I’d like to take a moment to recognize one of my favorite lunch places.

Polish Deli

It’s not a very glamorous name. And it hasn’t gotten a lot of buzz on the Intertubes, unfortunately. (Here it is on Yelp as well as a couple mentions on Chowhound.)

It’s a very small deli/market run by a very friendly Polish guy from Chicago. He grills the sausages on a Weber grill on the patio out back, then puts them on a roll with sauerkraut and spicy mustard. It’s good! The market section sells a bunch of Polish foods- jams, mustards, etc.

Note to my dad: the next time we go out for lunch, I’m taking you here!

No cooking for Sarah. Bad Sarah.

Jer, Zed, and I tried Potsticker King on Friday. Apart from some weirdness with our waiter, who would not let me order the Sweet Rice Sausage and instead made me get the Sticky Rice Cone, it was pretty decent.

I was going to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival up in San Francisco yesterday to meet up with Lydia and check out the cosplay events. But I couldn’t find anyone to carpool with, and last year I drove up, spent about an hour failing to find parking, and drove back home, annoyed beyond belief. So I skipped it. Instead, I biked up to Mountain View and had a giant burrito at Los Charros, more than negating any good effect the biking may have done for me. Tasty!

Then I went with R☆ and Zed to Chili’s for dinner. My salad was lamer than usual (not much lettuce but a ton of croutons), but our waiter kept up with my Diet Coke consumption like a pro. So thank you, Peter from the Cupertino Chili’s.

I started a new costume on Saturday. I need to make a dress and a shrug, plus some accessories. It’s been pretty tough so far, but hopefully I’ll have something done by the end of the week.

Nothing new on the cooking front, I’m sad to say. I have a box of matzoh that needs using, so I was thinking about making the matzoh kugel my mom made for the seder. It was really, really tasty. Also excellent were the lamb chops my dad made. He used a mixture of matzoh crumbs, mustard, rosemary, oregano, and garlic on them. So good!

I started biking to work last week. It takes roughly forever (where forever equals an hour each way), but it’s good for me to do some sort of physical activity besides walking to McDonald’s. Before last week, I hadn’t ridden a bike in eight or nine years. Last week (and probably this week, too), I was so damn sore. Sitting on a bike hurts a lot more than I remember.

I signed up for a YouTube account the weekend before last. I’m very slowly capturing and uploading The Marvelous Land of Oz, a (surprisingly faithful) musical version of L. Frank Baum’s second Oz book. The sound and picture quality is pretty terrible, since this is a homemade VHS copy from a 1981 production.

After I finish this, I’m planning on uploading an Oz/Baum documentary and then a fairly rare Douglas Adams special.

Kiddo’s birthday party was yesterday, and it was great fun. Barbara May and her family had made a ridiculous cake, as usual. 🙂 It was a tall cake, with four faces, and it rotated so that you could pair up different heads, bodies, and legs in the manner of a children’s book.

I brought along my bean dip and liptauer, as well as some syrup for drinks that didn’t get used because I couldn’t find club soda at Target. I didn’t really have high hopes for it, anyway.

Last weekend, my roommates went to Dave and Buster’s, an arcade/bar/restaurant thing. They got a lot of tickets on the machines and exchanged them for a large plush Batman figure, which they then gave to me. I noticed that Batman was just about the same height as my American Girl dolls (even though his head is tiny in comparison). And that discovery led to Batman attending a tea party. Hurray!

Today’s my birthday! I’m all cube-y.

And check out the new pasta recipe I made last night. Zed and I both enjoyed it. I should’ve used my brain, though, and remembered that R☆ doesn’t eat beef (pepperoni is a mixture of pork and beef). So he was unable to eat it. Sorry!

Cavatappi with Pepperoni

adapted from Quick from Scratch Pasta

4 oz. thin-sliced pepperoni, slices cut in half
1 large onion, chopped
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
14.5 oz. can of chopped tomatoes (with liquid)
Splash of red wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
3/4 lb. cavatappi
3 Tbsp chopped parsley

In a large frying pan, cook the pepperoni over moderate heat until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Turn the heat to medium-low. Using the fat from the pepperoni still in the pan, cook the onion and pepper until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes with their juice. Add the salt, pepper, and wine. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the cavatappi until just done, about 13 minutes. Drain and toss with the sauce, the pepperoni, and the parsley.

I made this dip/spread on Tuesday, but didn’t try it until Wednesday night. (We had D&D and I just forgot about it.) It is clearly not traditional Liptauer. But it’s still pretty good. I did a recipe search on the ol’ intertubes and just kind of synthesized a bunch of different things.

Hate anchovies? Use chopped gherkins instead. Don’t like heat? Leave out the chili powder. Want to make your breath smell even worse afterwards? Add some chopped onion.

I’ve been eating it with wheat thins. Yummy.

Liptauer

(sort of)

8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
2 Tbsp capers, drained, rinsed, and minced
2 anchovy fillets, rinsed, and minced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl. Chill for a few hours. Enjoy with a strongly flavored bread.