset 3.5 quart braiser/casserole in cassis) is awesome for making frittatas!  And frittatas are an awesome way of using up leftovers.  If you don't have a pan that can be used both on the stove and in the oven, you can cook the fillings and mix them with the eggs in a baking dish - but that takes a lot longer to cook, and maybe would be better described as a crustless quiche.  So you should probably just go out and get yourself a cheap cast iron skillet.

The method:

• Cook/heat meats and veggies in the pan - drain if it gets too liquidy.
• Add egg mixture.
• Cook until most of it is set, but the top is still runny.
• Add cheese if desired.
• Throw under the broiler until fully cooked and browned.

This particular frittata had bacon, leftover pork, onions, and lots of shredded zucchini.  Too much zucchini, in fact - it didn't hold together very well.  Seasonings included garlic, chili powder, ground mustard, seasoned salt, and pepper.  I topped it with thinly sliced tomato and a teeny bit of parmesan cheese.  These pictures were taken with the phone.

Cooked meat and veggies.

Isn't it pretty?

Closeup - a little messy looking.

Not food...

While I'd make an exception for Diana's mealworm cookies, I don't think of insects as food.  This moth was hanging out on my window at work (yes, all the way up on the 4th floor!).  He refused to open his wings whenever I put my phone up to take a picture.  But I enjoy the blurry view of the east side of campus behind him.

Anyone else enjoying Starcraft II?

I just wanted to mention that I am actually having a lot of fun playing Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, despite my complete lack of skill in RTS games.

The story is excellent and the game really immerses you in it - every board you play feels like it's contributing to the progression of the plot.  There's corny humor, and cheesy romance, and a bit of an old western feel (hmm, a western in space starring a hunky and lovable rebel... this sounds familiar... except in SC2 there are aliens, and far fewer women).  The characters are fun, the voice acting is good... and as with all Blizzard games, there are a few knock-your-socks-off cinematics.

And the achievements... oh, the achievements.  I'm a total achievements-whore.  My blood elf shadow priest was "the explorer," and had "/love"-ed all those animals.  When the new Plants vs. Zombies achievements came out on Steam yesterday, I instantly started working on them.  And the plethora of achievements means many, many hours of replayability.

Basically, as usual, I agree with Morgan Webb's review. 

So if you play as well, I'd love to add you to my friends, so I can get all jealous when you get more achievement points than me.  Comment here, or friend me on facebook (since you can request all your facebook friends with the click of a button).

My step-by-step photo guide to cooking a duck! (Or overcooking a duck...)

I roasted a duck!

Thanks to Martha Stewart's instructions, it wasn't all that difficult.  The results were good.. and I think with a little tweaking it could be great.  I'll definitely be trying this again some time.  I've decided to post this as a step-by-step photo guide to cooking a duck, in case anyone else out there is interested in trying it.

Sorry for the delay, and another CSA veggie picture

I started using the "real" camera to take pictures (a cheap Sony Powershot, versus my usual Motorola Droid cell phone).  Then I realized I have no idea where the cable is that plugs the camera into a USB port.  I looked through all our boxes of cables and connectors (yes, we have multiple boxes - we're both computer geeks and Husband is/was a musician).  And since it's Sony, all their cables are proprietary so I've gotta order it online.

I discovered today, though, that my laptop's built-in card reader can handle these memory cards, so I just need to get all my pictures off the camera while I'm at work.  If I have time today I'll get the highly-anticipated duck post up, but for now, here's what I got from the CSA this week:

Carrots, onions, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, garlic, tomatoes, kale.

And here's a closeup of some chopped veggies - I tried to make ratatouille in the crock pot, which didn't turn out so well, but it sure looked pretty before it was (over) cooked.

Homemade Italian sausage!

I love Italian sausage.  I like it in links, patties, or crumbled.  I like it hot or mild.  I like the classic pork, or the lighter poultry varieties.

What I don't like is sugar, and I can't figure out why everyone feels the need to put it in their sausage.  And I'm not sure I like whatever other "natural flavors" are often included, either. 

So I set out to make my own.  I found this awesome recipe, with ingredients I not only recognize, but have in my kitchen!  (With the exception of fennel seeds - I had to pick some up for this.)

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/gmeat/homemade-italian-sausage-recipe.html

I'll post my take on the recipe below.  I increased the spices, mostly due to using fatty ground pork and knowing some of them would get "washed" out when cooking. 

2 1/2 lbs ground pork
3 very large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried rosemary (crushed)
1/4 tsp ground red pepper (or flakes) (to taste)
2 tsp fennel seeds (whole)
1/2 tsp kosher/sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp dried parsley

I mixed it up in the morning before work, thinking it might help the flavors blend by the time I cooked it for dinner.  Here's the mixture:

I went to get the real camera... and the battery was dead.  Next time, I promise.

I made it into 6 very large patties, and cooked them until they reached 160 F.  I didn't time it.

One of them would probably be a good size for a normal person.  I ate two.  (What?  I only eat once a day!)  I topped them with sauteed onions and peppers, and some spicy brown mustard.  Non-primal-Husband's was on bread, and he ate two as well, and said he liked it.

I'll increase the basil, oregano, and rosemary next time - maybe even double them.  And while I thought the amount of pepper in the original recipe sounded insane, they might be on to something, I'd increase that too.  And if you really like fennel, I'd bump that up, but I thought this was a perfect amount.  Overall, they were just as good as Wegmans if not slightly better, cost about the same, and it was such a relief knowing there was no sugar or other crap in them.  Maybe the next experiment is to buy some casings and make my own links.  Maybe.

Meatballs in blue cheese sauce... meh

On Monday I attempted to make the Meatballs in Blue Cheese Sauce "recipe" from Free the Animal.

I added some garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper to my ground beef.  It was about 1.75 lbs.

Meatballs starting to cook in a mixture of bacon grease and olive oil.

Here's my choice of blue cheese.  I should mention I don't know anything about blue cheese at all.  It was an impulse buy at Greenstar, the local natural foods co-op.

Once the meatballs were cooked I set them aside and realized that between the fat I started with and the fat that came out of the beef, I had a lot of freaking fat sitting there in the pan.  I filtered it into the jar you see in the photo below... I'll use it to cook something else eventually.  I know some people say the fat from ground beef tastes bad, but I disagree, and I can't figure out why it would taste worse than other beef fat.  *shrug*  I added stock to the pan to make the sauce... it's turkey stock because that's the only homemade stock I had.

Once the stock was slightly reduced (but not nearly enough - oops) I added blue cheese.  Probably over 3 ounces.  I cooked a while longer until all the cheese chunks were melted and the sauce was nice and smooth, stirred in some butter, then added the meatballs back in.  At this point, my phone refused to take a decent photograph.

I turned off the heat and stirred in some sour cream, maybe 3 tbsp.  My camera kept acting up, but here it is (sorta), along with the balsamic braised kale I made.  I put the meatballs in a bowl because the sauce was a lot thinner than I would have liked.

I vowed that next time, I would use the real camera.

They were ok, but I think I used too much blue cheese.  After eating one bowl of them I was really sick of the flavor.  It was a cool idea, and I might try it again, with beef stock and less cheese.

Why am I eating at my computer desk, you ask?  See the previous post.  =]

But where's the geekery?

I'm beyond awful at RTS games.  I can't even count anymore how many times I've started to play Warcraft 3 and given up. 

But using my big fancy computer to play Frontierville and Plants vs Zombies is starting to feel... wrong.  Just wrong.

CSA harvest 7/31 - and a duck!

Here's what I got from my CSA this week!  I'm a member of The Full Plate Farm Collective, and I pick up my produce at one of the farms, so I get to pick and choose what I want.  This week's score was particularly colorful so I figured I'd take a few photos.  Maybe I'll make this a weekly thing.

• 1 giant zucchini
• 4 yellow summer squash
• a "heaping quart" of green beans
• a couple handfuls of carrots
• 4 onions
• 1 pound of tomatoes
• a bunch of kale
• probably too many Japanese eggplants
• 1 head garlic

Can you believe I get that much awesome organic produce for around $20 a week?  

The green beans were an extra special surprise, since they weren't listed on the email.  I saw Tyler Florence make some roasted green beans with parmesan cheese this morning and thought "oh man, I wish I was getting green beans!"  And now I did.  =]

Here's a closeup of that zucchini, with my hand for reference.. it was at least twice the size of all the other zucchinis in the box, and I was so excited that I got it.  I'm not sure why, now that I think about it, I just found it amusing at the time.

Holding the Droid steady with one hand notsoez.

And because I'm obsessed with all things purple, a closeup of the eggplants.  They had no limit on them this week, so I grabbed 5.  Then a few minutes later I grabbed 3 more.  Finally, once I was done picking out everything else and was about to leave, I noticed more space in my bag and thought "OMG NEED MOAR EGGPLANT" so that's why I have 11 (eleven!) of them.

Mandy and J are visiting this weekend!  They're outside taking pictures of a deer and/or a cat right now.  We went to the Farmer's Market this morning, and this is my one and only purchase:

A whole duck!  It's organic, pasture-raised, and weighs 4.4 lbs.  I've never cooked duck before, but there was a really detailed guide in Martha Stewart Living a few months back that I tore out and saved, so I'll follow that and do my best.

Epic burgers

Have you ever wondered how much of your favorite stuff you could fit on AND IN a burger?

Tonight I made cheddar and bacon stuffed jalapeno burgers with avocado and mayo.

I'm trying to lose 25 pounds.  After several weeks of crappy eating, I'm going back to what works for me - one big, primal, low-carb meal a day.  I've had a killer headache (we call that the "low-carb flu") and wanted to make myself something awesome for dinner, and use my brand new Le Creuset pan for it

Isn't she pretty?  It's the 3.5 quart braiser/casserole, in Cassis.

I started out by chopping some bacon (thank goodness for kitchen shears) and cooking it.

Her first batch of bacon!  It's quite a milestone.

I mixed 1.75 lbs ground beef with 2 diced jalapenos, lots of onion powder, lots of black pepper, some chili powder, and a little garlic powder.  I shaped it into 8 really thin patties.  I smushed cheddar and bacon between two patties, sealing the edges, to make 4 giant burgers.

Don't know if you can see it, but the top one has a little bit of a leak.  It didn't matter much.

I served Husband's on bread with mayo, field greens from our CSA, and avocado.

Mine was basically the same, but without the bread, and with a lot more field greens.  Look at that cheesy bacony goodness in the middle!

I ended up eating two of them.  That's 14 ounces of beef (raw weight) if you're counting, and about 1.5 ounces of cheese and 2.5 slices of bacon.  I'm sure the pan has finally cooled down now (that thing stays warm forever!) so I should go clean it.

On another note, now that I'll be posting pictures here and not just facebook, maybe I should start using my real camera instead of my Droid.  But you have to admit, those aren't terrible pictures for a phone.

Welcome!

This blog will include all kinds of musings on my life, and lots of pictures of food.  I love food.

I enjoy cooking, and consider myself a better-than-average home chef, whose only downfall is sometimes getting TOO creative.  I cook with real, whole, natural foods for the most part.  I eat a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet, the sort outlined in Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint.  I avoid grains, beans/legumes, and sugary things, so you won't see many of those here.  I study nutrition as a hobby.. that's how much of a nerd I am.

My other interests include video games, sports (especially football - expect fantasy football rants!), hunting, and comedy.