I felt restless this afternoon, with too much creative energy and nothing to create. I would've done some coding, but a dial-up connection just kills any motivation I might have. So instead, I decided to bake. After consulting with various people, and looking through a bunch of recipes, I settled on apple pie. I've baked all kinds of stuff, but I've never baked a pie...

It was actually easier than I thought, although I had to go to the super market to get nutmeg and cinnamon (we have no spices in this house) and a bunch of apples. The recipe I used said 8 apples, but I just used 6 Old Granny apples, which is about all that'll fit in the pie anyway. I also don't have teaspoon measurers, so I just dumped a bunch of nutmeg and cinnamon in there instead of a 1/2 tsp that's specified by the recipe.

The end result? A very yummy apple pie. It would've been better if we had vanilla ice cream though...

One of the things I like about summers in Chico is the abundance of good low cost fuit (although some say it was even better at one time). But apparently there are some secrets in those little labels stuck on fruits that we should be aware of. According to this article:

For conventionally grown fruit, the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit have a five-numeral PLU beginning with the number 9. Genetically engineered fruit has a five-numeral PLU beginning with the number 8.

I'm sure I'll be looking at those labels a little more closely in the future...

It was tuesday, so I made curry again. Actually, that's not true. I felt like making nan, so I figured I might as well make some curry to go with it. Long story short, I found a nan recipe that sounded good and seemed relatively straight forward. The dough was easy enough to make, but when all was said and done, it didn't quite taste right. I'm not sure what it is, but it might be the fact the dough was baked in a teflon frying pan instead of a tandori oven. It had the right-ish consitency and all, but it just didn't have the right flavor. It tasted kind of like... um, well, cooked dough.

The recipe made 8 little platters, 3 of which I ate for dinner. I packed the rest in ziplock bags and stuck them in the fridge... they'll keep me alive for the next few days. Actualy, they kind of look like the lambus bread in Lord of the Rings which makes them a little fun to eat, even if they don't taste that great.

When it's hot outside, you should eat all kinds of spices. Don't ask me why, but I swear it's true. That's why they eat spicey foods in places like the Middeteranean, India, and Mexico. Perhaps that also explains why I was hit with a sudden craving for curry (or maybe it was the fact that curry is addictive). In any case, to make up for the lack of a Indian restaurant in town, I went on to make my own...

The nice thing about making curry (and stews) is that the more crap you put in there, the better it tastes. In other words, curry is one of those things you can't possibly screw up, even if you don't use a recipe. Of course, being the non-comformist kind of guy that I am, I wouldn't follow recipes anyway, but that's besides the point.

So, let's get started. Here's what you need for Ryo's Curry (Chicken Version):

• Some chicken
• An onion
• Other stuff (like veggies... potatoes work well)
• Curry powder
• Flour
• Every spice under your roof
• And anything else that desolves in hot fluid (syrup, jelly, peanut butter, honey, mustard, etc).
• A generic curry recipe (only if you plan on serving this to other people)

Now, let's start cookin'

1. First, dice and slice all your ingredients. Remember that onions desolve (which isn't a bad thing -it adds flavor) so dice 'em big if you want them to stick around. On the other hand, if you're in a hurry, dice 'em small so they cook faster
2. Put some vegetable oil in a pot, and fry your chopped up ingredients
3. Dump in the spices (except for the curry powder)
4. Keep fry'n until the onions are cooked through, and the chunks o' chiken look moderately cooked
5. Throw in some flour and stir it around, just to mix things up a bit
6. Dump some water in there, and let cook under low heat for a while
7. After a little bit, dump in the curry powder and other soluble stuff, and keep on cook'n under low heat.
8. When you feel like it, eat. Serve with rice, bread, or anything you can think of. If your guests ask you how you made it, hand them the generic recipe. Some people are bound to be grossed out by the stuff you put in there, but they'll like it anyway as long as they don't know.

Yup, and you got your self some Ryo's Curry. Except, unless your name is Ryo, don't call it "Ryo's Curry". You have to replace the "Ryo" with your name, because I didn't make it, and I sure can't make what you just made even if you asked me to. For that matter, you probably couldn't either... but ah well, just don't tell anyone.