So a magical thing happened to the straight-up corned beef after it spent the night in the fridge. It firmed up and, after a bit of slicing, proved to be even better than it was straight out of the pot.

I love a good party. Of course, I'm a nerd, so for me a good party means me and a bunch of my nerdbuds sitting around, playing games, talking shit, and eating food. Your mileage may vary. The point for this blog is the food. So here are some pictures and notes.

VEGETARIAN STEAMED DUMPLINGS:

So three of the four dumpling party dishes are done and frozen (the fourth has to be made day of). Tonight is the last day I'll be cooking just for myself until Tuesday. I had a bit of skirt steak left in the freezer. And dammit, I wanted some cheesesteak.

Allow me to explain why I'm bothering to post another damn picture of lightly sauteed fish and a potato product. Therein lies a mildly interesting tale.

The original plan was actually to measure out and create a recipe for that brown flecked mass at 2:00. But about halfway through, I lost the thread and just started throwing shit into the pot. So there's no recipe.

All great chefs reinterpret classic dishes from their childhood. And while I am no great chef, I did have a certain fondness, growing up, for what we knew as "ground sirloin".

The plan, as these things go, was to try and approximate the amazing lemongrass-infused, seared beef kabobs I had the last time I was at Rice Paper. I wasn't sure what cut of meat they used, but I suspected they might be short, mainly from the shape.

The theme of this weekend was "shit not turning out quite like it should".

First, I wanted to make enchilada sauce. I've got that New Mexico Red Chile powder, and enchilada sauce is a very traditional use of New Mexico red chiles. So I did some poking around, and settled on this Emeril Lagasse recipe for "easy enchilada sauce".

Dinner salads are tricky. You're basically juggling three slightly contradictory concepts. You want the lightness and freshness of a salad. You want to be full and satisfied after dinner. And you don't in any way, shape. or form want to create some kind of horrible Applebee's salad monstrosity full of iceberg lettuce and deep-fried things. But I have a few things I like to do with a dinner salad that I think makes for some good eating. And to illustrate them, Tuesday night's dinner salad:

It's the usual semi-crazy holiday week, compounded by Cathy being in California. This does strange and peculiar things to my cooking schedule, but certain things have been accomplished, some I even planned to write about at the time before circumstances interfered.

Monday was gaming night, at Drew's, and I just brought the last of the Chinese BBQ Pork for sharing. People seemed to like it.