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.

Quick boil some water!

No I’m not having a baby… it’s Default Pasta Night!

At my house Default Pasta makes regular appearances. In fact I’d even go so far as to call these appearances star turns. That’s because learning how to bring forth quick, flavorful weeknight meals can be a lifesaver, and a toe-tapper as you will see.

There are a lot of good reasons to master the concept of Default Pasta. Maybe you have not been to the grocery store for weeks and the fridge and pantry are pretty bare. But never fear, because if you follow my rules for Default Pasta you can make any meal special.

Of course in my world (well, most of our worlds really) Default Pasta Night happens at the end of a long day, you are tired, hungry and just want to turn the TV on and sing and dance along with Glee. Singing and dancing with hot soup is hell on the carpet, and you are sure to burn your vocal chords. That’s where the Default Pasta rules come in and that’s what the pot of boiling water I used as my opening hook is for; cooking dried pasta, the greatest friend a weeknight cook has ever had.

Let's just say the weather made me do it!

I had sorta sworn off soup at SippitySup. That's because I broke my jaw last summer and was wired shut for eight weeks. I was pretty sure I was finished with liquid food for the rest of my life. In fact, I remember making a pact with myself. No more soup. I could just learn to live with out it. Too many bad broken jaw memories attached to soup. No soup for Sup!

But nope, I awoke this morning all nestled under a down comforter (that somehow appeared during the night) and noticed that the weather had turned a bit chilly. The ineveitable Southern California rain started its pitter-patter on the copper roof of the balcony outside my bedroom.

I knew this tune. I've missed this song. I found myself getting a little emotional as I began to hum along to its rhythmic beat. Could I love the rain in Southern California that much? No, its not the rain making me feel this way. Rather it is the sound of the rain– drip, drop, clip, clop... I suddenly realized that the mellifluous drizzle tapping away on my bedroom window was the sound of soup! I have missed soup.

Well I bounced out of bed. A man with a purpose. I would make soup today.

I have got to snap out of it! It's the eleventh day of the New Year and I have yet to really cook! I mean turn the oven on cook! I mean use my brain cook! I mean the kind of cooking that puts the neighbors to shame!

The cold poached Asian pears from yesterday are fabulous, I am not saying they are not. In fact we are enjoying them over vanilla ice cream tonight. But as delicious as they are, they are not really cooking. I am a tough judge and even tougher on myself than I am on other people.

So I gotta admit, tonight I am not really cooking– again! Yep, it's default pasta night at Sups! house. And though it is one of my favorite nights of the week I am not really burning any barns here. No wheels are being re-invented.

Still, I promise you it's going to be tasty. Afterall the popularity of default pasta night lies in the fact that it's a sure fire shortcut to success.

Sometime in our past we humans were digging around in the dirt and hit about the idea of eating roots. The world has been a better place ever since!

There are many ways to enjoy these vegetables from the underworld, but roasting is just about my favorite. Roots such as parsnips, carrots, and beets are commonly roasted because it brings out their distinctive, rustic charm, and actually amplifies their inherent richness and bolsters the sugars in these vegetables.

Which got me thinking, Radishes are a root vegetable. Could I roast a radish?

So I did an Internet search and quickly landed at The Bitten Word. These guys have a great blog, and like me they seem to like to mix up expectations. So when I saw they had already experimented with roasting radishes I knew that their insights would help put me on the right path with my roasted radishes.

I want to talk burrata today. Burrata is a soft Italian cheese. It comes in balls similar to mozzarella, but it has a soft interior that oozes around inside its cheesy casing. It is one of the 7 wonders of my culinary world. It’s an Italian cheese and a specialty of Puglia, a smallish region in the heel of Italy's boot. It is as close to perfection as anything that exists.

Though oddly, it is rather new gastronomically speaking. Being an Italian product, you might assume it was part of some ancient cheese making tradition. But actually it is a modern invention. Lorenzo Bianchino Chieppa developed burrata in the 1920s; the source I read says that "[He] had the idea to create a kind of flask of cheese for preserving a mixture of cream and cheese in the center."

Despite it’s might, burrata is not commonly found outside of Puglia, even in Italy. Though it seems, as its popularity here in the United States grows, there has become greater demand for the cheese all over Italy.