Hope you have a beary good weekend

Molasses, some would argue, is what makes gingerbread truly gingerbread, and to leave it out means you're either stuck with ginger something or spice something. Are you following me? So anyway, I mix some gingerspice dough, bust out the cookie cutters, bake, shake, and set the tray to cool outdoors (38°F you Hawaii folks!). The bears were a done deal.

Well it seems that molasses is also the x-factor in keeping your cookies all on one tray. Must be the sticky quality. It keeps your cookies...uhm...stuck. Not more than 2 minutes passed chilling on the picnic table when I heard a bit of a commotion going on. Apparently not all bears are created alike. Some are content to be dunked into milk and eaten. Some are more than happy to make the long voyage who-knows-where to a lucky recipient. And some, like this guy, figured that there was a whole world waiting out there. Kinda reminds me of myself when letter-writing and penpals took me beyond the confines of a small island in the middle of the Pacific. Come to think of it, I've always hated molasses.

Pink Lady struts in David Chang's apple salad with kimchi

An apple today keeps the turkey away? Anything's possible, and to think that I was going to treat myself to leftover turkey soup from last night. Not! I was sent an NPR link by someone who obviously knows how much I ♥ David Chang, and after realizing that I had quite every single ingredient available in my fridge or in the garden, set out to put together this peculiar salad of apples, kimchi and bacon. That's right, apples and kimchi and bacon. It was great!

Sweet, salty, tart, tangy, sharp, spicy, smoky, strong, crunchy, creamy...in other words, this ain't no salad for chickens, or turkeys for that matter. I appreciated the range of textures involved, from the crisp Pink Lady apple to the crackle of oven-cooked pancetta (bacon) which I cut into thick strips. Pink Lady is the trademark name for Cripps Pink, and I really do prefer them over the Fuji that Chang lists in his recipe. Pink, hearts...a gal has her tastes.

The napa cabbage kimchi that I have has been sitting in the fridge at least a month. Me likes it strong and potent. As for the ingredient labne which appears as a small plop on a plate, wikipedia clarified that it also goes under the more common name of strained yogurt. Sweetened with a bit of maple syrup, it hooks up the aforementioned trio in a way that no persistent matchmaker ever could. It had me moaning. Apples, kimchi, bacon. Who woulda thought? Thankfully, the bite of arugula brought everything down back to reality. Whew!

Recipe: Fuji Apple Salad With Kimchi, Smoked Jowl & Maple Labne
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114289124