Here we go. This is the first day in my quest to become a better baker. All the best bakers use weight measurements. So I got myself a kitchen scale. You can get one too if you want to follow along and become a better baker. I chose the EatSmart Precision Pro Scale. I have even added this scale to my OpenSky Shop so it is easy for you to add a scale to your life too. Just CLICK here. To make it even easier, I have a 10% off coupon code you can use. Just type SIPPITY10 in the coupon code box at check out.

There may come a time when my baking skills outgrow this scale (keep your fingers crossed).

But in the meantime I chose this scale because it seems like a great entry-level piece of equipment. You got to learn to crawl before you walk... so I chose a scale that's easy to use, that's reliable and is digital. Besides, at $27.99 (even before the discount) it cannot be beat for function and form. Because let’s face it, this scale is sleek and good-looking. Sup! likes that.

The time has come. We have a winner and I know who it is!

That's right somebody out there just won this EatSmart Precision Pro Scale. It was an easy contest too. All you needed to do was follow me on Twitter and I put you in the drawing. I also have some more news. Since (sadly) not everyone can win this scale. I have decided to give you 10% off this scale if you get one from my OpenSky Shop. Just use the coupon code sippity10 at check out. I really hope you decide to get a scale too, because I want you to become a better baker along with me. Starting tomorrow I am going to start posting semi-regular posts about baking. All the measurements for these posts are going to be in weight. Because better bakers use weight. They really do, and now when we bake– so will we! So If you don't have a scale, get one and use the coupon code sippity10.

So on to the results. Now I could just blurt it out right here couldn't I? But how much fun would that be? Instead, I videotaped the drawing, live and all-in-one-take. Now I am going to make you watch the video to find out who won...HA! Imagine what this ingenius plot will do for my page view numbers...

So CLICK here to watch EatSmart Contest Results. Oh, and sometimes poor, sad Windows users have trouble accessing video on SippitySup, if that's you click on this link or go to the Video Archive tab at the very bottom this page. The top video should be EatSmart Contest Results. If you still have trouble go to my YouTube page via this link, or straight to the YouTube file via this link.

If you STILL can't view it, well leave me a message or a comment and I'll email you the results!

And if that lucky winner is (or is not) you, please do not let on in the comments section. Let's keep the tension alive as long as possible.

This is the thing about the great big wonderful world of blogs– are you listening? Blogs can open you up to a whole great big wonderful world!

Yesterday I was over at No Recipes. He posted a delicious and very Marc looking Aloo Gobi, which is an Indian dish of spiced cauliflower with potatoes. Something about it hit me just the right way. So I decided right then that I would make it for lunch– immediately.

This is not the type of thing I usually cook. In fact this is the kind of thing I usually reserve for restaurants. It’s not that I can’t cook food like this. I just proved (at least to myself) that I can. But for some reason I just don’t… but I guess that is a question between my pantry and me.

Speaking of my pantry, my pantry gets a lot of the credit for the success of today. I keep my pantry in tip-top shape. You never know when it’s going to get a strong work out from a difficult challenger. This Indian spiced dish is a perfect example of the kind of preparedness I am talking about because I was able to read Marc’s post and look at his pictures and start right in on cooking my version with in a few moments. So I am pretty proud of that fact.

So you wanna eat more veggies? You keep saying you do. But I am starting to doubt your strength of commitment in this area.

Take my personal favorite veggie. The beet. Both beetroot and beet greens are very powerful cleansers and builders of the blood. Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron. So they are very very good for you. Yet you resist eating them.

I am not your mother however, and this is not a nutrition blog. It’s an “I am crazy in love with food and you should be too blog” But who says love can’t be good for you?

And because I have a healthy love/love relationship with beets I come here and push them on you whenever I can.

I have used them in a salad, an interesting, spicy salad that even included the beet greens. You looked the other way.

I tried to cajole you with the prettiest pasta you’ve ever seen. I even steeped beets in rum hoping to get you to enjoy them at cocktail hour. But still you beat back my beets!

Harrumph… is all I have to say.

I found out I don't know squat about quats!

I mean I know kumquats. I am quite familiar with loquats. Ditto limequats, and orangequats. I have even eaten dishes prepared with the least quatly named of the quats the calamondin.

But I gotta admit I never even heard of the quat I quaffed recently from the Hollywood Farmers Market. It's called a mandarinquat, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this little fruit is a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin. And I didn't need to be a genius to decide to choose these as the subject for my weekly Market Matters post. After all, it's citrus season, and I mean look at these little beauties! They've got Sup! written all over them.

The farmer who grew them said, they are best eaten raw– simply popped in your mouth like a kumquat. He said they were sweeter than a kumquat, with the same yummy skin as a kumquat. Sounded pretty good to me. So I left the market with a couple of pounds, quite pleased to suggest to all of you to do just that.

It may not surprise you to hear this, but I like to read blogs. I particularly like to read blogs by people who know more than I do. Which means I read a lot of blogs.

Not too long ago I was over at The Well Done Chef. I like this guy. He has strongly held opinions and he backs them up with real knowledge. That is a potent combination for respect in my mind.

A couple months ago he wrote a very helpful post listing “8 Reasons Why You Need To Use a Scale in Your Kitchen Today”. The post stuck with me because in my heart and in my belly I know that using a scale is far easier, much quicker and amazingly more accurate.

But almost all the recipes I ever encounter use volume measurements, so I do too. I can just hear my mother now: “well, if everyone else jumped off a cliff would you jump off a cliff too?” The answer to that smart-assed question is “no mom, I wouldn’t jump off a cliff”.

So why do I always use volume measurements– just because everyone else does? I realize using volume measurements is not as dangerous as jumping off a cliff, but it’s not really in my best interest.

I love food and I love eating. It’s an important social aspect in my life, and the food I choose to put in my mouth 3 times a day 7 days a week says a lot about me and my outlook. So I peck away at this keyboard trying to put into words the connections I see between life and the foods we eat. I enjoy sharing the foods that define my attitudes.

But food is not strictly entertainment you know.  Our bodies require food in order to thrive. So I feel a responsibility towards you and the foods I present here. After all we are talking about the health and vitality that allows us enjoy life to the fullest.

So I am here today to cajole you with every mother’s mantra: EAT YOUR GREENS! Eating greens does not need to be a chore! I don’t understand why people resist.

Fortunately “going green” seems to be catching on. I think American’s long past due interest in the environment may finally make it cool to eat your greens too. And I am not talking about vegetarianism. Vegetarians choose to forego meat for all kinds of complicated reasons, not all of them are related to health issues. Because as I said the foods we choose to put into our bodies does help define us.

Let’s have a history lesson.

I was always a good student. I was one of those kids that did well in almost every subject (notice I said almost…numbers still elude me).

But numbers aside, history was/is particularly delicious to me.

Cooking has an interesting history of course. You don’t have to go all the way back to medieval times to find a fascinating tale.

In fact I have a fun story for you. In the 1960s & 70s, in this country at least, the foodie-world was abuzz with the suddenly “discovered” truth behind “classical French cuisine”. It was brought to our attention by the commendable talents of Julia Child. Her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking changed the way American home cooks like my mother began to look at gourmet food.

As I have said before. I was raised on this kind of fare. I was a nine year old who liked chicken liver pâté. I knew crêpe was not pronounced crape, and sauces always started with bones.

But things can never stay just as they are, now can they? In fact changes were afoot in the culinary world. Because just as Ms. Child was introducing Americans to classical French cooking; classical French cooking was being challenged or perhaps re-interpretted in of all places– France!

Winter is the height of the season in Southern California for many of the greens we all love.

Kale, Spinach, Rapini, Chard, Mustard, Pea Tendrils. You see them this time of year at the market. They are so beautiful, like masterful Baroque still-life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age.  The intensity of detail of these greens can almost be off putting. Intricate shapes, complex gradations of color; thick, lush and vibrant. Cooking with them just makes you feel like an artist.

But if you are able to look past all the variations of green greens, you might notice another type of green entirely. And that green is RED!

You may be familiar with Red Leaf Lettuce. It’s a pretty alternative to the Green Leaf Lettuce you find in your local supermarket. Aside from its striking red blush, it tastes fairly similar to its more common green brother. Though, I swear it gets all black and slimy much quicker than the green guy.

Did you ever play that game? You know the one when somebody asks you if you could have dinner with anybody in the world, who would it be and why? People always answer with Einstein, Martin Luther King or sometimes maybe Bo Derek.

Well, if someone asked me to play I’d probably give him or her the names of some bloggers I admire. I am serious I probably would. Which may indicate a desperate need on my part to expand my little corner of the world, or it may prove what I have always suspected. I am a genius!

Because envision a dinner party where all the guests were actual experts in the field of cooking, decorating and entertaining. Can you imagine what kind of fabulous dinner party this group could throw together?

OpenSky not only imagined this dinner party, they made it a reality (well a virtual reality, which is where I live anyway…). They assembled a team of experts who know just how to throw the perfect dinner event. They call this group the Dinner Party Dream Team. Click on any of the products photos below to be taken straight to that shopkeeper! Or Follow this link to the promotional page for all the details.

The great thing about this dinner party is each member of this team is in charge of one aspect of this extravagant meal. They have chosen products they consider essential in getting this party started and have made these products available in their OpenSky Shops.

I have made this cook book available in my OpenSky Shop. Just CLICK here to be taken straight there.

“Food Porn” just what does that mean? Where did the phrase even come from? I find the casual use of that term mildly disturbing and a bit inappropriate. It’s not that I am a prude in any way (at all), but it does seem a bit disrespectful to actual pornography. Because it indicates a snobbish sort of elitism– a bit of tongue-in-cheek wryness designed to let the reader know just how hip we foodies think we must be. Do we really need to let the world know how cool and open-minded we are by embracing "pornography" in this superior way? Oh the irony of it, because (it seems to the world) that we foodies see pornography as – well, bourgeois.

Though to be fair, I suppose the term got its start because many of the same carnal (animalistic) instincts are tickled by both varieties of “porn”. Still “food porn” can embarrass me in a way that the other kind cannot.

Understanding the etymology of the term might help me embrace it and come to know what it means. Which may help me see why I find the term so ridiculous.

This is one of those recipes. It seems like there are a lot of steps. It's best if you can do them over a day or two. But I promise you these are the very things that make this recipe so EASY! Because all the steps take only a few minutes of actual activity, and they can be done all at once or over several days. The cooking itself is a snap and can be made snappier with a self-timed oven.

The method of preserving the tuna is really more of an oil-poaching method. It's a wonderful method to master and can be adapted in so many ways– from salads, to main courses. I particularly like serving this tuna on toasted baguette slices with shards of red onion! So you see, it's worth the effort, because the technique will pay you back– I promise. I think I may have originally learned this method from an Alice Waters recipe. But I am pretty sure serving it with a Panzanella Salad was my idea! But don't quote me on it...

This recipe has other virtues as well. It is a great opportunity to use up that day old bread, and those less than ideal off-season tomatoes you stupidly bought. What were you thinking? Plus, it's fun to introduce new tastes to the people in your life who may take a bit of prodding when it comes to unusual or strong flavors. I consider it our duty to educate them.

I call it a Three Bean Winter Panzanella Salad with Preserved Tuna.

It's Sunday. This is  my usual day to walk down the hill to the Hollywood Farmers Market to do a Market Matters post. I love the market and rarely miss it.

But today is an exception because we are having a fundraiser for the people of Haiti at my house this afternoon. It's part of StirIt28 a nationwide, multi-city effort by members of the food bloggering community to help bring some relief to Haiti. One hundred percent of the money we raise today will go to Yéle & Share Our Strength.

 Well when I get to thinking about food and community, I get a little misty. I can't help it. That's because food sustains life. The people of Haiti desperately need this sustenence. The stories of what is going on there will tear you apart. Getting food, water, medicine and shelter are the first needs that need to be met. The charities we are benefiting today are ready and able to provide these needs. They just need financial resources. That is where the help you and I can provide is essential. That is the reason I opened my home to this event.