What Would Jane Austen Do?

We are watching last week's Mythbusters . Kari is wearing an amazing swimsuit for some kind of sauna test (not to worry about exploitation, of course: Grant and Tory are naked). Anyway, Becca and I are in love with the suit. Somebody asked her about it on Twitter--it's from an Australian company called Black Milk. They have lots of goth suits. I guess Becca's set for her teens. N.B. to Sara--There's a Steampunk version , too:

This was a very exciting discovery . I am not Catholic, but I have long admired their dedication to celebrating the saints of the church through pastry and fried foods. Of course I had heard of King Cake for Epiphany, but how about: Pentecost Pie Probably less tasty, but visually way impressive, FLAMING Pentecost cupcakes Or these Pentecost brunch ideas. All red food! And the Cocoa Krispie Treat grotto for Our Lady of Guadalupe? Oh yeah. FWIW, the Feast of St. Nacho is on July 12.

There was a great thread on Reddit last week: "Fast food employees: what is the best thing on your restaurant's menu that no one ever orders?"  Now I ask you, is that most-Reddit question ever? Anyway, it pointed me to my new favorite thing: Pineapple Dr. Pepper from Sonic. There is REAL pineapple in it! I mean, it's life-changing. [The Pineapple Diet Dr. Pepper, fortunately, is also good.] Sonic wants you to use this as your wallpaper.

I don't know if this is the same one. Over at Collector's Weekly there is a post today about Vinegar Valentines. I never heard of them before today, but I think that must be what my Grandmother received one year as a kid. She told me that her maternal grandmother gave her a Valentine that said something about being an Old Maid. It broke her little heart so much that she remembered it decades later. Can you even imagine doing such a thing to a little girl? And listen, my Grandmother was no pansy, either. Just in case you ever thought that the Internet invented rudeness. HT: Sarah Pavis @ Kottke

We went to the Houston Mini Maker Faire last month. The kids had fun. Papi and I were SO excited about it. We planned everything in advance--maps and tickets loaded on our phones; clothes and backpacks laid out the night before. I was expecting there to be a massive crowd, because it was going to be full of fun and educational stuff, but it was definitely not overwhelming. Their loss! Personally, I was mostly interested in the food trucks: Monster PBJ , Coreanos , Waffle Bus , Bernie's Burger Bus . Monster PBJ has, hands down, the best graphics. Becca requested a Classic PB + strawberry jam on white with sliced strawberries and Nutella, cut into FOURTHS thankyouverymuch. She would not so much as let me look at it until she got bored with eating it. I can confirm that the crust was tasty. I was really looking forward to trying Coreanos, but I was a little disappointed in what I got. It turned out to be one of those humongous burritos that can't even fit in your...

photo via I emailed my pal Emily for some advice about San Francisco food. Here's what she said: How fun is this! Let's think...hot crab dip with sourdough? Anything Chinese, pot stickers?  Shrimp cocktail, artichokes, oysters. We are also the home of green goddess dressing, red vines, Irish coffee and the mai tai. Rice a Roni :) And garlic fries ! I also found recipes for cream of artichoke soup and cream of Anaheim pepper soup, which are sometimes combined at this restaurant outside SF. I think I can get on board with that. So we will have: Cheetos with Old Bay (B) Cream of Artichoke / Anaheim pepper soup (SF) Ricearoni (for Emmet) (SF) Crab cakes (B) Garlic fries (SF) Berger cookies (B) I think I can scare up an Anchor Steam beer, but Natty Boh might be a little more difficult.

So, we have San Francisco vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl. I asked my friend Meg of Pigtown*Design for advice about what they eat in Charm City. Mamacita: I was disappointed to discover just how much love your fair city has for mayonnaise. It's in everything! I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to this subject of Super Bowl food. The Pit Beef recipe looked intriguing (until I saw the Tiger Sauce recipe with m-a-y-o). The crab pretzels also looked good up until the m---- part. One time I made Berger cookies, but I was a little disappointed with how they turned out. Maybe it was a bad recipe? Meg:  First, looking at your Pinterest board, no one knows anything about Smearcase. To me, it sounds like some ghastly OB/GYN sort of problem. Second, what's the matter with mayo?! Food of the gods - especially Duke's or Hellmans. photo via Roopa's twitter feed Third. Here's the secret recipe: CHEETOS + OLD BAY ! Yep, that's it. I've given ...

On Monday I wanted to make Hawaiian food in honor of the President's inauguration. After rejecting spam masubi and macaroni salad (hurl), I decided that I had everything on hand to make chicken katsu. It's essentially a breaded, pan-fried chicken cutlet. Nothing too extraordinary, although I had never used panko before. Every recipe for the sauce said to mix ketchup with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, but those instructions were a bit of a let-down. Also, I couldn't see just pouring ketchup all over the chicken like gravy, and that's what the pictures were showing. So I finally decided to try and make Japanese tonakatsu sauce, which involves applesauce, grated carrots, grated onions, tomato paste, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. And which ultimately tasted like grainy ketchup. Ugh. More successful was dessert, which I didn't get a picture of. This is chocolate haupia pie . Haupia is a flan-like coconut dessert popular in Hawaii; some GENIUS had the idea to...

I made this stew and now I'm telling everybody about it. You HAVE to make it. This is Ruth Reichl's Pork-Tomatillo-and-Dark-Beer stew. Now, let's all feel a little sorry for Ruth, because she has some labor-intensive stovetop method of making it. She doesn't realize that you can just put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and call it a day in the kitchen. Here's the lowdown (seriously make it SOON). Pork, Tomatillo and Dark Beer Stew  1 pound of tomatillos, husked and cut into quarters 1 bottle of dark beer 12 ounces of fresh orange juice 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained 2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut into hefty cubes salt and pepper for the pork 10 cloves of whole peeled garlic (I used less—maybe 5 cloves) 2 large onions, chopped 2 whole jalapenos (take them out before serving) 1.5 cups cooked (or canned) black beans Put all of this into the slow cooker and cook it until it’s done. Serve over rice, and if you like, cilantro, a squeeze of...

I was on the Weather Underground site this morning (flash floods in Houston) and it turns out they have t-shirts for sale . Is this not the cutest thing ever?

 

When I was a kid, my mom made special efforts to get us all cultured and stuff. We went to any and every play that was put on in the Golden Triangle, and often when we went to Austin we would see something at Southwestern or at St. Edward's. Among the ones that stand out: My first concert, Billy Ocean at the Beaumont Civic Center. Lots of fainting black ladies. I was saucer-eyed. I think I was 10. The Wizard of Oz at the Port Arthur Civic Center, where mom says we watched the special effects guy much more than the play. Some retelling of Hamlet featuring a flatulent Claudius, at some theater in Austin. There were maybe 20 people in the audience, and we were 6 of them, but we walked out during Act I. And now, even though I have to remind myself to do it, I like getting out there to see what Houston has going on. Rossini's Otello , presented by Opera in the Heights So it turns out that Rossini's opera gutted the character of Iago , which is kind of a disappoint...

Watching It's the new Downton Abbey ! Or so the Beeb would have you think. Did you watch it?

The Karate Kid The kids were soooo into it. Emmet kept calling the bad guy a "jerkwad."

Reading :   I'm planning to read travelogues this summer. This one is pretty good. Watching: Light, sunny, perfect. Watching: I can't believe I hadn't seen this one before. Perfect, classic Woody Allen (how I miss him).

I've been reading The Pat Conroy Cookbook , and let me tell you it is a great read. But at a later time; first: my story. I was home (in BC) for Mother's Day. I was walking to my parents' house from my in-laws' house when I saw a woman wandering around the yard in a conical straw hat and a surgical mask. She was asking if anyone wanted to buy shrimp--her husband had been out on the boat that morning, and she had a pickup bed full of ice chests. I had to weigh my sister Peetie's warnings about botulism against $5.50/lb. So I drove home with two adults, two kids, a yellow lab, 20 pounds of shrimp on ice and three buckets of iris bulbs from my mom packed into the Ford Escape. Man, I love my car. The good news is that I haven't died yet--so far it seems that the shrimp are fine. And last weekend I finally got to make pickled shrimp. Pickled shrimp are evidently a Low Country thing, but they need to be an everywhere-people-sell-shrimp-out-of-their-pickups thi...

I'm going to have to unfollow some people today. 1. A picture of a cup of tea sitting on a bare, painted table--why did you even pin that? It's just a stupid cup of tea. Yes, you're so very pure of heart and unmaterialistic. SIMPLIFY, as your innumerable wall hangings say. 2. Equal and opposite: freeze-ahead Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole sounds hella-gross. 3. Who the fuck buys dryer sheets*? And why would I want to know any "other" uses for them? *If it's you: stop it immediately. 4. Thanks for sharing your "Inspiration" board full of celebrity misquotes, but I evidently know more about men, love and life than you will ever learn. I'm sure there are more. What are your Pinterest pet peeves? Follow me, if you like.

I have this nail polish on my toes right now. It's making me so happy to look at it, I even went totally crazy and did my fingernails, too. Not my hand. Via . Yes, it is ridiculously expensive, but it's not like Becca's going to college: "Rebecca continues to struggle with appropriate school behavior. She has a discipline referral form in her backpack today. She was sent to the office for yelling in the hallways during STAAR testing. While in the office, she attempted to hit another student to “get some payback for [her] brother.” She then ran out of the office without permission when a parent opened the door and she thought she wasn’t being watched."

This one is a lot of fun.

This is probably the first thing I've cooked in six months that I could get excited about. This morning I had about five minutes to get something in the crockpot before the entire day went off the rails, so I put a couple of pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in with an envelope of Wick Fowler's Taco Seasoning and a can of beer. Some time later we had chicken chalupas for Taco Night. I am a HERO. In case you can't make sense of the photo: a chalupa shell, refried beans [Are you the person who keeps demanding that stores sell fat-free refried beans? Because if you are, I'm not sure we can be friends.], chicken, tomatoes, green onions, the cheese that Emmet didn't immediately filch from the plate, plain Greek yogurt (if you're not the dumbass who accidentally bought yogurt with honey, because that really wouldn't work), and this Valentina hot sauce, which is awesome. Serve on your finest Dixie plate with a beer, a Dark & Stormy, or you kn...