beef daube with mustard, herbs, and white whine

billed as a “refreshing change” from “heartier and heavier” beef stews, the principle ingredients in this soup are two pounds of beef, onions, tomatoes, and 750 ml of white whine. given that the quality of wine is generally, uh, sacrificable when cooking, lea picked up a bottle of papio, a $4 bottle of chardonnay whose label wielded three playful looking monkeys, and whose back proclaimed it as a perfect drink for “prime mates.” one wouldn’t necessarily expect beef to taste good when fruity, but it does/can.

cave of the mounds

not the biggest cave i’ve ever walked through, especially considering the $12 admission price, but it’s still fun to wander through something so much other than the day to day.

peach raspberry cobbler

this is a great way to get the oh-so-yummy taste of both peaches and raspberries during the off season, via the marvels of frozen fruit. combine hot cobbler with cold ice cream, and you have one very happy seth. and it’s pretty easy to prepare, too.

glorious, glorious peeps

i saw a link to this prank yesterday, and it got me to thinking about a number of peep-related experiences and web findings. off the top of my head, there’s the peep research site, the official peeps site, a lord of the peeps parody, a salon article about peeps, and, if that’s not enough, another ton of peeps links. that’s a lot of peeps.

as for myself, i just like eatin’ ‘em. especially after they go on sale after easter at four boxes for a buck. that’s good times. i prefer the chick-peeps myself, eschewing any bunny shaped nonsense. i also find the vanilla flavored variants to be tasty, while the strawberry ones fail to tickle my fancy. i understand there are many of you who are not big on peeps — your loss. then again, i suppose i dislike “circus peanuts” candy, so to each their own.

coq au vin

very tasty. chicken, red wine, mushrooms, pearl onions, some bacon. i had made a dish rather similar to this several months back, which was supposed to contain porcini mushrooms, but which i couldn’t find, so this was almost like a repeat. i cubed the chicken, instead of leaving it in whole-breast form, which allowed it to really soak up the flavor. i also made sauteed chard (also from joy of cooking) to go along with the entree, and it was awful. yuck. it tasted like fresh mown grass. ech. i can only assume i botched it in the preparation … either that, or chard is one of those things you can only dread, and to which you never look forward.

kabul

tasty. i had the lamb couscous. i’d certainly return, and bring others with me. many thanks to noah, and noah’s dad, for the recommendation. (daily page)

timberwolves vs trailblazers

to the two young boys seated in 226 S 9 and 10 tonight: i understand that you were caught up in the spirit of the game (though, to be fair to everyone else, it fully appears that you are always like this). i understand that you are big blazers fans. i understand that you are just boys, and therefore immature and male. you should understand, younger boy, that when i lost control in the middle of the third quarter, and in response to one of the few charging calls that went in minnesota’s favor i screamed so loudly directly behind your ear that it scared you badly enough that you lost your balance and fell backwards into your seat, that i was just venting some of the steam that you had been building up.

to the two adults seated in 226 S 7 and 8 tonight: i understand that you lead busy lives. i understand that you hate disciplining your kids, since you probably already inflict your long hours and emotional unavailability on them. i understand, male in seat 8, that you told the kids to “shut the f*** up,” but that they’re probably your girlfriend’s kids and you don’t have much sway over them. you should understand, though, whomever the kids belong to, that i sincerely hope they cause you as much pervasive stress as you have allowed them to cause on the world around them (i.e., us).

to my father and brothers: you should understand that, despite this screed, i had a good time, and do want to go again. besides, it was really funny when i scared that kid, even if it makes me somewhat of a child / bad person.

henry rollins

aka “a night of spoken word.” i quite enjoyed henry’s ranting, as usual. i think that i perhaps enjoyed his last show a little more, but that is not to say that i did not also enjoy this show very much.

bombay curry

seed the seranos next time - it was a little too spicy. cooking with steak is awesome.

chickpea curry

i purchased a $2.50 “curry and chilli” cookbook at border’s on friday during their student id sale. the cookbook is colorful, which is always a plus, and this was the first recipe i made out of it. not at all too difficult to prepare, and relatively tasty, if a little dry.