Seduced by the Alton Brown side of the Force

It's all nmissi's fault. Though she'll probably blame it on sfdave or something... and, ultimately, I suppose it's really just the fault of Alton Brown, my new television crush. I love his geekiness.

I've been recording "Good Eats" since I got home, and managed to get rackham hooked with the very first episode I watched here. It's gotten to the point that we actually made a brine this weekend for some (very good and well-chosen, thank you AB) pork chops that we then stuffed and grilled. Yum!! I'll be surprised if we make it through the week without making some sort of flan.

For me, cooking has always been about invention. I'm horrible about following recipes, because I look at them and all I can think of are the things that will make them even better (reducing this ingredient, adding that one) and I tend to be a bit slap-dash about measurements. I love coming up with some flavor or texture that I want and figuring out what I need to use to make it work. Or I'll hunt down multiple recipes that look about right, picking and choosing among the shared ingredients to get exactly what I'm looking for... which is why I suck at baking (I've only ever had one "from scratch" cake turn out -- the time I made Lamingtons). It really comes down to how I was taught to cook (i.e. mostly by my grandmother and my great-grandmother) and the nature of our family recipes (which are pretty much impossible to write down, because they invariably contain the phrases "add ingredient X until it looks right" and "add ingredient Y until it smells like it should").

This is why I love Alton Brown. He's such a geek!! He tells us *why*, getting into the chemistry of it all, so that it finally makes sense. I think if I keep watching this show, I'll eventually have no trouble with the baking thing, because I'll finally understand the chemistry behind the ingredients enough to know what and why and how.

In other news, I'm still sick, though after one night of staying awake due to coughing fits, I seem to be fighting off the bronchitis stage of things. Yay!

And I'm beginning to feel like I'm cheating on each of the cats with the other. Seriously, I feel like I have to sneak away from them, lie to them about where I'm going, and I can't help but think they're on to me. Polly has an appointment with the vet on Thursday for her annual exam and vaccination. After that, I think we're going to start letting poor Zoë into the basement of the house (with a baby gate at the top of the stairs to keep the cats separated, hopefully), because I feel horrible about banishing her to the garage for so long.