Summertiiiiiime..... Livin's Eeeasyyy

I've been on summer vacation for a little over a week (officially) and about three weeks unofficially and I am OFFICIALLY bored to tears (Yes, let's see how many times I can use the word "officially" or its derivatives in a sentence). At least, during the week.
I am in an interesting situation during the week. I have no car, and I am one of the few who has forgotten how to ride a bike after learning it once and not picking it up again for over 10 years. What this means is that I am essentially stuck housesitting/ cleaning/ plotting world domination dinner, as the grocery store, post office, drugstore, and any other useful place is at least a half-hour's walk/jog away with icky catcalling truckdrivers and general idiots making annoying noises as I go down the main road. There is a bus, but it only goes through during the two rush hours.
I got surgical hooks put in to my mouth yesterday. For me, general jaw discomfort for one or two days is no problem, as after almost 2 years of braces I've gotten used to it. To my annoyance, however, one of these hooks (basically a little wire jutting out of my braces that looks like a noose) manages to catch itself on my inner mouth continuously, making it pretty difficult to communicate like a normal person without causing a sharp, stabbing pain at the most inoportune moments.
My current quandry is that I need to pick up a can of lychees and a mango/ some mango puree from the grocery store, if they have it. I was hoping to have this dessert for tonight, but as it is already mid-afternoon, I doubt it would be ready in time. I found an absolutely wonderful food/recipe blog ( here) while trying to find out what Lebanese pepper was. It turns out that it's allspice. Woo!
This search for the definition of Lebanese pepper had been sparked by a recipe for Kebbeh that I found in the "Madame" section of www.lefigaro.com while searching for world cuisine. I'm off to Johnson and Wales in the fall to start my official culinary school training, and I want to expand my food awareness, cooking skills and flavor palate before I head off. To do this, I have a dastardly plan of tackling one world-region's cuisine per week over the next 9 to 10 weeks. This week was initially Asia week, comprising Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Southeast Asian, but I have some ground beef I need to use and Kebbeh just seems perfect for it. I realised with a great big Homer-of-the-Simpsons-esque "D'OH!" that I could easily spend a week on each of these cuisines alone, since each region of the country has its own specialty, but like my current German/Spanish studies, I just want a crash course. I think at this rate I'll just pick one dish from each country that I have the time and supplies to make per day, and then just take notes on the rest of the regions.

Now, last week was before theme-week started, but I made a dish that I think was absolutely incredible:















Roasted chicken with saffron rice and sauteed mixed vegetables. You can't see it, but there are green peppers and red onion mixed in with the orange bell peppers. I tried using a similar seasoning for all of the components of the dishes, so I ground some saffron with kosher salt, cayenne, and paprika as a rub for the chicken, a seasoning for the veggies, and I cut back on the salt and added a LOT more saffron for the rice.
One thing I've learned as I familiarize myself more with the different sections of the grocery store: deals are in the most unexpected places. I used to shy away from the "Mexican" section of the store, thinking that it was all the untrustworthy stuff, since it was all marketed at low prices. Now I see it as a goldmine for inexpensive lovely things. Take, for example, saffron. In the normal spice section, it is rare to find and usually is one of the more costly items. In this section, it is possible to get a big bag of "zaffron" for 99 cents. As I have learned from my attempts to relearn Spanish, zaffron IS saffron, as in Latin American countries "z" may be pronounced as "s". Woohoo! They also have a five-pack of whole cinnamon sticks for 99 cents, among other things, and a 10-ounce bottle (or thereabouts, I just have glanced at it and seen that it's quite sizeable) of vanilla extract for under $5. This all means that I get to have lots of fun on a low budget, which is what I'm aiming to do.

SHORT CHEF OUT!! ... for now...