I went out last night and saw some nifty bands at the Save Our Arts benefit, and had a great time making a spectacle of myself on the dance floor.

Out in the parking lot, OnlyBurger was serving burgers and fries from their newly repaired truck. I had an excellent experience on their grand opening before I went gluten-free. Chatting with them last night, it turns out that they have a number of gluten-free customers who purchase their hamburgers with a lettuce wrap. The buns are grilled separately from the meat, so this is truly a gluten-free meal. Way to go, guys! I'll definitely be purchasing that in the near future.

Their website uses Twitter to post their plans, and shows where their truck is using GPS, which is pretty cool. They will be at the Beaver Queen pageant tonight, which sadly I won't be making, since this is a working weekend for me. I definitely recommend seeking them out - they're the best burger around.

Here are some recipes I've tried lately and done well with:


Pasta with Peas, Asparagus, Butter Lettuce, and Proscuitto
I ended up stir-frying the asparagus and peas with a little garlic rather than boiling them, as boiling tends to leech the flavor, IMO. Turned out very flavorful.


Shrimp with Broccoli Stir Fry, made from the cookbook that came with my wok. I've ended up doing a lot of stir fry in recent months, and have gotten to the point where I can experiment away from my recipes pretty handily. As long as I don't dump too much fish sauce in there. :) Another really good one: Spinach and Mushroom Stir-Fry -- but be careful with this one, as the red pepper flakes can make it feel like someone sprayed some pepper spray in your kitchen if you don't ventilate properly.


Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Green Olives
This turned out to be the best recipe I've tried in at least a year. I've already facebooked about this, but hadn't posted it here. I've made this about three times in the past month. Yummy-dummy!

I also had some good luck with a gluten-free version of this recipe from kph for Ginger Pecan Lemon Bars, although gluten-free flour meant they didn't hold together well. Still tasted great.


Movies I've seen recently and enjoyed:

Star Trek. Zach Quinto made an excellent Spock. Cheesy, for sure, but a nice re-beginning for the series.

Terminator Salvation. Super-duper cheese, and the plot doesn't hold together well, but I wasn't expecting much. Lots of eye candy.

The Hidden Blade. Strangely comedic in places, and with a fairly trite ending, but I enjoyed the historical aspects of the filming, and the martial arts were interesting.

Caprica. This was an intriguing beginning to what will hopefully be a compelling series. Didn't care for the pouty teenage female lead, but love that Polly Walker (Rome) has shown up in another interesting role.

The King of Masks. Sad tale for the most part, but interesting look at the plight of orphans in 19th (?) century China. Based on a true story, which makes this even more interesting. Also makes me want to re-watch Farewell, My Concubine, which I haven't seen in a number of years.

The Reader. Kate Winslet absolutely deserved the Oscar for this very complex role. Intriguing film.

Hope someone else enjoys one of these recipes or films. :)

I went to my friends Melanie & Chris's house last night for a nice holiday dinner, with some Wii and card games. I think that's the first time I've really stomped a game of Gin Rummy in quite a while. It was a lovely evening that made me feel like the holidays are finally here.

I brought a couple of side dishes, one of which turned out really well, and the other of which was only so-so. This Indian Spiced Carrot Soup which I posted about before is a real winner. Everyone enjoyed it. Then there was this Asparagus Pesto Pasta Salad from FatFree Vegan Kitchen which was only okay. I think it probably would have been better to steam or stir-fry the asparagus rather than boiling it. And although the pesto was fine, and the toasted pine nuts were a nice touch, the dish seemed really bland. Maybe some sun-dried tomatoes or some sauteed peppers or something would help. Not sure. Also, so far I am not impressed with the gluten-free pastas I've found. They just taste wrong.

There will be plenty of more yummy treats in the days ahead while I'm visiting in Maryland. I keep forgetting to release the super secret Copeland recipes including the one for Shrimp In a Pickle, but I will do so over the coming week or so. That's my holiday gift to anyone who bothers to read my blog. :)

I think this will become a regular category since I do tend to make a big pot of food nearly every Sunday.

I started a gluten-free diet last Wednesday in hopes that it will help me with my tummy issues, which have been getting worse and worse. I won't know if it's working for a few weeks, so I decided to give it a month and re-evaluate. FWIW, my doctor doesn't think it will help anything, and that there's basically nothing I can do and I'm screwed. I don't want to give up trying to find something, anything that will help, so I figured I can at least try this for a month and see what happens. I have heard some friends who got completely better after going gluten-free. OTOH, my tummy was upset on Saturday and so I missed my friend Melanie's birthday party. :(

This week I tried this Sausage, Kale and Chickpea Soup from Kalyn's Kitchen, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite food blogs. Turned out delish, and there are plenty of leftovers for the week. I'm eating some for lunch right now.

I also made the Avocado Tomato Salsa that has become a staple for me. This week, I plan to make (gluten-free) Chicken Piccata from an old recipe I found in my stash, and some stir-fried broccoli. Oh, and I have a pomegranate, the seeds of which I plan to sprinkle on a salad. This is more planning than I usually do for a week's worth of cooking, but I need to be spending less eating out, and it's much easier to be sure that what I'm eating has no gluten.

This weekend, I tried out a couple of delicious soup recipes I'd read about on other blogs. First, there was this fantastic Indian Spiced Carrot Soup from Kate at Accidental Hedonist. I used my Penzey's Spices Hot Curry Powder in it, and that blend turned out to be an excellent purchase. The yogurt and lime garnish make this dish, so don't leave those out if you try it. This could be done in a vegan manner with soy yogurt, I imagine.

Also, I tried the Brat, Butter Bean, and Collard Soup recipe over at The Newlyfeds. This was a nice recipe for collards, which I love. I added some mustard greens as well, and used local brats from Brinkley's Farm. Nice yummy cool-weather food.

I was going to be throwing a pot luck today, but I canceled it after spraining my knee - didn't think I could handle the cleaning / prep work. I wish I'd had it anyways, as the weekend turned out to be a boring one. I tried to go to the Nasher's El Greco to Velazquez show, but it was crowded as hell, and I couldn't park anywhere near close to the museum. Didn't want to walk it with my bum knee. Maybe I'll get another chance before it closes.

In any case, if I had thrown the pot luck today, I would have made this Chicken, Sausage, and White Bean Chili which I made a couple of weeks ago and which turned out fabulously. Perhaps I'll get a chance to host again in the next month.

On my last day in Annapolis, I stopped by a new farmer's market at the Annapolis Mall. Picked up some corn, some peaches, some tomatoes, and most interestingly, some pickles. The name of the stand is The Pickle Guy, and they have some mighty tasty kosher dills. The prices were $4/pint, or 2 pints for $7. I got a pint of the kosher dills, and some horseradish pickles, which were interesting, but not as good as the dills. The farmer's market runs from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm every Sunday. If you live in that area, it's worth checking out.

Last night, back in Durham, I stopped by the Wine Authorities birthday party, although I didn't go inside (I do not need any temptation to purchase wine.) Instead, I ordered a Single, hold the onion and the ketchup from OnlyBurger whose truck was parked outside. I was their fourth customer ever! Sam Poley, formerly of Starlu fame, has a winner on his hands. I respect the philosophy of doing one thing, and doing it well. Their burger was the most flavorful one I've had since I can't remember when. It was juicy and cooked just right for me - pink in the middle. If you want your burger well done, you'd best tell them up front. The iceberg lettuce was more iceberg than lettuce, but that's the only complaint I have. I wolfed it down right quick. Next time I find them, I'll order a double.

We're having a tremendous heat wave in Durham right now - in fact the entire east coast is having a heat wave. We're supposed to reach 102 degrees today! It certainly doesn't feel like spring out there.

Fortunately, my friend Melanie was house-sitting for another friend who has a pool. I was invited over to brunch and a swim yesterday. I haven't been in a pool in years - probably since ~2000. It was fantastic. I loved swimming as a kid (learned to swim at age 3) and used to spend every summer day in the pool if I could possibly help it. This really brought back those times, particularly because we were listening to classic rock, some of which was new during those years. This is the second experience I've had lately that has really brought back the early 80's for me, the other being the Duran Duran concert, of course.

So after a lovely day at the pool and getting a little bit sunburnt, I went home for a while and then to my friends k & b's for a small dinner party where I had my first boiled crawdads. I've had crawdads before, but not done in this way. A couple of the attendees were New Orleans natives who were displaced by hurricane Katrina, and they taught us how to go about eating the little things. It turns out that most of the meat is in the tail, but there's occasionally retrievable meat in the claws, and some people like to suck on the heads (I didn't find this appealing.) They were very tasty, and I eventually got my eating skills honed pretty well. It was amusing to hear all the slurping and sucking noises around the table during the frenzy. :)

It was still super hot out until about 9pm or so, but k & b had a lovely new gazebo set up in their back yard with mosquito netting and hanging candles. It made for a lovely summer's day and night. Too bad it's this hot in spring.

Thanks to Melanie & Chris S., and k & b, for a great day all around.