Ever kill an animal with your teeth?

On public radio's This American Life today was a great bit with Ira Glass where his guest relates a story about eating a live prawn at a Korean restaurant in LA. It's a great story. You can skip to about 11:15 in the stream for the story, but the whole segment is pretty good listening.

Wednesday Potluck: Mandan Chicken Stew with Winter Squash

This delicious meal was from the Lewis & Clark Cookbook, which is a fairly decent collection of meaty recipes. Although if you've actually read the journals of Lewis and (mostly) Clark, you'll call bull on every single recipe in this book since mostly the corps dined on "poor elk" and LOTS of buffalo meat.

Nonetheless, the stew was great and we had some good company. We also ate Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house so we now have no leftovers!

Wednesday Potluck: Navajo stew

Another week, another excellent potluck. This week the lion and I made "Navajo Stew" which came from the Moosewood Simple Suppers cookbook. Roughly speaking, we roasted yams, green bell peppers, and lots of onion in a garlic, olive oil and cumin marinade. After roasting, it gets baked again with some pinto and black beans and the "sauce" which consists of chipotles in adobo sauce, lots of cilantro and canned tomatoes. It was very delicious. Our friends Noah and Debbie brought a sister with and she made a hearty carrot cake with nuts and pineapple in it, which was a perfect compliment!

Wednesday Potluck: Veggie Soup

Not a terribly exotic meal, but it was quick and au natural.

• 32 oz chicken broth w/ 14.5 oz can after-the-fact
• 2 carrots
• a bunch of green beans
• one huge sweet potato
• about 3 cups leftover macaroni
• 2 Trader Joe's Mushroom Asiago Chicken Sausage
• about 2 cups leftover chopped broccoli
• one winter squash, cooked in the oven
• 26 oz pack of Parmalat chopped tomatoes
• celery stalks
• a big onion
• minced garlic
  
• couple Tbsp cider vinegar and tamari soy sauce
• thyme, oregano, basil, dill, salt, black pepper

It simmered on the stove for about an hour while the winter squash softened in the oven. I didn't saute anything, just put em in the pot as I chopped them. Good the first night, even better the second! Next week, maybe Cajun/creole festival.