J.T. is getting a little bored with my favorite fried rice. I can't blame him. While it has a special place in my heart, it's not exciting food.

A couple nights ago we branched out and tried "Curried Fried Rice with Chicken" (Fine Cooking magazine, July 2003).

We only recently tried cooking with curry. J.T. had previously thought he didn't like the stuff, but a friend served us a curry dish and he was surprised to like it. Since then we've bought some and made, of all things, like egg salad. (Silly Americans!) On a side note, curry in egg salad is particularly good. I've seen a couple recipes now that call for the spice.

Now we have graduated to a new level. Curry fried rice. The end result is not all that exotic, but it is good. Rich with mucho flavor. Unlike traditional fried rice, this recipe adds unexpected ingredients like golden raisins, cilantro, jasmine rice, and of course the spices curry, chili powder and coriander, which combo nicely. It also omits expected ingredients, like egg, sesame oil - thank goodness they left the soy sauce in. It called for "Thai Chicken", a recipe on the previous page, but we opted for rotisserie chicken from Bel Aire. And don't forget, thin cucumber slices on the side. J.T. wasn't interested in the cucumber, but I think it's important to serve something that gives your palette a break with rich food.

Recipe got a great.

I nearly forgot the comical part.

Hours later, J.T. was giving us a black jack dealing demonstration and we were all playing. I offered everyone tea, and Mom took me up. I filled 2 mugs with water and went to microwave them, when I noticed a little bowl of melted butter, sitting quietly in the microwave. Uh oh. That was an ingredient to something. I racked my brain a few seconds and decided that butter was intended for the scones. It's no wonder. The final instruction for the scones was to knead the dough a few times, then pat in a circle and bake. The kneading was darn near impossible because the dough was so sticky, like Velcro on my hands. I would guess that the butter, being greasy, would have prevented some of the stick. Considering the delicacy of baking and all the chemistry that happens, it's amazing they turned out at all. :)

I usually make mistakes in cooking, and needless to say, I'm not much of a baker. I never could read directions. If you look at my kindergarten report card, you'll see it's a long-time problem. That and talking too much in class...

And I'm reminded - there is one thing I do not like about the Cooking Light recipes. They call for butter. Not "unsalted", or "salted", or "sweet cream" - just butter. Well anyone that cooks from these fancy shmancy recipes knows, you have to clarify which type of butter (clarify, hah, I made a butter joke!) I mean, they typically specify what kind of salt! (Kosher, sea, table, ...) Tasting the scone now (I mean, right now, in my mouth), I would use salted butter.

As if that wasn't enough!

Yesterday, we had to experiment with crepes to make sure we could do it. We made wheat crepes (supposed to be buckwheat, but couldn't find any...), with smoked salmon and a creme fraiche with chives spread. Talk about rich. And good. Technically, a great. And we proved to ourselves that crepes are not that hard to make.

Also yesterday, we visited a local farmer's market. The market has been running for decades. We came home with bags full of produce, including all the makings for salsa: tomatillos, jalapenos, onions, cilantro. We forgot the limes and had to get that at the store.

We made 2 salsas today from "The Great Salsa Book".

"Salsa Mexicana" we've made before and have had good results. The other we tried was "Tomatillo Salsa Verde". And yes, it's green.

Initial results are great, but I reserve final judgment until after they've stewed a bit overnight. Then we'll see. Seems the secret to salsa is ripe, sweet/fresh ingredients. This is hard to find at the store, but at the farmer's market, you are more likely to find good stuff. I was sad to have all these bright, yummy ingredients, and use bottled lime juice. Yuck. Oh well.

We also made some soup yesterday. I thought maybe I'd serve it for brunch, but it was unnecessary. Now we have food for the week - a nice change. The soup is from Fine Cooking magazine (Sept 00) and is consistently awesome (excellent). It's "White Gazpacho Soup", which means it's cold, and not made with tomatoes. It's made with cucumber, basil, green pepper and a kick of garlic - plus a 1/2 cup of really good extra-virgin olive oil. Ohhhhhh so good. I think it's dinner time...

And today is Mother's Day, although the official celebrating is over with. I happily entertained Mom and both my grandmothers, who live in the area. In fact, one grandma lives with Mom (and Dad) and the other is a stone's throw away. It's nice to have my family so close!

So anyway, brunch instead of lunch or dinner today.

The menu:
spinach & ricotta crepes
sausage
strawberry yogurt scones
creamy lemon parfait

I was determined to serve crepes for a couple reasons: 1) I have 2 unused crepe pans that have been hanging on the pot rack for a year, never used, dying to be used, and 2) it was an excuse to buy another cook book. As if I need an excuse... And while Borders didn't have a crepe book, I was confident William Sonoma would. I was right. And they have the "off set spatula" it said I needed.

The crepes were yummy - fresh spinach, slightly wilted, chopped and mixed in with ricotta, freshly grated parmesan cheese and an egg. J.T. manned the crepe making (2 pans!) and I made the filling. You fill and roll the crepes and top with more cheese, then bake for a bit. Quite savory. A great. J.T. downgraded the actual crepe - he preferred the wheat crepes we made the night before.

The book is cool - it has recipes for regular, wheat, chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, buckwheat, spinach, and whole wheat honey - and that's just the crepe - not the filling! I see crepes as being the next coolest thing for consuming leftovers.

The strawberry yogurt scones were from the Cooking Light annual recipes of 2003. I admire this book (or rather collection of magazines) for its admirable attempts at making boring-good-for-you-food taste good. They take the exotic & savory route and rely on strong spices and ingredients like mushrooms, garlic, curry, onions, lemon, pancetta - wait, pancetta is like bacon...how can that be good for you? Well, that's the nice thing about this book. It uses bacon, and chocolate, and butter, and beef, and other bad things, but it's all about balance.

Anyhow, the scones were great, getting a boost from strawberries purchased at a road-side stand. I don't think I will be able to eat store strawberries anymore. Why, when I have 4-5 stands within a mile of my house???

And last but not least, the creamy lemon parfait. A bit misleading because it was not served parfait style. Instead, I served the road-side strawberries in one bowl, and the "creamy lemon stuff" in another bowl, letting everyone put the two together in whatever ration they wanted. It was *soooo* good and would make for an awesome rock-on-the-porch late night dessert on a warm evening. *sigh* A great.