using this recipe, i made some pigs in a blanket:

From From my phone

well, okay, the link calls them “bannock wrapped hot dogs”, but come on, we all know what they really are. and, to make things even better, i added bacon!

things for the future:

- roll the dough out thinner
- cook the bacon a bit before hand. while not a problem with this batch, it would probably taste a bit better cooked a bit longer. also, less bacon grease to get in the dough.

all-in-all, 8.5 out of 10.

for dessert:

From From my phone

rolled out the remaining dough, spread some of jenny’s bourbon-butter, coated with cinnamon sugar, and baked. a very nice cinnamon roll.

(sorry, forgot to take a picture before tucking in to dessert)

man, do i love me some fried chicken. i don’t care how unhealthy it is for you, i love it. the skin? with all the oil and seasonings and crispiness? one of the greatest things ever.

of course, finding a good recipe is a pain. i have, over the last year or so, been attempting to get a decent flavor out of alton brown’s recipe.

well, that’s not quite right. his recipe is pretty damn tasty. hell, most everything he makes is pretty damn tasty. but the first time i made that fried chicken, the unanimous response was: GOD DAMN, THIS IS SALTY! to quote philip j. fry: “this is the saltiest thing i’ve ever eaten…and i once ate a big bowl of salt”

okay, not quite that bad. but damn, was it salty. so the next time i made it, i used half the salt called for in the recipe.

stilll, too salty.

okay, let’s try it without salt. nope, not a good idea. you obviously must have some salt in it for flavor, but finding that magical amount is tricky.

until last night. and the answer is pretty simple: use one-quarter the salt. (okay, and i used white pepper and some old bay, and no cayenne pepper). but the results are delicious.

and i don’t know what it is, but cold fried chicken, much like cold pizza, is just an amazing thing. kfc and popeye’s are missing out on an easy revenue stream.

Needing a sugar buzz and inevitable sugar crash that helps me get my day started, I stopped by the vending machine at work. Only to find that it had been picked clean of all the good stuff. But, not be dissuaded, I picked one of the last sugary items available (forget you, fruit snacks): Oreo Cakesters.

The verdict: Well, I guess they’re Oreo in as much as they are two brown discs sandwiching a creamy white filling. The flavor is similar to a standard Oreo, but more like it had been created from an Oreo that came from a parallel universe that is similar to, but not quite like, our own. Perhaps a universe where dogs are called cats, and cats are called dogs. Or maybe one where they don’t quite know how to make an Oreo.

My biggest concern about the whole deal is the nutritional labeling. The package comes with three Cakesters, and if you look at the calorie count, you find that one snack treat has 120 calories. However, the whole package (all three), has 370 calories. Is there are thing where the FDA allows for the rounding to the nearest ten when listing calories? Or does the consumption of the entire package literally mean that? Three Oreo Cakesters, cardboard sling and foil packaging included? If so, can we not find a lower calorie packaging material?

Squirrel melts

Because the name cock ring was already taken

I know what I’m making next Halloween!

If you should happen to be visiting our fine country, be sure to read about barbecue, as provided by the State Department.

No! no! no! the cry goes up. Everyone has barbecue! Look at Armenian grilled lamb, or Cantonese barbecued duck, or shrimp on the “barbie” in Australia. Nearly every culture around the world that uses fire has barbecue, you say. And you’d be almost right.

Because we’re talking about a special kind of barbecue here – an arcane method of cooking meat very slowly over coals, the roots of which go far back into the American past. A cooking method so unusual that when the first Europeans in the New World saw it, they couldn’t quite believe it.

As one Frenchman put it in 1564: “A Caribbee has been known, on returning home from fishing fatigued and pressed with hunger, to have the patience to wait the roasting of a fish on a wooden grate fixed two feet above the ground, over a fire so small as sometimes to require the whole day to dress it.” The natives called their wooden grate a “babracot,” referring to the wooden framework used to cook meet, which the conquering Spanish turned into “barbacoa.”