Since last year went so well, I've doubled up on Earthboxes for 2013. After buying plants from multiple sources last week/weekend, the rain finally stopped long enough to do the planting.

The deck is now covered in a thin layer of potting soil and spilled water, so it's not at all photogenic, but here's what went in:

HERB BOX: Tarragon, cilantro, Italian parsley, lime basil, Thai bssil, epazote.

PEPPER BOX: Chocolate bell, golden bell, heirloom Korean dark green hot, Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno.

VEG BOX 1: Green zebra tomatoes, Japanese eggplant

I had (still have), an old blender. I also have a stick blender and a weird one-cup smoothie blender I got as a gift. but I wanted a proper blender.

A great bowl of pho is one of the most magical foods on the planet. I don't know where it gets its restorative powers from, but if you're feeling physically out of whack, even a pretty good bowl of pho will work wonders.

I saw these at Bed, Bath, and Beyond the last time I was in there and was so utterly horrified that I knew I had to share it with all of you. How these things don't have Guy Fieri's face plastered on there is a complete mystery to me.

I mean, seriously, fuck Dino's.

Don't get me wrong. I've spent quite a few evenings at Dino's Gyros near Southdale for a quick gyro-and-fries fix, and it's not bad, as counter-service fastesque food goes.

But tonight, I went a few blocks east on 66th, to a former shitty Taco Bell (no, that's not automatically redundant, some of the actual Bells are better appointed than others, and this one was always awful) that is now the home of Aida Mediterranean Cuisine, and I did one of those things I only do at my favorite places. Spent the time after my meal planning out my next order.

As you may recall, I made a batch of berbere a while back for Ethiopian drumsticks. Having some left over, I was doing some research and found this Eating Well recipe for a chicken and red lentil stew that seemed like a great winter dish. And since it's still winter here....

Yes, it's April. Yes, I cooked and ate things in March. And accumulated things. And now that a variety of energy-sapping things have cleared up, it's time to tell you about them.

It's actually taken nearly two years to explore the list of new restaurants in our general price range that have become more available to us sine the move. A couple of weeks ago, I knocked a biggie off the list - the Lone Spur Grill and Bar, a barbecue/Tex Mex place a bit to the northwest of me.

If I were in charge of Arby's, and someone brought me a test batch of frozen Arby's curly fries you can make in your oven at home, and I tried them, I would slap the plate of fries out of their hands, cancel the project, lock the people involved in an iron-clad NDA, and bury any bags produced to date in the desert next to the E.T. cartridges.

It's often said that truly great cuisine comes from the desperate need to make otherwise unpalatable food edible. As a modern, American, sort of middle class guy, the closest I will probably ever come to this is the process by which I came to make Ethiopian chicken drumsticks.

See, I had these drumsticks.