Cheesecake for Breakfast

It's 8:30 on Friday morning and I'm having a slice of lime cheesecake with a coconut crust for breakfast. Normally, I would be having a poached egg on toast, my newest obsession, but I used all the eggs making the cheesecake last night and my refrigerator is so small that in addition to the cheesecake, it fits little else. I'm not much of a sweets person and I would really almost rather be eating something salty, like Chinese dumplings or potato latkes, but I do make an exception for cheesecake. I also figure that this one, the result of trying to be über prepared for tonight's subsequently aborted dinner party, will just languish in my fridge if I don't do something about it, hence, cheesecake for breakfast. Anyway, the most important thing about this treatise is that it turned out delicious. I used the recipe off of Epicurious for Key Lime Cheesecake with Tropical Dried-Fruit Chutney. I usually have to piece together a variety of different scraps of cheesecake advice from different recipes (seriously, how can there be so many different techniques for making cheesecake), but this time I more or less followed it exactly, taking into account just a few of the suggestions in the comments section, which is truly the most fun part of the site to look at anyway. I also made a few modifications of my own: there are no key limes in Spain so used regular ones, skipped the weird-sounding dried-fruit chutney, reduced the sugar slightly, used plain yoghurt instead of sour cream (or crème fraiche), cooked the crust (with unsweetened coconut flakes) for about 18 minutes and put a little oil under it so it wouldn't stick to my spring-form pan. Anyway, it was incredibly easy to make, especially the crust, and took about 9 minutes in total to prepare plus a night in the fridge to settle. Just a tip, take the foil off from around the pan before sticking it in your fridge, mine was slightly flooded this morning - must have been from the wine I drank while cooking the cheesecake last night. Overall, delicious, although maybe a bit rich for breakfast. I may have to trade it for a breakfast bowl of gumbo (also on the menu for tonight's cancelled soiree). Please excuse the poor lighting on the photo, the sun's just come up.

Lusting for limpits

The first time I was lucky enough to try a lapa, or limpet, at a restaurant on the Canary Island of Tenerife, I was also unlucky in that it was the very last limpet left in the whole restaurant. In fact, after waiting for over an hour for our table and watching plate after plate of these hot, sizzling mollusks go by, bathed in mojo verde sauce made of garlic, olive oil, vinegar and fresh parsley or cilantro, when we finally sat down and were told us that there were none left, I was only able to get my hands on one of them by begging the kind gentlemen at the next table. Yes! They are good enough to tell a tall tale to a group of total strangers about having traveled all the way from the USA to fulfill my lifelong dream of tasting these delectable mollusks. Now, recently back from ten glorious days on the stunning Island of Lanzarote, I can gratefully say that I ate myself silly with limpets. I bet you never heard that before. Read more in "Stuck on Limpets" on the Trans-Iberian blog from El País.