Oh, and as for the cooking...

I woke up at 4 AM. I stayed in bed until 5:30. I read blogs until now. So here's a post of what we ate this weekend.

Saturday:

• Flap meat briefly marinated in spicy smoked sesame oil, grated garlic & ginger, soy, hoisin, thrown in the grill pan & finished in the oven
• Spicy hoisin glazed eggplant (under the broiler, not on the grill) - super yummy!
• Whole Foods Asian stir fry mix (carrots, celery, zucchini, mushrooms, bean sprouts), stir fried

This with Planet 51 on the video on demand. A quiet end to a busy day!

Sunday:

• Artichokes baked covered in the oven (45-60 minutes at 425; perhaps a bit too long but the "heart soft as pudding" was actually pretty good!) with lemon, fennel seeds, celery, and olive oil; I cut them in half lengthwise so they cook faster and put them cut-side down over the slice of lemon and celery
• Beef short ribs with dried herbs, slow-cooked with Luchador (how could I resist that label?! plus we like Shiraz), tomato paste and mirepoix, which I stick-blended into 'gravy' at the end - sort of inspired by this but with less liquid
• Polenta
• Kale sauteed with dried chilis & shallots, finished with a bit of balsamic vinegar
• Salad of red leaf lettuce, purple cabbage, and green onion
• Rogue Smokey Blue (cheese) with toasted walnuts and honey - OMG! - especially with more of the Luchador
• Quenelles of vanilla ice cream rolled in mini-semisweet chocolate chips or mini-marshmallows with a nice homemade caramel sauce

Speaking of movies, if you like anything by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, y'know) and/or you're a Neil Patrick Harris fan, you GOT to check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. (Frankly, if you like comic books, Glee, musicals, satire...you'll probably like it.) I realize I'm probably one of the last to the party on this, but the DVD was fun because it's got the typical bonus materials, but even watching it online, as it was originally released, would be pretty good (three 15 minute "acts"). Thanks to Uncle Ron for the tip!