On food...my other passion...

Okay, so I should just come to the conclusion that updating this just isn't going to happen frequently. C'est la Vie.

I've always fashioned myself as a pretty good cook. I don't try to make Crepes or Lobster Bisque or anything REALLY fancy, but I try to make good food and, specifically, clean food. Nothing overly greasy or over 8 ingredients. Basically, my ideal meal is one that requires little "work," few ingredients, and tastes like, well, what it's made of. I'm kind of sick of everything being doused in sauces and demi-glaces and reductions. Now, yes, I can make a damn good reduction (see my seared sea scallops with a pomegranite reduction for example), and I can certainly put a sauce on anything, but I'm currently under the impression that FOOD TASTES GOOD ON ITS OWN!

You want meat? Have a steak. Order it medium AT MOST! Don't put A1 on it. Eat the meat. By itself. If you dare, put salt or pepper on it. And PLEASE, put FRESH pepper and sea salt on it!

You know what tastes good? Vegetables. Potatoes. Asparagus. Again, just cook them. Steam them, grill them, saute them...keep it simple.

You know what my mise en place consists of at home?

--salt
--pepper
--olive oil
--butter
--garlic
--onions
--parsley
--red wine

that's about it. And I'm sticking to that. Poor? no. Uninspired? Hardly.

In fact, right now I've got a stock pot reducing right now that's (hopefully) going to give me a really cool vegetarian sloppy joe made almost entirely of mushrooms. Woody, hearty, mushrooms. In fact, with the exception of the red wine, it's organic, too. :) Mix that with some good cheese, some soup with some crusty bread and some apple cider, and it's a perfect picnic lunch.

Jumping topics here, I don't believe in recipes for individual cooking. Restaurants, yes, absolute must. But if you're at home, and you're making dinner, the only thing you should be using is your mouth and your finger.

Consider if you will, my theory of "Food Math."

You know what a tomato tastes like, right? In fact, now that I'm talking about this, you're probably tasting a tomato, yes?!?

Onions? Garlic? Yep and yep, right?

You know what ground beef tastes like when browned off in a skillet.

You know what salt and pepper does to each, correct?

So, in theory, you should be able to put those flavors together to make a very simple meat sauce. Now, yes, you'll probably want to experiment with things like basil and Oregano and turmeric. How do you know what to add, and how much to add?

TASTE IT FIRST, TASTE IT OFTEN!!

That's the only way you're going to know when it's right, and what you need.

Leave the recipes for the Martha Stewart Soccer Moms (or, better yet, the Sarah Palin Hockey-Moms--she doesn't have anything better to do now, thank God!!). Be creative.

Food is sexy. It is erotic. Your mouth is one of the most sensitive areas of your body, and one of the biggest erogenous zones...tell me that when you bite into a juicy peach, dead in the middle of season, and the juices drip from your lower lip, down your fingers, and onto your chin, that that doesn't feel ridiculously sexy. Tell me that putting a soft, velvety spoonful of vanilla bean ice cream with fresh, warm raspberry sauce across your lips and onto your tongue doesn't arouse you.

And cooking should be foreplay. In practically every sense of the term. You want to know how a lover is going to be in bed? Make dinner with them.

Just don't do it naked.

Especially if you're tall.