And the nominees are...

I am pleased to report that we have been nominated, and when I say nominated, I mean that I submitted us, for a Best of Blogs award in the food category, which is meant to recognize blogs with smaller readerships. So when the time comes, get your voting clicker ready!

Devilishly good

The best part of Easter, as far as I am concerned, is turning the dyed Easter eggs into devilled eggs. Last year I had the brilliant idea of making half the batch a little new wave by adding this yuzu-chili paste I bought at the local Japanese market thinking it looked interesting, and it packs quite a kick. So I did that again this year, and dusted those with some green tea powder to distinguish them from the traditional ones, which I dusted with smoked paprika. See before and after pictures above.

Queen of Tarts

As part of my "actually try the cookbooks teetering on the shelves" project, I made this Three Onion and Feta Tart last night. It's very easy to do, because instead of a crust you just spray the pan with cooking spray and lay down a thick layer of breadcrumbs. You could easily try various vegetable-cheese-herb combinations and I think it would work beautifully. For a 10" tart pan, it was 3 eggs and about 4 oz. of cheese. Of course, it would be even better if studded liberally with pork products.

My excuse

I know I haven't been posting lately, but I have an excuse. I am in the middle of a miserable root canal, which hopefully, when completed, will relieve me of the unremitting dental discomfort I've been in for months. I haven't been able to eat anything too hot, too cold, or too crunchy, which lets out most of what I like to eat. On the plus side: I've lost 5 lbs. and gained a new understanding of portion control and eating just as much as you need to not feel hungry any more. But it's pretty much been a diet of soft foods -- soup, pudding, yogurt, pasta. If anyone has tips on how to make a soft diet interesting, by all means, lay it on me.

Rice is nice

I suddenly became consumed by a craving for rice pudding last night, which I adore, but had never actually made. So I browsed through a bunch of cookbooks and online recipes until I found one that called for a reasonable amount of milk and other ingredients I already had in the house. I ended up adapting a recipe from the giant Gourmet cookbook, and just did a simple, basic vanilla rice pudding, which Young Master Gateau and I ate warm with plenty of cinnamon. Then, because a cup of rice makes A LOT of rice pudding, I had a bowl of it for breakfast with coffee.