Anglo-sounding names will not make me more likely to open your spam

I officially hate my Hotmail account. And Canadadrugs.com for selling me out by letting spammers get a hold of my email address. This particular breed of spam started infecting my inbox after I ordered a couple of times from the site.

This is only interesting because of the inoffensive, Anglo-sounding names they always use to try to get gain your confidence. Idiots.

Nancy Johnson
DISC0UNTs for Levtira.. Come see them _ they are relaly B1G!‏
8:25 PM
Mary Moore
Caanidan Onilne phamracy shop is open 24/7
6:50 PM
Lisa Williams
Women's health drugs to forget about proIbems.
5:30 PM
Betty Davis
Anti_dibaetic drugs can be boguht in out phrmaacy.‏
5:14 PM
Mary Miller
Try our (V)iagra pro to incarese your sexuaI poetncy.‏
1:25 PM
Elizabeth Taylor
1t is cofomrtable and_easy to buy drugs online.‏
12:07 AM
Patricia Smith
Buy best products for the men's health_in_our online phaarmcy.‏
Yesterday

Another idea

Idea #3 - A blog of about ethnic restaurants around LA. Not traditional reviews, but rather a collection of good places and what to order if you go there. To be based on conversations with the cook or wait staff and a survey of what dishes the regular customers have on their tables.

This isn't a new idea. A group of business school classmates and I had tried to build a business idea around this notion a few years back. It would have been a company that did dinner tours at hole-in-the-walls, and it would have been great, if any of us had had the personality to sustain something like that.

The challenge of doing a blog like this is that Eric and I live on the Westside, where there aren't that many great ethnic restaurants, especially not Chinese ones. Not a convenient jumping-off point.

Ideas for a new blog

This blog is down to just a handful of readers... and I thank those who have cared enough to stick with it. You know who you are.

But since I am not blessed with a coterie of friends and relatives who will comment on my every post, and prop up my confidence in the interestingness of my own random thoughts, I'm afraid this blogger has run out of steam. At least with this blog, which is about nothing.

The next few posts, before the final goodbye, will be dedicated to ideas for a new, more purposeful blog. One that even people I don't know may stumble upon and find interesting.

Idea #1 - A blog about traditional Chinese cooking. It's not that it hasn't been done before, or isn't being done by someone else right now, but it hasn't been done by me yet, which is the point of a blog.

Idea # 2 - A blog about learning how to run a small business, or a second-generation business in particular. Like the daily frustrations or small victories, and the struggle to not let it consume your whole life.

Slow to Twitter

I joined Twitter yesterday, and so far have been mostly puzzling over how the whole thing works. A lot of @'s and #'s and usernames I don't recognize. It requires a lot more thinking than Facebook.

So I'm not a big fan yet.

The only thing I wanted to "tweet" so far was to let a friend know that her profile photo (a bowl of almond tofu) looked yummy. But when informed that everyone would see my tweet, but that I should just do it because sending a direct message was lame, I gave up and tweeted nothing.

Did manage to find one cool thing made possible by Twitter. But I found it on a friend's Facebook page. Go figure.

A self-centered post

A.K.A. a lazy post.

• Wish I knew which was a better nutritional option for my morning half-bagel: Cream cheese (old topping) or peanut butter (new). Both taste good. Feel more healthy after eating the peanut butter. Am sad that it contains more fat.
• An unnamed major retailer of junior clothing and accessories is going to get a big kick in the pants (figurative) from me if they don't get their act together soon.
• Facebook status update most lacking in self-awareness to date: XYZ "is off to his aunt's funeral. DO NOT TEXT ME THE LAKER SCORE!!!! if you do, I'm going to kick your ass!!! Especially you, Matt!!!"
• Not sure what I hate more: Boring/bragging/annoying/right-wing nutjob status updates, or myself for checking Facebook so often.
  

An open letter to the NYT

I e-mailed this note today to Andrew Martin, a New York Times reporter, in response to a story he wrote about credit card companies and the crazy transaction fees they charge retailers. They really are robbing the nation blind.

Can you tell it's a personal issue for me?

I hope he reads it.

--

Hi Andrew, very nice story today on the interchange fees.

May I suggest a follow-up about another major way in which VISA/MC have retailers by the **lls? Credit card fraud. If someone charges a stolen credit card and the real cardholder files a dispute with VISA/MC, the cardholder is reimbursed -- no questions asked. Who takes the hit for this unconditional guarantee? The merchant.

VISA/MC automatically "charges back" the fraudulently charged amount, ie. takes it from the merchant's bank account. Unless a very specific set of conditions are met (positive photo ID, verified signature) -- and think of how many hundreds of thousands of Web and phone transactions happen daily without those safeguards -- there is little room for argument and no forum for recourse. Short of small claims court, and what merchant has the time for that?

Basically, VISA/MC lulls consumers into feeling safe and using their cards as much as possible in order to engender tons of transaction fees. VISA/MC have little incentive to fight credit card fraud, because that would make transactions harder and more time-consuming (ie. fewer transactions, less revenue from fees). Instead, they ignore the problem and simply shift the costs of fraud onto the backs of small businesses.

The worst part is that VISA/MC make all these universal "rules" that are very hard to understand, both for consumers, small businesses, and Congress. So they're not scrutinized and regulated in a way that makes it fair for all participants.

Why not just stop accepting credit cards, you say? That's simply not feasible for most merchants in this day. Credit cards are a part of life. It would be like telling a commuter in NY, don't ride the subway. But if you do ride the subway, you are liable for anything that may happen to you on it. Because you chose to take the ride.

Hope you're interested enough to look into this.

A food manifesto

There are SO many food lifestyles out there. Your vegetarians and your vegans, your flexitarians, pescatarians, lacto-ovarians, (breath), your raw foodists, macrobiots, non-red-meat eaters. And, naturally, your organic grass-fed meat eaters.

Although I've always been a proponent of eating anything and everything, my interest in a different food lifestyle has been piqued by several friends' recent conversion to veganism. So I've decided to give at least semi-vegetarianism a go. Eric has proven to be (surprisingly, after always saying he wouldn't) a willing and cheerful partner in this.

This means we prepare meals with an exciting lineup of vegetables but no meat, eat meat on special occasions like dining with the parents, and continue to enjoy sushi. Yes, it's a very flexible lifestyle.

Some observations: I've been enjoying vegetables more and not missing meat much. A nicely seared piece of salmon with a little salt and lemon gets my mouth watering the way a grilled pork chop once did. I feel healthy too, with fewer of those episodes of heaviness that can follow a meal.

I've learned some things about how I want to go about eating. Without further ado, a manifesto on food:

1. Listen to your body, not just your tastebuds.

Don't eat stuff that makes you feel bad after you eat it. For me, that means eating less meat, by considering it more as an adornment to a dish and only once in a great while as a centerpiece of a meal.

2. Enjoy food and honor it.

Whether it be a simple tomato sauce or a juicy burger, think of it as something wonderful and to be savored. It can't be healthy to think of any food as bad for you, as the enemy.

3. Keep an open mind.

If you're a vegan, try to understand the appeal of a roasted bone marrow. If you're a red-meat lover, give the subtle taste of tofu a chance.

* Vegetarians with ethical or environmental imperatives, take heart. Even though I have different reasons for eating veggie and doubt that I'll ever eschew meat entirely, just think, if everybody were to cut down their meat consumption to 1/5th of what it is now, how great the world would be.

Food journaling

My mom and I have decided to exchange daily food journals as a means of keeping track of what we eat. Every night, we exchange an e-mail recapping all the food and drink we've consumed.

We have different goals. Mine is to lose a few pounds, hers to get her cholesterol under control. Although it's only been a few days, keeping the journals has already started to have a good effect on me.

I used to steal a snack here and there without giving it much thought. But now that I have to record every bite, I haven't been snacking as much. Faced with the hassle of taking notes throughout the day or trying to recall all my snacks come evening, I find I'd rather not have the snacks after all.

Also, it's embarrassing to have someone else know just how many random string cheeses, chips, or pieces of candy I might eat on a given day.

I find I'm also less likely to grab a late-night snack after dinner (I know, I snack a lot!) like tea and a cookie, because my nightly e-mail has already been sent.

Another bonus: I like to see what other people eat. And I've always admired my mom's way of eating, which is simple and full of enjoyment.

A sample of our food journal exchanges:

Mine:

5-inch piece of baguette, with thin scrape of butter
1 small piece Jarslberg cheese
1 soft-boiled egg
6 baby carrots
Black tea

Bento box -

Rice, Asian greens, 1 small chicken thigh,

1 small piece salmon, Tofu skin/mushroom/carrot stir fry

Grapes and blueberries

1 small can V8

4 slices mango

2 slices baguette with hummus

Ramen with spinach, bok choy, green onions

Poached egg

Pickled cucumbers, fried gluten, chili oil bamboo

1/2 glass red wine

6 slices mango

My mom's:

1/2 pink grapefruit

4 slices of french bread, toasted

1 hard-boiled egg

black tea

6 pieces of sushi roll ( from Costco)

leftover bento food

black tea

1 apple

1 cup of cranberry juice

5 pork & shrimp dumplings

1/2 bowl of rice in tomato and tofu soup

2 squids

1 piece of chicken

fried bean sprout

tomato & cucumber salade in vinaigrette

1 shortbread cookie

strawberries

Kanpachi sushi in Gardena

Omakase! Served by the soft-spoken Kiro-san, a sushi chef who is an old friend of Jen and her family.

1) Hirame (halibut) and Tai (red snapper)
2) Toro (fatty tuna) and Maguro Tataki (marinated seared tuna)
3) Hotate (scallop), Mirugai (giant clam), and Awabi (abalone)
4) Uni (sea urchin roe)
5) Aji (Spanish mackerel) and Kanpachi (amberjack)
6) Ama Ebi (sweet shrimp) and Tako (raw octopus)
7) Tamago (omelet)

Interspersed between the sushi courses were a miso soup with the tasty head of the shrimp (from #6) and a delicate steamed egg custard.

Was very interested in the progression of the omakase, starting with the lighter-tasting types of white fish to red fish, then to crisp bivalves, back again to fish, this time of the stronger, oily varieties, and climaxing in glorious shellfish. Tamago a sweet ending.

Tasty bits I got after the omakase was finished, out of greed:

• Saba (mackerel), which this chef makes extra luscious through smoking
• Tako (octopus), miraculously tender, cut into chunks, and served with a dipping salt

Many thanks to Jen for introducing me to this wonderful restaurant, and for helping to reconstruct the menu we had last week. And for throwing in all the Japanese names for the sushi, which I am still trying to learn.

Salsa Roja!

I'm pretty sure this is the kind of salsa I was looking for. The recipe doesn't call for tomatoes at all! The red is purely from the chiles. What a revelation.

SALSA ROJA
==========
Ingredients:
------------
3 dried New Mexico, pasilla, guajillo, or ancho chiles
3 dried serrano, chile arbol, or Thai bird chiles
3 medium cloves of garlic, separated from the head but skins left on
Boiling water
Salt to taste

Instructions:
-------------
Heat a large flat griddle or skillet over high heat. Place the chiles on the dry skillet, along with the garlic. Check them every few minutes, looking for brown spots as they toast on the dry griddle; turn both the chiles and the garlic cloves, keeping an eye on the color and more importantly on the aroma. When the scent changes and takes on a toasty, rich character, they're done. Remove them from heat and let them cool for a few seconds.

When cool enough to handle (the peppers cool more quickly than the garlic, which in turn takes longer to cook), pull out the stems, veins,seeds and placentas from the chiles. Tear the skins into medium-sized chunks and place them in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over them just to cover, then place a smaller bowl or saucer over the peppers to keep them immersed in the water. Set your timer for at least 30 minutes before continuing.

After the peppers have had time to soak well, pour the peppers and water into a blender. Peel the skins off the garlic cloves (which should smell sweet, smoky and wonderful in their own right) and drop them into the blender as well. Puree thoroughly. The sauce will be chunky; if appearance is important, you can strain it through a wire strainer to get the larger pieces of the skin out of the mixture. (I begrudge the amount of sauce that clings to the mesh myself...) Taste it; add salt and serve immediately.

Many thanks to the author of this recipe, whoever he or she is. I found copies of it in a recipe archive at Carnegie Mellon, as well as on this New Orleans-related site.

Off I go to run errands and pick up some dried chiles!

My Spanish es malo

Here's the Google translation of what I mistakenly thought was going to be a great salsa recipe:

Ingredients: 2 chopped onions. 3 pickled gherkins. 50 gr. of butter. 4 tablespoons of vinegar. 4 tablespoons white wine. 6 tablespoons of tomato sauce. 1 minced cayenne. Parsley. Sal

Preparation: Put the chopped onion in a saucepan with vinegar and white wine. Cook over low heat until the liquid is consumed by half. Add chopped pickles, tomato sauce, the cayenne and salt. Let bake 10 minutes more. Add the parsley and butter, stir. Served to accompany grilled meats or grilled.

First of all, Google translations are icky. Secondly, darn. I don't think this is what I'm after.

On the upside, after surfing some more, I have found out that what I'm seeking is probably salsa roja. As opposed to salsa cruda or fresca or salsa verde.

Wikipedia says salsa roja is made with cooked tomatoes, chiles, onion, garlic, and cilantro. But elsewhere, I am reading that salsa roja is made by toasting dried red chiles, then putting them through a blender with garlic.

The quest to learn how to make salsa roja (if that is indeed the yummy stuff served by taco trucks) continues...

On a quest to make real Mexican salsa

I love hot salsa, not the chunky mild stuff, but the kind that is dark red and smooth and spicy. I've only gotten the good stuff out of big jugs at taco stands or served with chips in hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants.*

My new mission is to learn to make this simple, proletarian (read: no mangos) kind of salsa for myself. Sadly, I can't figure it out just by taste. I do know it's not just chopped-up tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, cilantro, and lemon juice -- those are the ingredients in your standard Internet recipes for salsa, but you will just end up with pico de gallo.

A Google search in Spanish (after looking up the word for recipe, receta), has led me to a recipe that looks pretty promising. My Spanish is not good, but I can tell that this recipe involves vinegar and cooking the salsa.

The recipe is pasted below, in case some kind person would like to translate it for me. Otherwise, my next post will be my attempt at a translation, with a dictionary's help, and maybe a report on my attempt to make this salsa.

Ingredientes:

2 cebollas picadas.
3 pepinillos en vinagre.
50 gr. de mantequilla.
4 cucharadas de vinagre.
4 cucharadas de vino blanco.
6 cucharadas de salsa de tomate.
1 cayena picada.
Perejil.
Sal.

Preparación:

Poner la cebolla picada en un cazo junto con el vinagre y el vino blanco.
Cocer a fuego lento hasta que se consuma el líquido a la mitad.
Añadir los pepinillos picados, la salsa de tomate, la cayena y la sal. Dejar
cocer 10 minutos más.
Agregar el perejil y la mantequilla, remover.
Sirve para acompañar carnes asadas o a la brasa.

Link to the recipe

* The Chinese equivalent of is that homemade, oily chili brew in the tabletop condiment jar of your local Chinese eatery.

1,000 calories in little bites

Eaten at a leisurely pace, over the course of 3 hours, not thinking it was much food at all --

• 1 whole milk yogurt: 230 calories
• 1 chunk of crusty bread: 140 calories
• 3 slices salami: 100 calories
• olive oil & balsamic vinegar
• 1 glass red wine: 120 calories
• 1 artichoke: 65 calories
• vinaigrette, to dip: 130 calories
• 1 more glass red wine: 120 calories

Total count: 1035 calories

Hmph. I might as well have gone for an In-N-Out cheeseburger (480 calories) and fries (400 calories).

Obama and Bo

Amid complicated times, a simple happy moment.

Photograph by Pete Souza/White House via AP, courtesy of news.nationalgeographic.com

Farm Boy in Palms - Produce Heaven, Checkout Hell

Farm Boy: A quirky Korean-owned grocery store in Palms with which I have a love-hate relationship. It's on Overland Ave. about half a mile down from Trader Joe's.

A tangent: I was just going to post about the weirdness of Farm Boy. But I got sidetracked by some interesting stuff on the Web: Apparently Farm Boy is a small chain of at least two grocery stores, and its business strategy is to be near Trader Joe's. There is also a Farm Boy in Sherman Oaks also in close proximity to a TJ's.

This seems a good strategy, because the clientele that Farm Boy attracts is similar to TJ's - foodies, yuppies, well-to-do family people - and these customers are likely to be ripe (sorry) for another place to buy produce, TJ's produce section being limited to mostly prepackaged stuff. i.e. It's good for if you want a whole bag of onions, but bad for if you want just one onion.)

Now, on to what I wanted to say:

I like Farm Boy because of its focus on fruits and vegetables. The product is cheaper and better than in mainstream supermarkets, where produce is usually overpriced, impossibly big and beautiful, and inevitably tasteless. But since Farm Boy's produce is more "real," it means you have to be somewhat vigilant and choosy.

Farm Boy has become an after-work routine, a place on my way home where I stop to pick up some staples like tomatoes or avocados. If I'm famished, I splurge on one of the more pricey non-produce item that Farm Boy carries: Cheese, dried fruit, gummy candy, or some house-made Korean snack like veggie pancakes.

That is the fun part.

But when it's time to check out, some sort of subtly unpleasant exchange always manages to bring me down.

If the owner-husband is at the cash register, he rings me up so quickly - magician-like, almost - that I can't tell what he has charged for individual items, and my total always comes out higher than expected. One time, as a result of a misleadingly priced piece of cheese, I asked for a receipt. A little taken aback, he printed one out and gave it to me. During my next visit, I think he remembered me: My couple of dollars in change he basically chucked on the counter for me to pick up.

Today, I got the wife. She's nicer, though in an overly polite sort of way. When she was about to ring up some blackberries, I made sure to point out I had gotten them from the stand outside the front door, where they were priced at $0.99. Inside, in the refrigerated section, they were $1.99. She said, "Ok! 99 cents!" and rang them up. Then she looked at a little nub of ginger I had, which I had twisted off one of the two giant ginger roots available for sale (because I just wanted a little ginger, and those roots had been really big). She frowned a little, almost imperceptibly. Rang it up for $0.25.

I left feeling like I had finally shopped at Farm Boy without being taken for a ride. But then I got home and opened the blackberries. Some had a white fuzz on them already, and the ones that looked okay were already past the point of sweet. As in, too ripe and not sweet anymore, though not yet rotten.

Farm Boy: 1 point (for selling me sucky blackberries)

Laura: 1 point (1/2 point for the ginger nub and 1/2 point for avoiding getting charged $1.99 for sucky blackberries)

* Does this post make me sound like a really cheap person? If so, God forgive me. But the owners are Asian too, so they should understand. They would do the same if they were shopping there.



Photo courtesy of www.laist.com

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese - won't someone make this for me? I want to watch.

A recipe for lobster macaroni and cheese. I am typing it out for your pleasure out of the December 2005 issue of Bon Appétit, because I scoured the Web and could not find it. I will probably never make this dish, but it makes for delicious reading.

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

6 to 8 first-course servings
...because after going to all this trouble, it had better be tasted by more than just two people

2 live lobsters, 1 3/4 to 2-lb. each

9 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup chopped onion
1 bay leaf

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup coarsely grated Gruyère
1 cup coarsely grated aged white cheddar
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco)

12 ounces orecchiette or medium shells
6 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

Cook 1 lobster in large pot of boiling salted water until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Using tongs, transfer to large bowl. Repeat with second lobster. Reserve boiling liquid.

Working over bowl, twist off tails and claws from lobster bodies, reserving bodies and juices in the bowl. Crack claws; remove meat. Split tails; remove meat. Transfer meat to bowl and chill. (Or at least have a glass of wine.) Rinse lobster bodies. Break all shells into 3-inch pieces, cutting bodies with kitchen shears. Reserve shells in bowl with any juices.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in another large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and bay leaf. Saute until onion softens, about 3 minutes. Add reserved lobster shells and any juices. Stir 2 minutes. Add 4 cups reserved lobster boiling liquid. Boil 18 minutes. (18 seems awfully specific. But okay.) Strain lobster broth into medium saucepan; discard shells. If necessary, boil lobster broth until reduced to 2 cups.

Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in the same pot over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour. Stir 2 minutes. Whisk in lobster broth, then mustard and cloves. (Ahhh, this is the sauce we are making. And it's going to taste extra-lobstery) Whisk in cream and half-and-half; bring to boil, whisking constantly. Add Gruyère, cheddar, and hot pepper sauce. Whisk until sauce is smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (Sauce and lobster can be made 3 hours ahead. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of sauce; chill. Keep lobster meat chilled. Rewarm sauce before continuing.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter 10- to 12-cup casserole dish. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Place pasta in large bowl. Add sauce and stir to coat. Cut lobster meat into 1-inch pieces. Stir lobster meat and chives into pasta. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta mixture to prepared dish.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add panko; sauté until golden, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle crumbs over pasta.

And at last...

Bake until bubbling and heated through in center, about 25 minutes*.

* One last interjection: 25 minutes at 425 degrees seems a bit long. What a shame it would be to end up with rubbery lobster. As with all cooking, keep an eye on it and use common sense!

Sunday, Sunday

The cat has been in the same spot by the window all morning, even though it is a cloudy day. Maybe the UV rays do something for her.

I am having a great Sunday, mostly because there is not much to do. Only:

1) Write a birthday card
2) Nose around on Facebook
3) Run some old bills through a paper shredder
4) Clip recipes out of old food magazines and arrange them in this order.

• Soups, like balsamic-tomato soup and cold zucchini-and-cucumber soup.
• Light starter-type things like fried eggs on asparagus, bruschetta with fava beans, grilled bitter greens salad
• Comfort foods like lobster macaroni and shepherd's pie
• Elaborate seafood and meats, like steamed mussels with sausages and fennel and roast pork loin with Italian salsa verde, which is different from Mexican salsa

Notice that there are no desserts on this list. I just can't get excited about making desserts.

A plug directed at the aspiring screenwriter in all of us

Have a script you'd like to sell? Know someone who does? If you/they'd like professional feedback on it, please check out this up-and-coming script reading service: http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/. It's Eric's, obviously. So any referral would be much appreciated.

A good day

Various observations on Obama's Inauguration Day

1. A really busy day at work, but from the snatches of news reports I caught on NPR while in the car and from websites, it sounds like the nation is touched. Nay, the world. I could say the same about myself.

2. The most important part of Obama's speech:

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

3. You know you are overwhelmed at work when you update your to-do list and two of the action items are to get through two other, different checklists.

4. We have finally made a hire! And we are excited about her. On her plate: (1) Learn the products, (2) Learn the customers, and (3) Restore Laura's faith in the American worker.

Not using online coupon codes is for chumps

My new thing is finding coupon codes for online purchases.

It takes about 15 seconds to find one. Just type into Google: "[name of online company you were about to give money to without entering a coupon code, like a chump] coupon code."

Enter it -- and poof! It's like there's money on the ground, and you just need to go to the trouble of picking it up.

Call me a penny-pincher, but I get real joy out of this. And afterward, I like to imagine what I could go buy in sushi with the money I just saved.

E.g. With the 9 bucks I saved a half hour ago on Canadadrugs.com with coupon code PPC-0207, I can now go get the following at Hide Sushi: 2 pieces of yellowtail nigiri and a vegetable roll. Or a scallop special and a tamago. Or one order of dynamite. Oh yeah!

If ground turkey is what you have on hand...

Cheating again and posting recipes that I send to my brother in college, in place of a real blog entry:

Stuffed bell peppers

2 bell peppers, any color
1/2 pound ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup cooked rice or veggies (I chopped up some boiled carrots/cabbage that I had in the fridge, but frozen corn or carrots could also work, as long as it is a veggie that is not watery)
Seasonings (Like oregano or parsley, chili flakes, salt and pepper)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, scooping out the insides but leaving the stems intact. Spray or brush the empty peppers lightly with oil and pop them into the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the onions in a frying pan, then add the ground turkey. When the meat is nearly cooked, add the cup of rice or veggies and half the can of tomato sauce, and combine well. Add seasonings and taste the mixture. It should taste good on its own.

Take the peppers out of the oven and stuff them with the filling, then pour the remaining tomato sauce over the peppers. (This will help them stay moist.) Put them back in the oven for another 30 minutes, or until they smell and look good.


Turkey meatballs

1 pound of ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
1 fresh egg yolk
Breadcrumbs or crackers smashed to bits
Seasonings (Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper -- whatever you might put in a meatloaf)

Sautee the onions in a frying pan. Let the onions cool, and put them in a big bowl with all the other ingredients and seasonings. Combine well but do not overmix. Using your hands or a pair of spoons, form the mixture into balls.

Pan fry the meatballs in a pan over medium-high heat until they are cooked through and nicely browned on all sides. These can store in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer for longer. Eat them simmered in tomato sauce over spaghetti or in a meatball sandwich with some tomato sauce or ketchup.