The other night, I got a call from my friend Corey, inviting me to Will’s to join them and “cook a bunch of awesome shit.” So Corey, Courtenay and I walked over to Will’s and we cooked a bunch of awesome shit.

For those who aren’t familiar with the official definition, “awesome shit” refers to: wild Alaskan king salmon, shrimp and the not pictured: kale, asparagus, mashed potatoes, lamb and artichoke pesto.

Eggs benedict: 3 poached eggs, smoked salmon, Hollandaise & caviar on top of an English muffin. Country potatoes. Fresh coffee.

Done.

• chris: I just paid $26 for eggs
• brian: Knowing you, it probably came with a side of fish from outer space. “Can you make sure the fish was orbiting a moon of Jupiter?”

My dinner tonight: salmon poached with lemon & lime slices, pinot grigio and minced shallots. The white wine made me feel like a grown up, but I’m not totally sold on the idea of poached salmon, yet. It tasted great, but I don’t think there was a lot of difference between poaching & other cooking methods. I’ll give it another shot sometime.

The sauce (pictured below) was created by reducing the liquid I used to poach the salmon. With some added juice from an orange, brown sugar and honey.

Asparagus. Quicker.

Ready?

1. Turn on your broiler
2. While you wait for it to heat up, toss asparagus with olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper — you must get your hands dirty, don’t try to fight it
3. Get baking sheet. Add aluminum foil. Add asparagus.
4. Place the asparagus 4 inches away from broiler’s heating element
5. Cook for 8 minutes, rearranging asparagus half-way through

Much better than all the boiling/steaming nonsense (which I’ve tried plenty of times). I’ve cooked asparagus several different ways, but this is the method I’m going with from now on. It’s faster, easier and tastes better. [resists urge to add something vulgar]

My not-so-secret problem

• Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 11 brownies from the Apple Cafeteria (details in an upcoming post)
• Belgian chocolate assortment

Grains & carbs

• Kashi Whole Grain Flakes cereal
• Kashi GoLean Crunch Honey Almond Flax cereal
• Organic stuffing mix

Vegetarian assortment

• Eggplant pesto
• Tomato & basil hummus
• Garlic mint cheese
• Sweet jalapeno spread
• Spinach bolani
• Lentil bolani

Bolani is a super thin flat-bread that’s filled with spinach, lentil, pumpkin or potato and baked in a clay oven. I buy it at my local farmer’s market and it contains no meat or meat products. All you do is break off some bread and put on whatever sauces/spreads you think will taste good together. Then try to eat it quickly before anyone asks you for samples.

The garlic mint cheese sounds weird, but I see it getting the most use. It tastes pretty darn good as a base— just throw some sweet jalapeno or eggplant pesto on top and it’s good to go.

Food’s food

• Organic strawberries
• Raspberries
• Cherries
• Navel oranges

Sweetish fish

• Salmon filets
• Lemon
• Brown sugar

One weekend, I got it into my head that I was going to create a salmon recipe that utilized a citrus sauce/glaze. I’ll write the details on this later (complete with pictures).

nature’s candy:

• Red, seedless grapes
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Strawberries (organic)
• Dried fruit bars

human’s candy:

• Cappuccino almonds
• Lemon honey almonds
• Espresso gelato
• Dark chocolate almond Laceys (review)
• Espresso chocolate chip cookies

all that non-candy stuff:

• White mushrooms
• Portobello mushrooms
• Sliced pepperoni
• Sliced prosciutto
• Uncooked shrimp
• Wild citrus salmon
• Pizza sauce
• Fresh mozzarella (ovalini)
• Fresh mozzarella (bocconcini)
• Whole wheat pita bread (organic)
• Herb bread (organic)

I don’t always have hours to slave over a homemade pizza (but I wish I did). So lately I’ve been using pita bread as the crust for some quick mini-pizzas. I have some leftover chicken, pesto and smoked mozzarella and a really great BBQ sauce (which I’ll review later) so I’m able to mix up the toppings quite a bit. One of my favorites: marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni and shrimp that’s been sautéed garlic, herbs and red wine.

As I post more of these lists, I suspect I’m gonna feel more and more guilty about the obscene amounts of chocolate I consume to power through my days. But that’s okay. It will simply spiral me into a deep depression that will lead to more of that sweet, sweet chocolate.