samhain.

Ladies and Gentlemen...may I present the lovely and talented Han Bennink, in our old apartment, wearing my favorite rabbit mask I've ever owned.

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Tonight: Shrimp Fail. And Yam Education. Hold on. Let me get my bearings.

If you're like me (I LOVE sentences that start like this, I don't know why I don't use them more often), you've probably asked yourself at one time or another, "Hey. Just what is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?"

On the left: real yams. On the right: sweet potatoes. Hold on.

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OK. This side-by-side comparison has allowed me to reach some important conclusions. For starters, the biggest difference as far as I can tell is that sweet potatoes taste wonderful and yams taste like fluffy paper. And yams are bigger. And surprisingly white inside, while the sweet potatoes were unsurprisingly orange.

That was just one of the educational moments we had last night. The other educational moment came when we tasted the jerk shrimp that Dad had been marinating all day.

They were....inedibly salty. Seems that Dad tried a new jerk mix without really tasting it. Bad Dad.

So, what do you do with 50 or 60 oversalted shrimp? You certainly don't throw them away. And that's why we're going to try a little something called Jerk Shrimp Cakes tonight. Yes, I hear you. I too am normally a purist when it comes to shellfish cakes. Crab cakes for example: I'm with all those who say it should be mostly crab, plus a little egg, mustard, Old Bay, and bread crumbs.

But this is a Shrimp Fail Emergency: the boundaries need to be trampled. Plus I think these could be OK. Last night before bed I chopped the shrimp quite finely in a food processor and added enough milk to achieve a "seafood salad" (really an unattractive phrase) consistency. Tonight I will probably strain the shrimp, add an egg or two and a couple tablespoons of panko. Make cakes out of it and then fry them in butter. This sounds reasonable, no? Any better ideas?

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