With a little help from my friends, I had a greatly restorative holiday weekend. Bailed on Oregon travel plans, slept enormous amounts, got out into nature and into the hot tub.

So I don't have a lot to say. I'm kind of simple Buddha happy and looking forward to upcoming travel to LA, NYC, NOLA: final whirlwind before the end of the year.

In the mean-time, I suggest Dr. Krugman's brain-growth brew. He's got a couple great posts up today. One on the creeping undercurrent of political doom which mirrors my own thoughts pretty closely:

I hope I’m wrong about all this. But my sense is that to have any hope of breaking out of this trap, Obama and company have to take risks — they have to propose new initiatives that might not pass, and be prepared to run against the do-nothing Republicans if the initiatives fail. That’s not happening now; as best as I can tell, the administration strategy is to insist that only a few minor course corrections are needed, and to wait for the jobs to start coming in.

The other alerting us to the reality of PIG IN A VAT!!!:

SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

This is probably a good thing. A petri dish will probably yield tastier meats than feedlots, and without all the greenhouse-gas-causing methane (or ethical objections, according to PETA).

I don't foodblog very much, in large part because I never got into it, and because while I've got some kitchen skillz, I don't get to exercise them all that often. I make myself a lot of quesadillas, and still eat out fairly often (though not nearly as much as in NYC, natch). Bachelor kitchen.

However, I had a little BBQ with my prospective employees (eep!) up here on Sunday, and pulled out an old favorite for the occasion. It went over well, so I figured I might as well share my method.

This recipe comes via Ms. Julia Henning, who first cooked it for us up here in Westhaven about a year and a half ago. She served this with a delicious jicama salad, which I have no idea how to replicate. However, I did get the details for the sauce and meat parts, and since then I've been noodling with it on my own:

Grilled Skirt Steak w/Chimmy Churry Sauce

Skirt Steak is the ultimate grill appetizer meat, imho. It's tasty, bite sized, and cooks in a matter of three to five minutes on a hot bbq. The genius chimmy churry sauce makes a perfect dipping compliment. In keeping with my style, all measurements are approx. Use your best sense and taste lots!

First you'll want to make the chimmy churry, which is like a pesto, and needs to sit for at least a couple hours before serving so the flavors can permeate. Overnight is even better:

• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 med size onion
• 2 to 3 jalipeno peppers
• Canola oil
• Olive oil
• 1 lime
• Rice vinegar
• Salt/pepper

Chop up the onion and garlic and jalipenos and put them into a blender. Depending on your taste for heat (and how hot the peppers actually are) you might want to use two or three, or even one.

Next you want to chop up about 2/3 of the parsley bundle and toss that in the blender too. You may add more, but it's best to do it by taste.

So after we got back from the show -- which we left a little too quickly, forgetting my credit card and possibly a couple phone numbers from dancefloor neighbors -- we faced the consequences of a crisis of collective action: "bachelor fridge" presented a problem.

We'd shouted and clapped and stomped and sang along with the band for a good hour and a half, which works up a powerful appetite, but we returned home with nothing to eat other than a small amount of (delicious) Indian food from 'round the corner, which was quickly consumed.

Crisis stimulates the creative imagination, so I invented some Mexican crepes, basically:

• Flour tortillas
• Peanut butter
• Cream cheese
• Butter (just a bit)
• Jam (just a bit)

Make up your tortillas with the PB and CC, folded over like quesadillas and then fried in a cast iron skillet with a little butter, flipping two or three times. Serve with a spoonful of jam for dipping.

It's not a meal by any stretch of the imagination -- sort of the culinary equivalent to pornography, really -- but for that kind of moment it's perhaps the right kind of food. Certainly hit the spot after a jumpin' night out.

I'm starting to get a good feeling for things going forward. Change has been needed for some time, but I'm beginning to grasp the specifics, the habits of action to change, cease, institute, etc.

More on all this later, I'm sure. But I figured I'd share the recipe.