Steamed Broccoli and Creamy Avo-Yogurt Sauce

College is not known for its culinary delights.  Late night pizza, over-greased dining-hall food, and all that beer-flavored water... not exactly the kind of place where a blossoming chef thrives. Unless, of course, you lived with a Brit, a Brazilian, a Republican, a 16-year-old, a self-described "uh-oh Oreo Cashew" (I'm not even gonna break that down for you), and a rotating cast of semi-feral males from JetSet Kef's apartment collectively known as "the boys."  Between the lot of us, someone was always cooking something (well...most of us), and every now and again something good...

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Black Bean Pumpkin Dip

Last time I brought you something that looked as delicious as it tastes-- I will not be doing that today.  For the last few weeks I have been eating what I call "pantry food," a culinary genre that might otherwise be called "Chef Kef is too lazy to grocery shop... let's see what we can create out of whatever is left in the cabinets."  Needless to say, most of these concoctions have not been CuK-caliber.  But this dip is one of the more successful results of the fortnight of foraging, as evidenced by the half of the dish that was empty before I even thought to snap a characteristically-bad...

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Chef Kefi, BSN

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Blueberry-Banana Muffins

Usually, my food tastes better than it looks (and CERTAINLY better than I photograph it for this blog!).  I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins last night and was pleasantly surprised to find that for once, they looked as good as store-bought ones do.  Now-- the pictures still don't do them justice, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. In other news, I'm about to graduate from nursing school, BabyKef has TWO Masters' degrees, and I'm getting new orthotics today which means that my month-long running hiatus is OVER. If all THAT isn't reason to praise the Lord, I don't...

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Michael Eric Dyson, You Better Talk About It!

"This is a fight about what we think is right and wrong, to be sure--but we must not use the Bible to create more enemies of the faith, but to use our faith as a basis to identify with those who are the least, the lost, and the lonely.... there are no asterisks on what Jesus said.  The great preacher and mystic Howard Thurman says,  'A bigot is a person who makes an idol of his or her commitments.' Black Christians must be deeply rooted in their faith, but not deeply entrenched in bigotry.  And furthermore-- do we want to become sexual rednecks? Do we actually want to extend...

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Lady, Don't You Know We Love You?

Happy Mother's Day to MamaKef! And now, a few words about the incredibly difficult task of mothering, from the incredible Khalil Gibran Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be...

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The 50-Bite Macaroon

As a rule, I stay from anything described as "two bite"-- you know what I mean: those brownies/cupcakes/cookies sold in those round plastic things at the grocery store sized just small enough to keep you wanting more...and more...and more.  And you know why I avoid them? Because whoever calls something that good a two-bite anything obviously doesn't understand simple multiplication: if you eat ten, they are actually twenty-bite brownies. If you buy into this two-bite business, you're faced with the knowledge that you're consuming food packaged either by an idiot or by a control freak--and...

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The REAL Chef Kef

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