arrival.

Yes. One thing I want to say about yesterday's 24-hour travel day: every airline, TSA, and airport person we interacted with was unfailingly pleasant, even the cops who took apart our luggage. Any hideous behavior we saw was 100% the work of passengers.

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Ahhh. Sleep, in a pitch-black, catless room far from garbage trucks and delivery men. Very very nice. Now? Coffee! And then I immediately set to work on doing something productive with American-sized amounts of food, for example, a kilo of smoked salmon. This will probably end up as an experimental version of the Old Faithful salmon rillettes.

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I usually like to start these Phoenix adventures with a survey of exciting new food developments in my parents' kitchen, and this will be no different.

The first cool thing I ran into was a cookbook by Barbara Lynch called Stir. It's an example of a way-better-than-average, thoroughly interesting cookbook that I almost put down immediately because there's something wrong with the design/layout. I can't quite put my finger on it. The recipes are also named in a way that doesn't make me want to read what they are. But once I fight my way into a recipe, it's great.

The second cool thing I ran into was the pan pictured at the top. What is it?

The third: a really excellent and proportionally ambitious raspberry muffin from Paradise Bakery.

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