search for pleasure dome.

Well, your host is having some kind of pharmaceutical problem again that is only made marginally better by pushing a pleasure button, when he can manage to locate one. Believe you me we will be launching a Nostromo-like salvage mission to go in there and methodically detail the recovery process should there be one and maybe even learn something from it this time, but for now let's just thank our lucky lucky stars, shall we, for in a moment of true inspiration/desperation I have found/developed a super surprising, healthy-ass pleasure button. Check this shit out. I think it's "Southern food". Maybe it would need to be trout or catfish or catfish instead but you feel me.

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blackened salmon with kale and sauerkraut slaw + blue cheese and peanut.

4 x 125g salmon
2 1/2 tbsp paprika
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 cups of shredded kale
1 cup fresh sauerkraut
2 scallions, diced
1/2 cucumber, sliced
3 tbsp cider  vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard or piccalilli
1 or 2 tbsp agave syrup
I guesss you should probably put some mayonnaise in here, but we'll try it without

the necessary amount of blue cheese, crumbled
a handful of dry roasted peanuts

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one more thing.

I roasted rutabaga tonight. And I didn't like it! Bad texture, mealy. That never happens. Anyone got rutabaga (swedes is another name) love?

Never mind...I just didn't cook it long enough.

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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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