Turning Japanese (or Thai, or whatever, isn't it all the same?)

Okay, that was not actually my attitude when I decided to make a Vietnamese-style Thanksgiving side dish for my cousin's Chinese exchange student. I was just thinking Asian fusion, people. Does anyone really believe that this nice college girl from Shanghai would really be offended by my contribution of David Chang's beloved Momofuku roasted brussels sprouts to our otherwise pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner? My mom told me Li Ting was a vegetarian, so I simply thought I'd make a veggie side dish with a little spicy kick that might appeal to the visiting exchange student. It's not like I was going to make a speech after the grace explaining how I welcome her to our country and please accept this gift of roasted brussels sprouts in the style of your people. I just love Momofuku's sprouts and wanted very much to eat them myself.

Leading up to Thanksgiving dinner at my folks' house in Chicago I was also starting to imagine the dinner scene from Sixteen Candles where Chinese exchange student Long Duk Dong is perplexed by the quiche and grandpa says, "You don't spell it, you eat it!" Only grandpa would be my dad saying something vaguely, though unintentionally, offensive about Asian people (like calling them "oriental"), and Molly Ringwald would be played by my best friend whose family was joining us for dinner and who was celebrating her birthday that same day.

As it turned out, Li Ting couldn't join us after all, and my friend's birthday was impossible to forget thanks to a massive Mayflower cake she baked for the dual occasion. And I'm not too sure the members of my meat and potatoes eating family cared much for my fish-sauce soaked sprouts, but dammit I liked them!


(Yes, those are little pilgrims made out of Teddy Grahams)

In other Asian cooking news, last night I cooked up a dish of ginger soy salmon with coconut chili spinach. It did a miracle on clearing out my stuffy nose and throat, but word to the wise-- after working with Thai chili paste and cutting up chili peppers, be careful what sensitive body parts you touch with your spicy fingers. Yeeouch!

Rock and Roll Recipe Radio - Episode 2

In the spirit of fall, I decided to make some cozy, harvest-y food. Plus someone challenged me to make lasagna. Tune in to the link below to hear me fumbling around in the kitchen with organic butternut squash, lasagna sheets that stick together, and layers that I get out of order thanks to too many glasses of wine. Or just tune in for the music below:

Neil Young - Harvest Moon
R.E.M. - Me in Honey
Iron and Wine - My Lady's House
Nick Drake - At the Chime of a City Clock
Pela - Lost to the Lonesome
Smashing Pumpkins - Crush
Pavement - Elevate Me Later

Rock and Roll Recipe Radio - Episode 2 - Butternut Squash and Mushroom Lasagna

Check out the recipe I was working from (and straying from) here.

Erotic Cakes

My lucky friend celebrated her birthday last weekend with THIS BIRTHDAY CAKE:

(image courtesy of Strach)

The only thing that would make this cake more perfect is if he was dressed in a slim-fit grey cardigan.

(image courtesy of my brain)

Awwww hell yeah.

Rocking Out and Eating Out with Yo La Tengo

It's an especially great time for people who love both food and rock and roll. People like me. I've talked about Kara Zuaro's indie rock cook book, there's a link on the left to Post Punk Kitchen, and hopefully by now you've heard about Dinner With the Band, an online TV show that's brought NYC bands like Pela, Grizzly Bear and Matt & Kim in the studio to cook and to rock out.

Good food and good rock and roll meet again in the fall issue of my favorite free magazine, Edible Brooklyn. The regular feature, The Brooklyn Fridge -- in which Edible Brooklyn visits a prominent Brooklynite and dissects their 'fridge -- features Yo La Tengo bass player James McNew and his Red Hook apartment kitchen. A Brooklyn resident since 1991, McNew elaborates on his favorite places to food shop and eat in the borough I call home. I cranked up "Cherry Chapstick" on my iPod and let the drooling begin as I read this great little article on the train to work.

Read the full article by opening the pdf here. Or pick up a free copy of Edible Brooklyn around town.

**Update** I ran into James McNew at a bar in Park Slope shortly after posting this. I said (hopefully not too creepily) "I, uh, read all about your kitchen." To which he said, "It's a great place." We both nodded in agreement. I love living in Brooklyn.

Rock and Roll Recipe Radio - Episode 1

As you may know by now, enjoying music is a major passtime of these two homewreckers. So tonight I'm debuting a new feature for Home Sweet Homewrecker called Rock and Roll Recipe Radio. Basically this is a chance for you to join us in the kitchen, try out a new recipe, and listen to some music while we cook. Listen in by saving the link below, or just check out the recipe (thank you Everyday Food) and enjoy this soundtrack.

Peter Bjorn & John - Objects of My Affection
Archer Prewitt - Good Man
Kid Sister - Damn Girl
The Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
Beastie Boys - Time for Livin'
The Thermals - Our Trip
The B-52's - Downtown
Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
Stereolab - Retrograde Mirror Form

Rock and Roll Recipe Radio - Episode 1 - Scallops and Pasta!

Kitteh!! :(

So, this happened:



My visiting kitty also mangled several other house plants, unrolled and shredded all the toilet paper, stole one of my loafers, and tore up the arm of my couch. Thankfully the couch was one of my curbside finds (eew, a loveseat from the curb? I know, I know), so this just might be life's way of telling me it's time to buy a "real" couch.

I don't think I'll be getting a cat any time soon.

Bald Britney Cake

I just got this message from our cake baking & decorating friend Melissa, and well, I'm speechless:

Hey all!

Just thought I'd forward my newest around, I had a feeling people would be into this one. It is, of course, our girl britney mid head shave. I made it for my sister's birthday.

And just in case you fools forgot, melissacakeytime.blogspot.com. Go there and leave me funny comments please, cause I like to feel loved.

-m

ps--around the sides of the cake it says "Bald Britney Says Happy Birthday!".
pps--i got the image from a cookie, so i cheated a little (ie didnt draw britney freehand or anything) http://www.imnotobsessed.com/2007/02/21/britney-spears-the-cookie/