Ah, the self-checkout station. I don't know about your city, but in these parts, every new or remodeled supermarket has four of the things. They are a gift... and a curse.

Fresh ginger is one of those irreplaceable ingredients. There's no dried, powdered, jarred, or tubed alternative that can come close. But it's not the most convenient stuff in the pantry.

I love Costco, but fuck knows, you can't get everything you need there. Which means I need a regular grocery store to go to. Now, the closest grocery store to me is Whole Foods, but that's as much of a specialty market as Costco is, only more expensive. The second closest is Byerly's, but seriously, fuck Byerly's. I do not trust carpeted supermarkets. When I started You Are Dumb in 2004, one of the things that inspired me was how much I hated shopping at the nearby Byerly's.

I classify this as a recipe in only the loosest of terms. This is a sandwich I make for myself when nobody else is around, mainly because I can't imagine anyone else would like it, or at least like it in the evil, wrong way I like it You'll need:

So it's been a long week. One without much time or energy to write columns or blog. But cooking did take place during that time, oh yes.

There was a batch of my fauxsole, my variant on the Mexican soup posole, featuring chorizo from The Pig, lots of fresh chilis, and hominy. I've got plenty of the chorizo, so trust that a proper breakdown of this will appear in the future.

Some days, you don't wanna cook much. Maybe you're tired. Maybe one of your toes hurts for no good reason and you want to stay off your feet some. But at the same time, maybe you don't want to spend the time and money on a meal out. If you have a Trader Joe's near you, there is an evil, yet satisfying solution. Trader Joe tapas.

Kind of made this up on a whim tonight, and it worked out, so I'm glad I measured things. You'll need:

In the world of snacks, beef jerky is a tricky, tricky beast. Assuming you don't want to shell out for the good stuff, commercial beef jerky comes in two forms. Dry, tough, traditional beef jerky, which ranges from completely fucking awful to pretty good, and then processed beef-like substances labeled as beef jerky, but with a consistency somewhere between Slim Jims and dog treats.

Many of you will have seen this, but what's the point of having a War Crimes section and not documenting things like this? Sandra Lee is to food what Slobodan Milosovic is to uncleansed ethnic groups.

I have a love-hate relationship with leftovers. I love them because I can bring them to work for lunch, which accomplishes multiple goals. I generally eat better, I save time, I save money, and I earn secret bragging points whenever I'm warming up something I made in one microwave, and someone else at work is cooking up a Lean Cuisine in the other.