bwah! food porn!:

I place the asparagus spear on my cutting board so the curve lies flat against the board. With my chef’s knife, I cut about a centimeter from the end at the base of the spear. As I push the knife gently through the cylinder of flesh with a slight sawing motion, I try to feel for the individual fibers that run up and down the length of the spear. If my knife glides effortlessly through the flesh, I know that the whole spear will be tender when cooked. If I perceive the roughness of the fibers, I know that I need to cut a bit more off the end, or the end may still be stringy after cooking. One by one, each spear in the original pile is gently trimmed and stacked in a new pile.

i made wonderful vegan chocolate chip cookie bars with only minimal ingredients available (no vanilla extract) and while they certainly don't qualify as food porn, they were nice and crispy, the oil giving them a texture that you can't get with butter.

next year when i no longer live in one of the culinary capitals of the world, i will probably have to cook a lot more. i look forward to doing so and hope that i make time to actually create worthwhile meals. last time i was in school and living in a town with only a small selection of restaurants, most either awful or overpriced (or both), i found myself pretty much adhering to a diet of popcorn (with olive oil, nutritional yeast and basil) which, really, is absolutely grim. no wonder i was depressed. now i'm already fantasizing about dinners at home with the roomie, the hanging pot rack that i hope to put up in the kitchen (something i've hoped to do in every apartment i've lived in since college and have yet to actually do), and all that good stuff. the one major barrier is the electric stove in the kitchen. i mean really, people! electric? what were you thinking? ah well, what can you do?