life has been getting in the way of cooking recently. either we’re not home, or we’re too tired to cook, or we’re just *blah*. we’ve neglected our teensy-weensy kitchen. we’ve neglected our culinary exploration. but we did discover torafuku which ranks right up there with yabu. m found their juicy, flavorful pork belly to be quite good. i digress. somewhere in between excel box 1493 and 1527, m managed to make me some simple syrup. i think i may have put the bug in her ear when we were out to lunch at sawtelle kitchen (we love dining on your patio during happy hour! more jumbo shrimp katsu!) last week, she made simple syrup which we added to our toddy coffee and consumed in less than a week. this week, she infused a whole package of mint into the simple sugar giving it a yellow hue. we add it to our marrakesh mint tea. i think i may consume all of it tonight. fresh, minty, sweetened goodness.

and my own personal culinary exploration is an iraqi chicken stew recipe. i admit that i don’t read saveur as often or as thoroughly as i should. i’ve started with the first issue in our collection and i’m methodically (no surprise there) reading each issue. (ok, i admit it – i skip some of the articles.) i’ve already discovered a few recipes i want to try (such as boneless leg of lamb roast in a german clay oven – good excuse to buy another kitchen item – and a brussels sprouts salad). today, i discovered iraqi stew. we have almost all of the spices for the spice mixture (yay for our international pantry!) and most of the ingredients so i *will* cook tomorrow! i will!!!