Midnight in the Kitchen of Good and Eatin'

The Zombie's Breakfast Special "Rose Pork Brains in Milk Gravy" flanked by Monkeys in Fezzes salt & peppers shakers given to me by Lauren "Green Bean" Johnson   My friend Christopher Goodwin often posts photos on his Facebook page of the oddities he finds around his current home in Durham, NC. He's one of my favorite artists and a lot of his photos are of abandoned stores, fast food failures and kitschy motels. He's a pretty fascinating guy. So, one day, he posts a photo from a Food Lion of cans of Rose Pork Brains in Milk Gravy and most of the reactions were of the "EWWW!" variety but I was salivating a little. My paternal grandmother would occasionally cook brains and eggs for her breakfast but I always visited too late to try them. Once, I almost got there in time but my Uncle Skip beat me to them and refused to share. I don't know where Granmom got the fresh brains she cooked but, at one time, you could find calf brains at the ...

Okay, first off I have to say that I rarely look forward to cooking when I get in from work as it is, most often, after 9:00pm or later. Sometimes it's because I had a late "lunch" around 6:00 that consisted of a big sandwich or some other culinary delight from Chef Al at Magruder's deli . Sometimes I'll be in a rush because of some event at work and end up with one of my junk faves, a Double Whopper with Cheese from Burger King (though, personally, I like Wendy's better but there isn't one nearby). That being said, I'm not really hungry when I get in. The problem here is that I know I'll be up as late as 2:30am unwinding. I listen to my records or watch TV or watch DVDs of " Fringe " or " Wonderfalls ". I then realize that, if I go to sleep, I'll just wake up later hungry. So then I decide that I have to eat dinner but I want to make something quick and easy because I don't want to stay up all night cooking Carbonn...

Okay, so it snowed a little today here in the City Without a State. It didn't amount to much but I didn't feel like going out because I was having too much fun playing records, doing a little housecleaning and playing with DevilKitty. As the day wore on I started to get a little hungry and thought to myself, "Hey, I sure would like some cornbread". Alas, as I was getting the ingredients together, I realized that I'm almost out of flour and the milk in the fridge was actually quite a bit less than I needed. Not to worry though as the flour turned out to be just enough and the milk, well, I stretched it with some honey flavored Greek yogurt and it was damn tasty! With a wire whisk mix together 3/4 cup of flour 2-1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbls brown sugar (i used a fork to mash it into smaller grains though I'm sure there's an easier way to do that) 3/4 tsp salt 1-1/2 cups cornmeal 3tbls butter or bacon fat 2 eggs, beaten In measuring cup I poured ...

First off let me state that I am not a "soup person". Soup as a meal never seemed like a good idea to me because, in my formative years, it was just a can of liquid with a little bit solid stuff floating around in it with neither amounting to enough to be a meal. It was always something you had while you waited for the entree. A time killer. As I got older, and started cooking for myself, soup was a base to which I added mountains of meat and/or vegetables to end up with a stew. In the back of my mind, however, I kept thinking that there must be something to this soup-as-a-meal thing, that there must be a bowl of liquid out there that would be hearty enough to stand on its own. Serendipity stepped in to change my thinking as I had bought a large acorn squash a week ago thinking I would do with it as I usually do: slice it into rings and bake it with a buttery maple glaze. Then I remembered having tiny cups of butternut squash soup served as an appetizer at some of the events...

  A while back I was working in a kitchen in Shady Grove, MD and, every day on my commute, I would pass a little strip mall in Redlands. One day I stopped in to go to the post office there and came across the Spice Lanka grocery store. Always on the lookout for spicy condiments, one of the things the very friendly owner urged me to try Katta Sambol because it is very popular in Sri Lankan cooking. While it's not much spicier than, say, Hungarian paprika, it has a nice citrus tang and has a little chewiness because, according to the label, it's made with "red onions, Maldive fish , chili pieces, salt, lime juice & permitted preservatives (E211 & E224)". Outside of this recipe I like katta with any buttered starch, especially rice or baked potatoes. What you'll need: about a lb of yuchoy, washed well (it can be sandy) and chopped Mmmm! I love YuChoy!     a medium-sized onion sliced 1 or 2 tbls minced garlic 1 to 2tbls. katta sambol* sli...

I love the Thai Market in Silver Spring, MD and it has been my go-to place for Asian food staples like coconut milk, pork foo, and Vietnamese beef meatballs more so than, even, my other favorite place, H-Mart . The only drawback to Thai Market is that they don't have fresh fruit and veggies but it is a phenomenal place to stock your pantry with packaged ingredients for (mostly) Asian cooking. For such a small store they often have better prices, on some items, than H-Mart! However, one of the best things about Thai Market is their carry-out where I had Thai Eggplant with Basil that is as good as what I'd eaten when I worked for the Thai House Restaurant in Atlanta. When I worked there this was a seasonal/special dish because Chinese eggplant was pretty scarce in 1980s Georgia and substituting the big purple ones just doesn't taste the same. H-Mart has a good variety of Asian eggplants to choose from: long purple Japanese ones to the small round Thai versions in green, pu...

The reason this is called a "dry curry" is because it is cooked until the liquid in it is nearly all evaporated. With this, it's the coconut milk, that is reduced until it's very thick and the oil in it has started to separate. The traditional way to cook this requires a lot of ingredients that I rarely, if ever, have on hand like garam masala . I know it's probably easy to make my own and even easier to just buy it already made but, hey, I'm lazy and  cheap so I have to be more creative with the ingredients. One ingredient that I do manage to always have on hand is  Maesri  Red Curry paste. It come in little 40z. cans and I tend to use about a teaspoon at a time and it keeps for a long time in the fridge. That having been said, my version of this doesn't have any garam masala but it does have some of the ingredients in it only because I just happen to have them around fairly often. about 2-3 tbls. minced garlic, fresh or from a jar 1-2 tbls. m...