Why does all cooking show music sound like porn music? At first I thought it was just a strange coincidence but maybe it's calculated. And it's the kind of porn music that people who make porn might not want to use because it sounds too much like porn music.

Coupla' other things.

On Malto Mario his “students” or whatever they are are always looking at him like not only have they never seen a gnocchi but like they've just been awakened from the pod and they are getting their first glimpse at human interaction. Now they think everyone is supposed to wear skorts. “Mario, do you always boil the water before putting the pasta in?”

My friend Jim and I have a Bobby Flay stand up routine where one of us pretends to be Bobby Flay and the other plays vaguely ethnic skeptical friend. It goes like this.

Person playing Bobby: Now I'm going to put some pineapple…. on the grill!

Vaguely ethnic skeptical friend: Pineapple on the grill? I dunnnnno' Bobby….

It's funnier if you're there. I guess you'll get to see it when we take our Bobby Flay stand up on the road.

I knew it. There are kosher vegan white chocolate chips. Whenever I tell people they laugh at me like I said I saw a yeti but my bff Ijdi in San Diego has confirmed. Here they are in all their forked up weird bear sitting on smurf hats glory.

Now, I didn't say they taste good. I only said that they are vegan. It's not that they taste bad they are just kind of like sweet and bland. But they make your cookies looks pretty. Here's the linky.  And here are some people weighing in on a Kosher blog.

In case you're wondering what to do with your weekend, you should make one of these.

With the Vegan Cupcakes book out the door we can finally start working on the next cookbook which means I finally get to start cooking real food again. I'm sorry to break it to you that cupcakes aren't real food.

My philosophy has always been that if you can't put together a good salad on your own then you - wait, I can't insult my readership. I will rephrase. Some people are lactucally challenged and need salad recipes so I'm biting the bullet and including salads this go 'round. But don't worry, we will not insult you by asking that you put chickpeas and lettuce in a bowl and call it a day (even though chickpeas and lettuce are really good!) We're  going to innovate, sit in our gardens of light and peace and let the chicory speak to us. “I want pears” it seems to say “poppy seed polenta croutons, please” it whispers.  We're going to come up with some new and interesting combos that you don't already find in every vegetarian cookbook.  Barring that we are just going to bite off the menu of thai restaurants. Like this Jicama, Watercress and Avocado Salad with Spicy Citrus Vinaigrette that I came up with yesterday.

There's no title for the next book which is stressful because I just think of it as “the next cookbook” and it sounds really ominous. I can tell you that it's going to be a big endeavor, we are aiming for 400 recipes. So we're about 1/60th of way there. It's coming out in Fall of '07 so I'm being all leisurely about it, just making fresh summery things like I haven't a care in the world. But by Thanksgiving I should be freaking out and throwing pie crusts at people again.

Oh, and I keep saying “we” because Terry and I are writing it together. Which is great because Terry is all “green tea” and I'm all “pumpkin” and it's a nice balance.