I ate my first passion fruit today. It was... a unique experience. I wish I had pictures right now! I took some photos with a disposable camera, but I won't have them developed for a while. When I get them, I'll upload them and whip up a post.

From my limited knowledge, I knew that passion fruit has to be cut in half. So I grabbed a plastic butter knife and started sawing away, expecting the flesh to give. But no! The fruit was hard and tough. As I pulled the knife away, I saw a shallow groove of purple running across the fruit's circumference like a girly belt.

With lack of other options, I stabbed it. Juice dribbled out from the stab wound and pooled on my roomie's dresser. In haste, I ran to grab a napkin and wiped up the mess. I pulled it open to reveal a bizarre sight: green seeds covered in sacs of yellow pulp, piled up inside the thick purple rind like a mound of frog's eggs. It certainly is the freakiest fruit I've ever seen!

The smell hit me at once. Passion fruit doesn't have a fruity aroma. Instead, it reminds me of pine sap! It's a strong scent that makes me strongly think of Christmas.

As for the taste: it's interesting. The fruit itself is semi-sweet and mostly pleasant. The oddness comes from the texture. I suppose the best comparison is crunchy caviar. There's no other way to describe it! While the seeds are hard and make loud crunching noises when eaten, the sacs around the seeds feel slimy. They're almost gelatin-like, but at least Jello has firmness(!).

Right now, I'm waiting for the roomie to come back so that I can show off my latest Weird Fruit Acquistion. She's going to freak.

I'm going to assume that all good little food bloggers know about FoodieView. But to those who don't: for shame!

FoodieView is an awesome recipe search engine. While some of the interface is a bit iffy, it's far better than trying to wade through Google's search results. FoodieView tends to link to major recipe sites; as a result, it acts as a far-reaching search for all of your recipe needs.

Now, it's not perfect. But it's pretty awesome. I found my Buck-eyes recipe from that site; I found plenty of fun ice cream recipes there, too. (My boss made light raspberry ice cream with a recipe found on FoodieView. Unfortunately, he neglected to give me any!)

FoodieView also has a "browse" function. So, if you're feeling up for Indian food, you can poke around in the Indian category and see if anyting strikes your fancy. My only gripe with FoodieView browsing is that it's somewhat disorganized. You're also likely to see the same recipe multiple times--with or without slight variations.

Nonetheless, I thought I'd share the love. I hope someone finds it useful.

My digital camera died. Woe!

My posting might be even more erratic than it is now; my lack of camera is really distressing. I want to take pictures of food!

Luckily, I got a picture of my Blogging By Mail package before my camera went kaput. Thanks to Tac-Tac-Tac! I'll post about it soon, I promise! It was lovely!

My roommate decided that ramen was not enough for her--she wanted a real pasta dinner. So, using available resources, she cobbled together a "chicken parmesan" facsimile.

I was both amused and hungered by her creation. She gave me a bite; it was surprisingly delicious.

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1 pack of ramen (the cheapest brand possible)
1 jar of tomato-based pasta sauce
1 hunk of cheese, grated
1 can of chicken (alternately, use leftover chicken strips from recent family dinner)

1) Remove ramen from package. Set noodle block in medium-sized bowl.
2) "Borrow" suitemate's hot-pot. Fill with water, then pour boiling water into bowl with the noodle block.
3) Let set for several minutes (approximately 5-7). The noodles should be al dente.
4) Spoon desired amount of pasta sauce over noodles.
5) Listen to your roommate laugh at you. Watch as she grabs her digital camera.
6) Stir in can of chicken, allowing sauce to completely cover the poultry bits.
7) Sprinkle grated cheese over the dish.
8) Enjoy!
9) Remember to return hot-pot.

My mom and I spent a Sunday afternoon creating mini Buck-eyes as thank you gifts for the people at her work. In return, I got to eat lots of doughy peanut butter and returned to college with dozens upon dozens of chocolate-covered morsels. Mmm!



There were hundreds of peanut butter balls that had to be rolled, frozen, and dipped. After rolling the first hundred balls, my hands smelled nutty and felt oily.



It was worth it in the end, though. All of my college buddies loved them--as did I. While they tasted kind of waxy the first day due to my heavy consumption of raw material (i.e., peanut butter and powdered sugar), they tasted fabulous the next day.

And the next. They disappeared not too long after that.