FOOD

On Aug. 29, The Lovely and Talented Cheryl DeGroot and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. In the U.S. there's no traditional gift for that anniversary. So I declared the 26th to be the Upgraded Home Appliance Anniversary. I got her a toaster.

Nancy Leson sent me a link to an Op-Ed published in the New York Times recently by Smitten Kitchen food blogger and cookbook author Deb Perelman. The title: Never Cook at Home: Trust me, I know it's a drag.

Must be all the over-the-top heat we've endured that contributed to my great luck this summer growing Shishito and their cousins, Padron peppers. Now if I can just find a way to use them all up. Here are two of my favorites.

True, I'm no longer young but I am in love (with the Lovely & Talented Cheryl DeGroot) and I've been meaning to render and eat my own lard for a long time, now. I'd been hearing for years about its magical properties for biscuits and pie crusts. And I've recently been learning of its health benefits. The stuff's been getting a bad rap for years. But I'd also been warned off the hydrogenated kind in those shelf-stable boxes at the supermarket. Nope, the only kind to use was from the leaf fat

Nancy Leson has been making various flatbreads for years, first in her oven and then in a dry cast iron skillet. But from now in she'll do it on – not in – a wok.

Sometimes my mind has a mind of its own. "I know," it thought. "Let's order pricy, self-indulgent food stuff online." And so I did. "Alright, mister," Nancy Leson demanded. "Who are you and what have you done with Stein?" I'd succumbed to the dangerous combination of being online and bored, with a few extra end-of-month bucks. But now I'm glad I got the stuff. Well, two thirds glad anyway.

This is not a weeknight recipe. Both Nancy Leson's and my emails crossed in the cybersphere. "Let's make this!" It was J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe for Balinese Pork Saté and it was pretty complicated. In fact, three recipes in one: the spice blend for the pork marinade, the sweet soy glaze for grilling, and the hand-pounded (more on that down-blog) peanuts for the sauce.

It was like when you've left the caps lock on in Word, only it was streaming across the touchscreen on my kitchen range. Err loctUrnoff sUrfacebUrneRs accompanied by frantic beeping. I expected a dAanger wIll rObinson any moment.

It was like when you've left the caps lock on in Word, only it was streaming across the touchscreen on my kitchen range. Err loctUrnoff sUrfacebUrneRs accompanied by frantic beeping. I expected a dAanger wIll rObinson any moment.

Nancy was on jury duty this week and couldn't record. Here's one of our favorites from yesteryear. At the conclusion of last week's Food for Thought, I bragged to Nancy Leson that I would create a cheese cracker the size of a Long Playing Record sleeve in my home oven. "I'm talkin' about the big Corellian Cheez-Its now" I told her. Thanks to pastry chef Stella Parks' BraveTart blog I can declare "mission accomplished!"