Last night for Valentine's Day, I made Vikki a batch of tempura soba using (no kidding) pink soba noodles.  I thought it was pretty apropos.  The soba, as it turns out, is plum flavored.  Vikki was worried that they would be sweet, but they were obviously made using something like pickled plums, not at all sweet, but the plum flavor was definitely evident, and they were very fragrant.

The tempura to go with them included sweet potato, green and regular onions, mushrooms, and green beans.

The noodles were good enough that I won't wait until next Valentine's day to try some more.

For my birthday back in December, I got a new cooking gadget from my father-in-law (thanks Terry). 

It's an "indoor BBQ pit".  Hmmm.  Unsafe, you might think.  Can't possibly work, you might assert.  Actually, it's pretty cool. 

True, you won't get any smoke flavor, but there are creative ways around that.  My personal favorite is Spanish smoked paprika, or some chipotle chilies in the sauce.  The thing is basically a big crock pot, with some racks that fit inside to either hold ribs upright, or hold a roast, a chicken, or a brisket off the bottom.  I've done ribs, pork roast, and brisket in it so far, with (I think) pretty decent results.  It's supposed to hold two whole chickens, but I haven't tried that yet. 

The ceramic liner comes out, and is dishwasher safe, although my one gripe with the whole setup so far is that slow-cooked barbeque sauce is nearly impossible to chisel off the interior of the "pit".  Long soaking and serious scrubbing are required, but it's still fun to use.

I had some leftover BBQ brisket (I'm a big Texas style BBQ fan) that I needed to use up, so a batch of frijoles borrachos (drunken beans) was just the thing.

I cooked up some pinto beans until they were mostly soft, then in a separate pan fried up some onions, garlic, a few pickled jalapenos, some chili powder, ground Mexican oregano, salt, and ground cumin.

When the beans were done, and the veggies soft, I threw the veggies in with the beans, a beer (hence the borrachos part) and a bunch of chopped brisket. 

That cooked down until it was saucy but not soupy, and some chopped cilantro went in at the last minute.  Served with quesadillas, it was a bit hit.

Boy, it's been a while since I've posted anything here.  There's probably something I can do to fix that...

I've been craving the food of my youth lately, i.e. hippy vegetarian food.  I've been dragging out my original vintage copies of Moosewood, The Vegetarian Epicure, The Tao of Cooking, etc. 

In that spirit, I made a batch of tofu "egg" salad. 

Mash up some firm tofu, and add mayonnaise to your taste, a little curry powder, salt and pepper, celery, and a handful of cashews.  Tastes just like egg salad (only without all the egg peeling and cholesterol) and makes great sandwiches or cracker spread.