Next month I'll be organizing and cooking a Roman feast for a gang of friends.  I'm already looking forward to it.  I've got some good sources for Roman cooking, and there are lots of interesting recipes I've never had a chance to try out.  I'm going to try to document the process (menu, cooking, final product) and post pictures etc. here as I have a chance.  Stay tuned.

Woohoo!  It's finally berry season.  We went to the Hillsboro Tuesday farmer's market this week, and scored some really nice berries.  Red and yellow raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and some blackberry-like things (ollalieberries, maybe).  All were fantastic.  I love berry season.  I'm a big fan of fruit and cereal for breakfast, and I've been existing on pretty much apples, pears and bananas all winter.  Not only is it exciting to get some new variety, but the berries don't require cutting up before they go on the cereal, which saves me a bunch of time.  Soon it will be stone fruit season (I got some early plums, but they were less than amazing) and then it will be plums, peaches, nectarines, etc.  I'm particularly fond of those little donut peaches on cereal.  They have a very subtle flavor that comes through well at room temp, and they tend to go really well with the vanilla soymilk.

My kids are pretty gaga for the berries too.  Always nice to get something non-starch based down them.  They've been begging to back to the market (next one on Saturday) to get some more.  OK by me!

There I was, all ready to host this year's Cast Iron Chef competition.  Piled beside me was 75lb. of secret ingredient (no I'm still not telling).  NO ONE SHOWED!  Slackers!  We waited 1 1/2 hours to see if maybe someone would show up.  Nary a one.  Maybe we'll try again later in the year.  Very disappointing. 

10 Foods you should never eat [via Scott].  I'm not sure I agree 100% with all their criteria, mostly around saturated fats, but all in all quite the lineup.  It's pretty amazing how gross a lot of commercial food products are when you stop to think about it.  There are some studies coming out that maybe saturated vegetable fats aren't so bad for us (in moderation) but 40% of your day's fat from a little snack is obviously not a good thing. 

Luckily most of the foods on their list are completely gross, and you wouldn't want to eat them anyway .

One of the strangest things (to me) about the way we eat is why we (Westerners in general, American's in particular) have such hang ups about breakfast food.  In most other parts of the world, what is for breakfast is pretty much what's for lunch and dinner.  There's no concept of sacrosanct "breakfast food".  Many Americans get whigged out at the idea of eating something for breakfast that isn't eggs/bacon/toast/cereal. 

I'm not one of those people.

One of my favorite things for breakfast ever since childhood is hotdogs.  Preferably wrapped in a tortilla with some cheese and hot sauce.  Mmmmmm good.  Of course, my wife and kids think I'm a total freak, but I can live with that.  Which isn't to say that I never eat breakfast food.  I'm pretty big on cereal too, but I often go through long periods during which I just don't want to eat cereal for breakfast.  Then it's back to hot dogs, burritos, ramen noodles (although I've given that up as too high-glycemic) or whatever else strikes my fancy.  When I lived in Japan I reveled in the "Japanese breakfast" of rice, fish, seaweed and miso soup.  That's the way to start your day. 

Of course, there are times when I want cereal for dinner.  Last night, in fact, I couldn't decide what to eat and ended up settling for some imported Swedish muesli with some nice vanilla soy-milk.  My kids thought I was completely off my rocker, but as people who often start their days with frozen bean burritos, I don't think they really have a leg to stand on.

Just a few more days until this year's Cast Iron Chef competition.  The secret ingredient has been finalized (still not telling) and we're hoping to get a good turnout.  It looks like the weather might even be nice .

In years past I've been really impressed at how creative people can be.  The first year we did onions as the ingredient, and we got some truly amazing food, including onion desserts.  One team even went so far as to dye their table clothes with the onion skins prior to judging.  Last year it was prunes, and again, we got some amazing entries.  Everything from game hens stuffed with prunes, to some North African food, to a pie decorated yellow and white checky with a lion's head rendered in prunes (the An Tir device).  I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with this year.  I'll post some of the examples next week.

I think I'd have to say that Lebanese food is some of my very favorite, especially when the weather turns warm.  Last night I decided it was Lebanese food weather (it's in the mid 70's, which is pretty nice for Portland this time of year). 

So, I cooked up some

• Fried eggplant with pomegranate sauce: fry up some slices of eggplant in a fair amount of oil until tender, then drain on paper towels.  The sauce is pomegranate molasses mixed with some chopped garlic, good olive oil, salt and pepper, drizzled over the eggplant slices.  Puts eggplant in a whole new light.  I've served it to people who swore they didn't like eggplant (my sister in law :) ) and had them come back for seconds.
• Cucumbers in yogurt: just chopped cucumbers in yogurt (use laban if you have a Middle Eastern grocery around, or drain the yogurt for best results) with garlic, dill, salt and pepper.  I mixed in some Italian parsely and just a touch of Spanish smoked paprika with fine results.
• Lamb patties: I was lazy at this point, and just mixed up some ground lamb with some of Penzey's "Turkish Seasoning" and chopped garlic, then pan-fried them.  Would be good as kabobs too.
• Whole wheat pita.  I got some "Bible Bread" from Garden of Eatin'.

The other book I mentioned yesterday is  The Neapolitan Recipe Collection : Cuoco Napoletano.  Looks pretty good so far, although I haven't had much chance to look it over yet. 

I spent some time reading the Mesopotamian cooking book, and it's pretty interesting.  Starts off with a brief history of Mesopotamia, then talks about the available sources.  It's a little thick, but I think that's largely because it's translated from French. Good information, and an interesting look at a very old culture.

It reminds me a bit of one of my favorite cookbooks,  Medieval Arab Cookery, edited by Maxime Rodinson.  A great look at medieval Persian cooking, including several original texts.  Well worth checking out, if you're into that kind of thing.  It's a bit spendy unfortunately.  And don't expect any actual Fanny Farmer style "recipes".  The original texts provide guidelines and descriptions, but there hasn't been any redaction into modern-style recipes.

I picked up a couple of new books this weekend that look pretty interesting.  One is on ancient Mesopotamian cooking, called The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia.  I've only read the first few pages so far, but it looks pretty interesting.  It talks about the primary source material that was used, and breaks it up into digestible chunks like cooking without fire, cooking with fire, beverages, etc.  Very cool.

The other was a translated collection of medieval Italian recipes whose name escapes my just now.  I'll try and post info on it later.  I haven't had much chance to look at it yet.