The closest things I can think of in Mexican cuisine would be barbacoa and cochinita pibil. These are both traditionally done in an earthen pit, and both pick up a subtle smoky flavor.

The barbacoa I had was a cow's head rubbed with chile and salt, wrapped in burlap and buried in coals and dirt. The meat was then pulled and used for tacos. I've made puerco pibil lots of times with pork butt. Its rubbed with an achiote paste, wrapped in banana leaves, then oven roasted, pulled and used for tacos.

Mexican chorizo is usually sold raw, and the casings are split and the bulk sausage chopped and crumbled when cooked. But you can sometimes find it smoked.

Barbecue is a US culinary technique that's not to my knowledge found in any other traditional cuisines. Lots of folks smoke meat, but it's always done with the intention of preservation. Lots of folks pit roast and spit roast, that's the closest you'll find. No one else just smokes meat in a smokehouse low & slow for 8-12 hours then has it for dinner.

There's huge potential right now in barbecue fusion, combining US barbecue technique with the cuisines of other countries. You can discover a lot of this cross-pollination in northern Mexican - southwestern US border cuisine. I can tell you from experience that Mexicans love KC style barbecued ribs, especially if you goose the BBQ sauce with extra chile.

Puerco pibil is rubbed with a paste made from a product called achiote condimentado, which comes in little red bricks. It's achiote, salt, chile, garlic and other spices. It's thinned with vinegar or citrus juice, then rubbed on the pork butt. The pork butt is then wrapped in banana leaves, and oven roasted to 205F. The banana leaves give off a wonderful perfume, so it's not the same as just wrapping in foil. You can buy them frozen.

To cook this in the smoker, I'm a bit concerned about the achiote paste making a bitter bark if you don't use the banana leaves. Applied as a paste, it goes on a bit thicker than a standard rub. I'd probably smoke it for 4-5 hours, then foil it. Or you could just smoke it the whole time wrapped in banana leaves and tied with string. It won't get as smoky as regular smoked pork, but a lot of smoke will still make its way in. That's what I wish I could have done when I made it in a restaurant; it would have tasted more like the Yucatan original.

I can highly recommend The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, written by a mother-daughter team who I am happy to call good friends and even better cooks.

If you like this author, she's got a bunch more very highly acclaimed cookbooks as well. Mangia!

>I have trouble with the timing, and with selecting dishes that have distinct and complementary flavor. I don't know how do you choose the dishes that go well together and don't compete for the same resources and attention in the preparation process.

America's Test Kitchen has a very good cookbook that addresses this directly called Menu Cookbook. It's about $23 on amazon (link provided)

For the tiny treats themed week, I made mini French silk pies. To make these, I used my favorite pie crust recipe and an America’s Test Kitchen recipe for French silk pie for as a reference for the filling. I think these pies are a great candidate for a tiny treat because the filling is extremely decadent. To make 12 pies, I used a half batch of my pie crust (enough for one 9-inch pie) and a third batch of the filling. Even after making only a ⅓ batch of the full filling amount, I found that I had quite a bit leftover. In the future, I may prepare double the crusts for the amount of filling because I would not want to scale the filling recipe down any further.

----

Mini French Silk Pies

Makes 12 mini pies

For the crust:

Recipe modified from The Two Bite Club; text here is halved

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups all purpose flour
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  
• ½ tablespoon sugar
  
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
  
• 2 tablespoons chilled shortening
  
• 1½ tablespoons white vinegar
  
• ¼ cup very cold water
  
  

  Directions
  

1. In a food processor pulse together the flour, salt and sugar.
   
2. Add the butter and shortening and pulse 8-10 times or until the butter is in pea-size pieces and the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine the vinegar and cold water and drizzle into the crumb mixture while pulsing until the mixture just forms a dough.
   
3. Remove the dough from the food processor and wrap in plastic wrap, pressing into disks. (Handle the dough as little as possible during this step.) Chill the dough for at least one hour.
   
4. Preheat the oven to 350°.
   
5. Remove the pie crust from the refrigerator and roll out very thinly on a floured surface.
   
6. Cut the dough into circles approximately 2¾ inches (70mm) in diameter and press into a mini muffin tin. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
   
7. Dock the bottom of the crusts and bake for 8-10 minutes. If the costs puff too much, gently press down the sides and bottom with a rounded tool (like a measuring spoon or melon baller) while they are still hot. Allow to cool completely before filling.
   
   

   For the filling:
   

   Recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Menu Cookbook: Kitchen-Tested Menus for Foolproof Dinner Parties; recipe here is approximately ⅓ of original
   
   

   Ingredients
   

• ⅓ cup heavy cream, chilled
  
• 1 large egg
  
• ¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons water
  
• 2⅔ ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and softened
  
  

  Directions
  

1. Using electric hand-held mixer, whip cream on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes. Cover and refrigerate.
   
2. Combine egg, sugar, and water in large heatproof bowl set over medium saucepan filled with ½ inch barely simmering water (don’t let bowl touch water). Using electric hand-held mixer, beat mixture on medium speed until thickened and registers 160 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.
   
3. Beat in chocolate and vanilla until incorporated. Beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using spatula, fold in whipped cream until no streaks remain. Scrape filling into cooled pie crusts and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours. Serve.

Simple, basic, red chile enchiladas. Good, lard-based, refried beans, and fresh flour tortillas. Refer to "The Border Cookbook" for any/all recipes.

I cook Mexican food a lot and this is my go-to resource. I've given over a dozen copies to friends over the years. It's soooo worth having.

I have this Justin Wilson book and it’s a lot of fun. He’s probably not the finest cook to ever call himself Cajun (whole lotta margarine in the recipes), but it’s interesting to flip through and can be bought used for cheap. Look up his PBS show on YouTube, too!

Not perfect—I think the pan was too hot, because the sugar went black and it was cooked in about half the time it was supposed to be cooked in. Still, it tasted good!

Salmon was from this book—had a rub with s+p, brown sugar, lemon zest, and paprika on it. Tasted really good!

Potatos were sautéed. Sort of made it up. Parboiled potatoes, then put them in the skillet with some red onion and garlic. Tasted great, but I should have held my nerve and cooked it for longer.

Carrots were just grated carrots and balsamic vinegar. My favourite way of doing carrots :)


Edit: also, I need a white plate.

Donald Link's Real Cajun is fantastic. John Besh's My New Orleans is also excellent albeit a bit more involved. I find myself going to Link's more often, but for really sexy recipes, Besh has some real winners.

This is pretty good:
http://www.amazon.com/Now-Eat-This-Americas-Favorite/dp/0345520904

Also, not a cookbook, but I do like some of the recipes here
http://leanbodylifestyle.blogspot.com/

-Brie Baker with all the ingredients to get started (Brie cheese, fruit, nuts, honey)

-Butter Bell with a loaf of locally made bread

-Mariposa Napkin Box with Weights and Cocktail Napkins

-Cocktail Shaker Set with Bitters, Stirrers, and a nice bottle of liquor

-Cool coffee table book (esp. if it matches a gift set mentioned above (The Art of Mixology or Magnolia Table) or it's hostess-themed, such as Kate Spade's All In Good Taste or Emily Post's Manners for Today)

-Guest Book for house/bathroom/guest room (and this is always fun because you can be the first one to sign it and everyone at the housewarming party can sign it/write a message). Look around Etsy for these...I'm not crazy about the ones on Amazon.

Hope this helps! Happy housewarming to your friend!

Adapted from multiple sources including:
David Lebovitz/Robicelli's A Love Story With Cupcakes
Pickles, Pigs, & Whiskey by John Currence

For the Cake

• 3/4 cup (75g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
  
• 2/3 cup (160ml) very hot coffee
  
• 2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk
  
• 1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil (such as canola or grapeseed)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 large egg
  
• 1 large egg yolk
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  
• 1 1/3 cup (190g) all-purpose flour
  
• 1 3/4 cups (350g) sugar
  
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
  For the PB Filling
  
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
  
• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
  
• 2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 3 cups creamy peanut butter
  
  For the Ganache
  
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
  
• 6 ounces dark chocolate chopped
  
• pinch of coarse salt
  
  For the Pretzel-Peanut Topping
  
• 3/4 cup (110g) roasted peanuts
  
• 1 1/2 cups (90g) broken up large pretzels
  
  For the Cake
  
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour the bottoms and sides of two 8 or 9 inch round cakepans. NOTE: I used 6 inch cake ring to stamp out the cakes from a quarter sheet pan. I had enough batter left over to make 6 cupcakes.
   
   
2. Mix the cocoa powder and hot coffee together in a medium bowl, stirring until it’s a thick paste. In a separate bowl, stir together the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, egg, egg yolk, and salt. Gradually stir the buttermilk mixture into the cocoa, mixing until smooth.
   
   
3. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
   
   
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the cocoa mixture just until combined. Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
   
   
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the centers lightly spring back when you touch them. Let cool completely.
   
   
6. Invert onto baking sheets and cool in freezer while making mousse and ganache.
   
   
   For the Mousse
   
   
7. Whisk the heavy cream, confectioners sugar, and vanilla on high speed in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
   
   
8. In the same stand mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter until smooth. Gently fold in the whipped cream one third at a time.
   
   For the Ganache
   
   
9. Chop the chocolate into fine pieces.
   
   
10. Warm the cream in a small saucepan until almost boiling.
    
    
11. Remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate. Let sit 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. If it’s too thick to drizzle, add a touch more cream to thin it out.
    
    For the Topping
    
    Mix peanuts and pretzels together.
    
    To Assemble
    
    Place 1 layer of cake on serving dish. Spread PB mousse evenly over top. Place the 2nd layer of cake on top of the first, bottom side down. Frost the remainder of the cake with the mousse. Freeze the cake while making ganache.
    
    Prep the ganache.
    
    Once ready, remove the cake from the freezer. Pour Ganache on top.
    
    Decorate with pretzels and peanuts.
    

There's a book with recipes of low cal versions of comfort food. I've only tried one recipe so far, but it was pretty good.

You could do a lot worse than V8 for a meal supplement.

For me, I get my sodium from sea, kosher, and finishing salts. If you haven't had a steak with any of the numerous flavors of finishing salts, you're missing out! I learned about finishing salts from the wonderful book Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey.

For me, I ate my fair share of cured meats, so I was careful of additional sodium. I had no way of accurately measuring, so I monitored my water cravings. This subjective measurement did me well. . . I think.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eat-What-You-Want-Like/dp/0806528680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322659989&sr=8-1

this book: http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Teaching-Ramana-Maharshi/dp/1590301390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323705001&sr=8-1

regarding Ramana Maharshi...this is a fantastic introduction to his self-enquiry from the Advaita Vedanta school of thought.

Yeah blandness is not something I'm into. I was 16 when I first went to the dark side, and I tried to find as many awesome recipes as I could to convince family and friends I wasn't just a masochist, haha.

Basically anything from Isa Chandra Moskowitz is going to be good. She is all about flavor.

If you like Italian food, Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen is bangin'. ByChefChloe has a ton of her recipes. Mama's spaghetti and meatballs is one of our favorites. I usually make the meatballs and serve with pesto, I'm not really crazy about spaghetti.

One of my favorite restaurants is The Grit, and they also have a cookbook. If you check out the preview/look inside feature, you'll find a recipe for black bean chili that I dream about from time to time. A lot of my friends still live in Athens and I use them as my excuse to go eat there. There's also a yeast gravy recipe you can see in the preview, and that over some of their tofu (next page), brown rice, and steamed veggies... I think I know what I'm prepping for lunches next week now, haha.

Makes a great soup, with peanut butter.

the Moosewood Cookbook is great for vegetarian, same with Madhur Jaffrey and also a book called "Southern Vegetarian Cooking" https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Vegetarian-Cookbook-Down-Home-Recipes/dp/140160482X

Some links:

The Grit Cookbook, from the justifiably famous Grit Restaurant in Athens, GA.

Thug Kitchen, profanity and deliciousness, bitches.

Pick Fresh, from Cooking Light. Veg and veg-based omnivore recipes organized by vegetable. Currently available in bookstores.

Bon apetit!

So... Esquire has a cookbook... You know. For those wondering.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0811877418/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1449285909&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=man+cookbook

Recipe from John Currence's cookbook, Pickles Pigs and Whiskey: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1449428800/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1419961915&sr=1-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

Recipe online here: http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2014/02/boozy-greezy-pork-fat-beignets-with-bourbon-caramel-concussion-free-recipe-for-big-game.html

Sorry for the format- I'm posting from my phone. Picture quality is iphone, but you get it

Should add- the sauce is bourbon caramel!

Eat Like a Man: The Only Cookbook a Man Will Ever Need

> Back to my original question, what is wrong with desires?

It halts action. That can be a problem since your OP stated "I desire to stop watching porn."

Your desire to stop is getting in the way of you stopping. Act, don't intellectualize.

>So if you know the cure to weightloss, why don't you write a book and make a billion dollars.

Because plus sized women are my fetish.

And, it has already been done. Twice. Thrice? A thousand years ago?

>It would still take him effort to lose the weight.

'Time' does not equal 'effort'. The radical detachment from mental cravings is instantaneous.

It's a shifting of perspective, from 'food as an intoxicant' to 'food as nourishment'.

The new perspective is the breaking of the buried seed; the weight loss is the growth of the tree.

First recognize who you are, what you are, what food is. After recognizing, let weight loss happen.

If you don't trust that weight loss will happen by itself, then you have recognized nothing at all.

Been making this a good bit at home. The whole cookbook is awesome and highly recommended. I plump the dried cherries with bourbon instead of Fernet, and skip the blood orange garnish. Really nice.

EDIT: Here's a link to the recipe page in the book in Google Books in case you want to see the other info Currence adds.

I’ll give you three, just in case you’ve read the one I was gonna give you.

Good luck.

https://www.amazon.com/Comparing-Religions-Jeffrey-J-Kripal/dp/1405184582

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Esotericism-Guide-Perplexed-Guides/dp/1441136460

https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Goddess-Complete-Birrell-Hughes/dp/B002C3UTM2

I'm a Gen-X mystic. I learned to be a mystic in the invisible college. How I know what I know is mysticism is by studying comparative mysticism.

Now I've named two relevant disciplines. The third is comparative religion.

You can start studying comparativism here:

https://www.amazon.com/Comparing-Religions-Jeffrey-J-Kripal/dp/1405184582

https://youtube.com/watch?v=a0XRVzlPh7k

Honestly, Joanna Gaines’ new cook book, Magnolia Table , is absolutely perfect for go-to basics. I highly recommend it!

For vegetarian/vegan cookbooks try The Southern Vegetarian and Vegan Soul Kitchen. Both amazing books with new inventive recipes. Having been raised on Moosewood and Enchanted Broccoli, it is really fun to explore new ideas and types of vegetarian cuisine.

[southern vegetarian] (http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Vegetarian-Cookbook-Down-Home-Recipes/dp/140160482X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413780577&sr=1-1&keywords=southern+vegetarian)

[vegan soul kitchen] (http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Soul-Kitchen-Creative-African-American/dp/0738212288)

That's a relevant quote, thanks.

Since you happened to mention the (supposed) date of 2500 years ago again, I've included a quote which discusses that question. Of course this is only a scholarly, academic point as far as the content itself and what it is pointing at.

This is an excerpt from the introduction to Byrom's translation of the Gita. The excerpt is available in that same linked book preview, on page xxiii.
> Sanskrit is so static, especially after Panini's account of it became prescriptive, a little before Christ, that its literature is hard to date on linguistic evidence alone. Since we have only the slimmest literary, historical, or philosophical evidence, besides, it is very hard to date the Ashtavakra Gita with any accuracy. Indian editors usually argue, with some sentimentality, that it was written in the same age as or just before the Bhagavad Gita, which they date to the fifth or fourth century B.C.E. Western editors not only place the Bhagavad Gita much later, probably in the first or second century C.E., but they generally agree that the Ashtavakra Gita comes a good deal later still. Without rehearsing the arguments, we may safely guess that it was written either in the eighth century by a follower of Shankara, or in the fourteenth century during a resurgence of Shankara's teaching. As a distillation of monistic Vedanta, it certainly has all the marks of Shankara's purification of ancient Shaivism.

> and you’d be surprised how many condiments are soybean oil based (mustard, ranch, bbq sauce, salad dressings and marinades etc)

Not really, no. Soy, corn, wheat, sugar, and misc. refined starches are everywhere, in shelf-stable packaged foods. You can find mustard with made with no oil or other oils if you look, and proper BBQ sauce without soybean oil (by that I mean savory mustard/turmeric sauces, not that sugar syrup junk that Yankees, and even Carolinians, think is worth eating ;)), but your choices get really limited, really quick. Given all that goes into typical BBQ, I've come to treating it like cake, or ice cream, rather than as an every day food.

> I’ve genuinely tried exploring in the grocery store but so many things have allergens!

Don't buy those. In fact, try to minimize going into the isles, without specific items that you already know you want to buy from them, and stick mostly to the periphery.

Start mostly from actual ingredients, and you will have plenty of variety. Most people don't even realize that I'm a picky eater, thanks to autoimmune issues, including but not limited to allergies, because I'm the one going to the exotic restaurants, and bringing in weird food for lunch at work, or to the pot lucks. I have to mentally strike out most of any restaurant's menu, anywhere I go, or pass on most most of what other people are making. I can't eat a hamburger and not get sick, but my local Korean places make kimchi jigae with all stuff I can eat in it, and it's tasty AF.

With a full kitchen, if you can do some basic cooking, IMO, go to the library or a book store, and check out some big comprehensive cookbooks. It's nice to have something you can just grab and look through (I find Pinterest is great for this, on the modern high-tech side, but good cookbooks tend to have been tested on people, and have little things that your average [b|v]logger will miss). Or, start learning those basics, if that's where you're at. While I've been cooking since I could physically reach everything, I've known a couple people that went from 99% frozen food and take-out to being good cooks within just a couple years, so...

Three come to my mind that are excellent, which I've had for many years now, cherish, that have plenty of easily adjustable recipes, plenty of them that should be just fine, lots of text on process (which matters a lot, and is often overlooked), and with minimal fancy foods:

https://www.amazon.com/Justin-Wilsons-Homegrown-Louisiana-Cookin/dp/0026301253

https://www.amazon.com/Cocina-Familia-Authentic-Mexican-American-Kitchens/dp/0684855259

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Boston-Cooking-School-100th-Anniversary/dp/0883631962

Plenty of taste bias, there, but that's life.

You have been learned.

I only own one cookbook, so I might as well give it a plug because I've made some great dishes from it. My New Orleans by John Besh. I should say that I have a love affair with Cajun food though. If you ever see it in a store, at a minimum take note of how to make basic creole seasoning. I put it on everything now, and it makes everything delicious.