Cooking with Cooper

Lately here at Chez Zetta we have been cooking alot. Last weekend, for instance, I made a truly evil cream sauce for pasta that involved simmering a bunch of cream with garlic and bacon. I let it cook over low heat for about an hour while I roasted some chicken and steamed some spinach and artichokes. It was damn fine, I tell you.
I have yet to kill and butcher the dog, so he has been helping me cook. He hangs around and waits for things to fall on the floor. If I am prepping anything really good, like steaks or cheese, he sits very intently close to me. His diligence does not go unrewarded, though I do make the whelp work for it. Although I bitch about this dog, he does eat his vegetables.
Things Cooper will eat:
Fresh cilantro
Gleen Bean
Carrots!
Potato
Lettuce
Spinach
Red Bell Pepper
...thinly sliced new york strip
Cheese
Plain full fat yogurt
Fritillary and Loquiat syrup ( a chinese patent cough remedy)
Socks
Poop

Tonight I made two indian dishes: cauliflower and potatoes with roasted cumin seeds and chicken breasts with mango sauce. You know, cauliflower is sadly overlooked as a delicious food. If you throw some fat and heat at cauliflower, it gets beautiful real fast. Add some cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne. Skillet this mess. Serve with the yogurt Coop didn't eat.
The chicken with mango sauce was a nice surprise. I had never made it, and chose a recipe, which I started messing with before I even started cooking. The sauce called for onion seeds and curry leaves, which were not available at my yuppie grocery store. I thought about it and chose to dissolve some hot curry powder in a little oil instead. I then tossed in sliced hot house tomatoes, some mango chutney, about a tablespoon each of fresh minced ginger and garlic, some chili powder and some salt. I let that cook until it was fragrant and then added a fistful of yogurt, turned off the heat and mixed that shit together.
I tell you what, my friends.
It was good.