…your photo project?

Day 3: hands

Day 4: a stranger (technically I asked the gentleman on the right, but Hat Man over here was extremely excited to be photographed as well and insisted he be part of the picture. This was around 11:30 PM in Koreatown, which may explain his exuberance…)

Day 4: 10 AM (After said night in Koreatown, when one needs a banana, water, ibuprofen, and a snuggle buddy… stat.)

… dried fruit?

Make your own preserves! Bon Appétit’s recipe for Dried Fruit Compote in Spiced Syrup was ridiculously easy, and a creative use for ginger beer. I seem to be on a sweet condiment kick…

Make Two-Bite Chocolate Cherry Balls. They’ll come in handy during that long walk you take in search of epic hot chocolate (Sunday’s flavor was Superbowl Hot Chocolate, flavored with- wait for it- beer).  

…bread + cheese:

Speaking of epic, this was a crazy weekend for cheesy bread. Crazy, I tell you!

1) Broiled whole wheat ciabatta with: 1a) cheddar, basil + tempeh bacon, and 1b) blueberry goat cheese. Dipped in marinara. Take that, Domino’s!

2) Baked Egg Boats! Ours just have whole eggs, cheddar, smoked sea salt + pepper, but is this not the best idea ever? And check out the cheddar cheese “sail” and marinara “sea.”

But what to do with the extra bread you’ve cut from the center? Make savory French toast! Inspired by Susan’s “Will It French Toast?” quest, we cooked our crusts in scrambled eggs and cheddar.

Bread, cheese and marinara, folks. It’s what dreams are made of.

… the waning contents of your fridge and pantry?

Make soup! And here’s a dirty little secret: when it comes to soup, you have a LOT of leeway for substitutions.

Take this Split Pea Sunshine & Saffron Soup, for example. Look at all of the changes I made for the sake of convenience:

You should also feed your cornbread addiction with this recipe. The whole thing took 20 minutes from start to finish, and was just what my palate was craving. (It still is, actually, so I may make some for dinner tonight!)

… an 8-year old eyelash curler?

Anything but curl your eyelashes with it.

I don’t wear mascara. I just don’t. I’m one of those people who can’t stop fidgeting with just about everything, and I touch my eyes all the time. (I was also blessed with particularly long black lashes, so mascara doesn’t make too much of a difference.) But, thinking that it’s sometimes nice to do girly things, I decided to at least curl my lashes. The curler behaved like a scissors and I now have patches of little stubs on my upper lashline, which prompted B to ask if I trim them. No, friends, I do not. Lesson learned.

What’s on your list of Things To Do today?

The 2012 Recipe Challenge page has been updated! It was a great week for new recipes. Have you made any new ones?