Cannery Row

After a cool hiatus, those crazy kids at [Cucumber](http://eggbeater.typepad.com/cucumber) have posted again. The blog is written by Persimmon, the everyman BOH (Back of House), which is to say any and every line cook, dishwasher and prep guy; not the boss, for sure.

Check it out.

Listening: “Scraping the Barrel/Fielding’s Possum/Take the Tunnel” [Shooglenifty](http://www.shoogle.com/) The Arms Dealer’s Daughter

I’m working all week, so things have slowed down in one sense, but the Holiday Party is Monday, so all hell has broken loose in another. Tomorrow night I shop: look out Fairway.

The apartment is still littered with squashes, which are hardly Christmas-y, so we’ll be eating a lot of pumpkin this week. Tonight we had pumpkin curry with red carrots and some radicchio trevisano. The curry was from a jar, a little too spicy and not enough spice, if you take my meaning. Let’s just say I realize using the jar is an abomination, and as abominations go, this was a big one. We doctored it up a bit with salt and some coconut milk and served it over rice.

Sounds like a bizarre combination of vegetables, and it is. How did we arrive at it? We cleaned out the fridge after a week away, and that’s what there was. Even so, pumpkin and carrots are great together, although onions, as always, were sorely missed.

I’ll be reading up on my [Madhur Jaffrey](http://www.ahitoziti.com/chef/Madhur_Jaffrey) this week. (In case you aren’t aware, in addition to being a divine cook and author, she is also a gifted actress, and I did [a show](http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=13541) with her once.) I need to atone for my jar.

Listening: **Brave Combo** Musical Varieties *Skokkian*