The Ivory Hut

 
Let’s say we traveled back in time some twenty-odd years (I’m pushing it, but hey, nine is an odd number, right?), and you asked me the classic “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’ll bet you all the homemade bread you can eat that I would have never answered, “I want to be a girl who writes about the random stuff in her head and in her kitchen—and takes photos of everything.”

 
(To be honest, growing up with two brothers and a slew of male cousins, I doubt I would have even referred to myself as a “girl.” For the longest time, I really believed I was a boy, like everyone else in the family. Then again, I also remember thinking that I was a baby dragon. Or Wonder Woman.)
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At least, not anywhere outside the crazy funny world inside my son’s head.

 
One day, while I wasn’t looking, my son Tim took over the little scratch notebook where I write all things and ideas food-related. And on the same page where I was writing down some titles of recipes I wanted to try, he proceeded to fill just about every empty line with his own hair-brained ideas.

 
It was at least an hour or two before I discovered it, and after a good thirty minutes of laughing that left me almost doubled up in pain, I wiped the tears from my eyes and reflected on how fortunate I am to have such a goofball around the house whose humor I totally get. And totally share.
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Two days ago, Christopher Kimball (@cpkimball), founder of America’s Test Kitchen, tweeted this:

The “Best” Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe? You try it and let me know!

 
So I did.

 
Having a son perennially hungry for cookies, it’s never a question of what kind of cookies to make—it’s more like, how fast can I bake them? An entire batch can go in a matter of two or three days, and since chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind, I couldn’t resist the call. Especially not when the call came from Christopher Kimball, who is just about the only male television personality I look forward to watching more than Hugh Laurie of House, M.D. Come to think of it, I haven’t watched House, M.D. in a while, but continue to watch America’s Test Kitchen every chance I get. So I guess Mr. Kimball’s pulling ahead in the polls.

 
Uh-huh. We can have polls in our house. It could happen.
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I’ve always loved pancakes. Growing up in the Philippines, we called them “hot cakes.” It was always a treat when we had them for breakfast, and it was always made with a mix. I still remember the red and white hot cake mix box, and I’m not even sure now if it was mixed with water or evaporated milk. I doubt we used fresh milk, since cow’s milk wasn’t really the childhood staple there that it is here.

 
And maple syrup? Finding out that “maple syrup” and “regular pancake syrup” were not interchangeable came as a big surprise to me. Then again, half the time, I used condensed milk on my hot cakes anyway, so I didn’t feel like I missed out.
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This is curry chicken. More specifically, Trinidadian chicken curry. Even more specifically, my husband Tom’s Trinidadian chicken curry. Last week’s version, to be exact.

 
There are as many different versions of curry in Trinidad as there are individual cooks in those islands. I’m serious. Each one has his or her own method, and some guard their secrets so closely that they’ll season their meat the night before, far from prying eyes, and then feign a hearing impediment the next day, when asked for their recipe.
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