How to Avoid Sharing at Work

Anti-Theft Lunch Bag designed by Sherwood Forlee.
These are great! Maybe now there will be less passive aggressive notes on fridges at work...but how will we pass the time?!

Tis the Season for Oven Baked Latkas!

Photos by Sherri Liberman
AND steaks! OK. No, it's not the season anymore. It's past the season! But really, people SHOULD have oven baked latkas ALL season long because latkas are delectable and can be low fat too! I made the latkas this way because I wanted a healthy but still tasty version of the traditional fried latkas.
Here is my recipe for OVEN BAKED LATKAS:
5 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
3 tbs flour
1 splash of beer
1 tbs salt
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil

Grate your potatoes into ice water.
Remove potatoes out of the ice water into a sieve in a seperate bowl, squeezing excess water out of potatoes.
Let the remaining water drain out. Dump water.

Let the potato starch settle at the bottom of the ice water for 10 mins.
Drain water, leaving starch at bottom. Add the starch into the potato bowl.
Slice onion into thin slices.
Add onions to the potatoes.
Add flour, add salt, add pepper, add beer.
Mix.

Preheat oven to 350°
Heat cast iron pan on stove top for 3 mins, medium high heat.
Add butter and olive oil.
Put the mixture in the pan, pat down flat with a spatula.
Let it cook for 3-5 mins.
Put pan in oven for 25 mins.
Take out and flip latka and put back in the oven for another 5 mins.

Slice and serve.
Latka-licious!

Steak recipe to come.

Chocolate Bacon

Chocolate bacon is as gross as chocolate covered pretzels. It's salty and sweet and somehow really go together.
My friends Shane and Joey hosted a Christmas Eve party and I promised him that I would make this for his party. It turned out to be a huge hit! Did we think otherwise...?
Up next, chocolate bacon ICE CREAM. Actually, I can't make that, I don't have an ice cream maker. But if I did....

For the LOVE of EGGS!

Here's another installment in my egg paintings. The CENTURY egg, or thousand year old egg. These eggs are made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. The only way I can really describe the flavor of this egg is it is musky and pungent. If you are a fan of blue cheese, then you may be more inclined to like this. The texture is not quite egg like anymore, the exterior (or the white part-now the black part) is more like jello and the inside (the yolk) is more creamy and smooth. I admit it's an acquired taste and I grew up eating this so I like it a lot and if I was on that episode of Fear Factor where I had to eat those eggs, I would have ACED that challenge! :P

Japanese Night/AKA Christmas

This is what one eats when all the stores are closed on Christmas day. Charlie and I went to Jas Mart and bought some groceries and made panko fried cat fish, Japanese rice with dried seaweed and sardine mix, and crimini and inoki mushrooms baked in foil with butter, garlic, and ponzu sauce. The fish looks like a giant hash brown in the picture...well, it kinda was but instead of potatoes inside, it was fish with that crunchy exterior. Good and artery clogging and so worth it.

HUGE Turkey Day Pot Luck 2008

I almost forgot about this! Annie and Kenneth hosted a Turkey Day party/pot luck dinner. Annie even made a cute menu she posted on the wall. Everyone made such yummy and fun dishes! Cecelia made jalapeno corn bread and a suped up Korean kim chee stuffing, very original. Phil made a fabulous sweet and tart apple pie from SCRATCH (sorry it's not in the pictures), Kenneth made a juicy brisket and gravy, and the most incredibly savory nut loaf I have ever had in my life. Annie made lobster mac 'n cheese that was to die for. Chunks of lobster and pasta in a creamy/cheesy sauce, it was decadent. (Also, not in the pictures--What happened to that?!) Also on the menu was green beans, mash potatoes, and cranberry sauce. I made turkey monterey jack stuffed meatballs with cilantro and a white gravy.
Good times was had by all!

I Like Children Better as Animals

I found some nice yarn my friend Sherri game me once that I never got a chance to use. I wanted to knit something small and cute, quickly. Like a kid's hat. Plus, I like kids better when they dress up as animals. Now I have to figure out who to give this to.