For me at least...

the ones where Lileks begins and say he has nothing, zip, nada...often turn out to be the ones I link to. I wish they had raccoons in Cyprus so I could make me some goulash. Read it...and smile.

I've never tried it...

but after reading this article, I visited their website. It certainly looks good and their whole story from the first link is kind of a feel good thing. I don't eat much fried chicken, but if you have your oil hot you can keep the oil from reaching the meat and have a relatively healthy meal. I may have to do some experimenting. Paul Prudhomme's cookbook has some things I'd like to try, but it took this article to get me off my butt and maybe give it a shot. I'll probably use my deep fryer instead of the cast iron, but he uses the remnants of the fry for other things and I probably won't. That reminds me...I need another Dutch oven. Time to go shopping.

It's been raining most of the night and so far this morning so I haven't been very ambitious. I should be cleaning the old place, but...you know me and cleaning. Eventually...

Fat, dumb and happy...

and ready for some football. I just made some burritos and they were pretty damn good. I was going to make tacos, but saw some tortillas when I was looking for the shells and decided to go that route. I really wish you could get corn tortillas over here because you can fry them in oil and make your own taco shell. Very tasty! I guess I could have tried that with the flour, but I didn't. I bought some ground beef, lettuce, salsa, a bean and tomato sauce and Leicester cheese and headed home.

About halfway there I realized that I didn't have any taco seasoning mix and I stopped at a couple of what they call "supermarkets" over here. It's kind of like Korea in that respect as all the 7-11 type stores are called soo-pas there. None of them had the seasoning mix.

You know me and the internet...quick search and I had this recipe. I did the usual, brown the meat, grate the cheese and tear up the lettuce and poured the seasoning mix in. I've never noticed oregano in a mix before and it didn't really add or subtract to/from the flavor, but what was immediately noticeable was the scent of cinnamon. I may try more next time, because although I caught hints of it, it was over powered by the chili powder, cumin and cayenne. I'm not certain whether the heat the recipe carried was due to the "hot" salsa I used or the cayenne, but if you are sensitive to hot foods, be careful. I really like the tomato/bean sauce too. I added it for the last 15 minutes of simmering and I preferred it to straight refried beans, because the flavor permeated the meat and was more evenly distributed than a layer of beans normally is. They probably sell something similar in the states, but I've never looked for nor seen it.

Now it's time to see if it passes the fart test. I guess that tells you about my plans for New Year's Eve...nonexistent...well, aside from belching and farting that is.

Happy New Year!