Two of my good friends go to Hooters every sunday at the same time, and I am not invited. Apparently I might mess up the delicate balance they have with the waitresses. See, they think that the waitresses actually LIKE them and want to hang out after work. What the waitresses actually like are the enormous tips they leave at the end of the 3 to 4 hour sessions they have there on the weekly Sunday funday. SERIOUSLY JOHN AND SAL STOP IT! Notice that she canceled your date last week? (oh dip) Maybe I am just jealous though since they won’t let me come. If I DID go, what I would get is the fried pickles, cause they rule. Much different from your standard fried pickle, these are breaded, not battered, and cut into chips, not spears. I made them this past Sunday to drown my sorrows while my friends were enjoying themselves at Hooters again.

My friend Mark is moving from Manhattan to London in the near future, so a bunch of his friends down in NYC decided to throw him a surprise going away party. I went down for the weekend on the cheap bus to see him off and to cook a UK themed appetizer to help him assimilate to his new setting. Mark wasn’t surprised at all, but everyone still had a great time.

These burgers have been on my mind for awhile. I knew I wasn’t the first person to think of them, and a quick google search reaffirmed this theory. Even racheal ray has a version! Most use peanut butter, and mix the sauce throughout the patty. I like this method of smothering the cooked burger in the sauce because it amplifies the flavor, and keeps the burger juicy inside. It also allows the patty to get nicely browned, an important element in chicken satay. Check back Wednesday to see what we ate on the side.

Lemon on the chain with the V-Cuts. Lemon in the shade with my feet up. Lemon Pepper wings and a freeze cup. Lemon in their face watch ’em freeze up! Looking for lemon pepper wing recipes I realized that Wing Stop is known for them. Never heard of Wing Stop cause they aren’t really in New England. Also, a freeze cup is is just frozen kool-aid in the south, but I went with lemon italian ice. Refer to the bottom of this post if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

This is a classic Persian recipe. I have seen some recipes with jarred sour cherries, but most with fresh. This was the only dish of cherry week that I did nothing to sweeten the cherries, and the tartness was really nice mixed with the toasty rice. The only thing I wish was that the cherry flavor permeated the dish more and not just on cherry bites. As with any Persian rice, the crust, or “tadig”, is the best. The best!

I used to keep it a secret that I watched Gossip Girl. Now that I have been back in the US for awhile, I realized that people watch some really awful television, and that I should be proud of my one guilty pleasure. At least it isn’t some crap reality TV game show. Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry had to take the lie detector test about weather or not he watched Melrose Place? After it was out that he watched the show, he seemed to start to embrace it. Anyway, I wanted to make waffles to watch the finale of Gossip Girl with Steph, because the guy on the show is always talking about waffles for some weird reason. I didn’t want normal breakfast waffles, and I started to think about how people like to eat it with fried chicken. Then I started thinking about using it as a sandwich bread and that’s where this meal came from. Instead of fried chicken, I went with an easy bbq chicken flavored with a store bought sauce, and a simple slaw topping. I loved how it came out!

I love pasta salad!!! Bring a pasta salad anywhere and you will be loved. Serious. This pasta salad uses avocado in the dressing. It was kinda weird, but came out great. Actually, I once said that avocado is a terrible combo with pasta. I mentioned that last year when I did a whole week dedicated to pasta salad! Check it out for this holiday weekend, there is 10 plus pasta salad recipes over there!