edamame dip AKA "holy shit there is sunshine in my mouth"

There us no way this picture will ever do this dip justice, unless I photo shop a halo and ethereal lighting into it....

I stumbled across the recipe for this wonder-dip at Closet Cooking, I tweaked it only slightly. My edamame was already cooked, I used fresh lemon juice in place of lime, and I tossed in a garlic scape for good measure. Wowzer is this tasty! It really is like an amazing summer day that you can eat with veggies, or chips, or on a sandwich. I highly recommend giving it a whirl for yourself.

Belgium

Ha ha! I have a reason aside from laziness as to why I have not posted.... We were visiting Belgium. The land of beer, chocolates, mussels, and fries!

There were some definite winners that we were able to sample throughout our journey. The beers (not surprisingly) were wonderful, we really did not encounter any real duds at all. Similarly any chocolate we encountered was delicious and in a totally different category than most chocolate you find stateside.

You can get giant steaming pots of mussels every way imaginable. I am admittedly a bit of a mussel slut and will accept them any way that I can get them and will always be pleased. So, me liking the mussels was a bit of a sure thing.

Our firm recommendation on the fries. Skip them if they are at a restaurant or part of your meal they will be lame, pretty standard, and they will serve them to you with just about everything. Go to a stand or a cart. That is where the pom frits action is. They will be hot, greasy, and with a bounty of dipping sauces that can be slopped all over them.

Oh, and if you ever find yourself in Antwerp check out a place called The Bistro. One of the best meals I have had in a long time.

A P.S. to Belgium- Your cities will smell way less like piss if you actually have bathrooms. Just seems like a safe bet when your culture encourages consumption of multiple liters of beer in a given sitting. Just an observation.

another photoless post

Ok. This is totally lame but I have been hankering for a pb+j sandwich for a few days, earth shattering right? Either way, we tend not to have jelly/jam in the house purely because it does not get eaten. In my quest I remembered that pb and honey is rather delicious as well, alas no honey. BUT we do have wonderful vanilla flavored agave..... and holy shit it was amazing. I don't know if it was the fact that it was a new flavor combo or what but I am still dreaming about that half a sandwich.

pizza with broccoli and garlic scape pesto

This time of year is one of my favorites, not just because its getting warmer and you get to cookout more often, but because of garlic scapes. I was introduced to them a few years ago in our CSA share and was instantly hooked. We now seek them out when they are in season and toss them in just about everything that we cook, soup, pasta, stir-frys, the whole she-bang. Yesterdays dinner turned out to be chock full of scapey goodness. We used premade dough from the market topped with scape pesto, some broccoli, a few plops of ricotta, and a sprinkling of grated parmesan. It was awesome. Alas since I am a bad blogger.... we forgot to take pictures. Sigh

I still am being a bad blogger

I can't say that I have gotten my mojo back and that makes me sad. So I am forcing the mojo. Keep an eye out, there will be something soon, I promise.

Kung Pao Tofu

Told you that I didn't totally abandon this little nook of the interweb. In an effort to use some tofu that was nearing its "best by" witching hour I opted to make some kung pao tofu. I adapted this wonderful looking recipe from For the Love of Cooking. It came out rather tasty if I do say so myself, and was quickly nommed by the boys in the house.

I am being a very bad blogger

In contrast with my general bad pictures and lame prose, I have simply been lazy and uninspired.....

And I kinda don't know where the camera went.

Regardless, it is no excuse. I just need to find my mojo, maybe spring will perk me up. Keep your fingers crossed.