Backyard fireworks

I never realized those canned sparkler things could be so mesmerizing. They remind me of when I was a little kid watching construction workers erecting a new building near my house. Millions of sparks bounced off sheets of metal as the day became evening, and I feared that they would burn the hairs off the workers' arms. This is the kind of thing I worried about as a kid.

Beginning of the month.

He: Lets not forget to pay our rent today!

Me: Ha! I already dropped my check in five days ago! :D

He: You make me sick. Teacher's pet ....

Our scholar.

Congratulations Nanay,  for earning your Master's in Anthropology today. We are so, so proud of you.

Juicy delicious burgers

I've never posted my own recipes on this site because I don't want to take responsibility for ruining any of your meals. Some or many of you probably follow recipes down to the exact measurements. Unfortunately, no recipe of mine can be trusted as is. You'll need to cook the way I cook -- with utter abandon and a strong desire to improvise. Because of this, you'll also need to be okay with sometimes (or often) ruining a perfectly good recipe when you go overboard with the improv.

The other night, I whipped up a burger mixture that produced the best darn burgers I have ever made in my life. So, despite my reservations, I'm going to share the recipe with you. If you decide to try some of these ingredients in your next cook-out, just remember to trust your own taste over my shoddy instructions.

Burgers of awesomeness

Ingredients:

• A few handfuls of lean ground meat
  
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
  
• 5 (or 6, or 7) garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  
• Dried basil (maybe a teaspoon or so?)
  
• A few (or ten) dashes of cayenne 
  
• Dried rosemary (a tablespoon or so?)
  
• Tons of freshly-ground pepper
  
• Salt to taste

Directions:

Basically, you mix all the stuff in a bowl, form the entire mixture into little patties, and grill them.

The secret is that I ground the onion and garlic cloves into smithereens in my mini-food processor. Not just chopped finely with a knife. I ground them to smithereens. Incorporating the onion/garlic smithereens and the dry ingredients into the ground meat produced incredibly juicy, nuanced burgers. At least I thought so, and so did Chuck.

Grilling season hath begun!

Me, Chuck & Merty.

Sometimes, restaurants leave me in the difficult position of having to wait a few minutes between being seated and getting a basket of bread. My most realistic portraits come during these breadless junctures.