Saturday winter fun - cooking

In a strange departure from normal, a Saturday arrives when the Phactors had no pressing errands to run and no other activities of note, and of course, with the outside temperature in the teens and a 6 inch snow cover, gardening activities were much curtailed. Lacking any motivation to take on or start any major projects, nothing left to do but cook. So what better thing to do than make some curried meat balls, or try a new chocolate chip muffin recipe, and the matter was settled by the newest addition to the household, a visiting graduate student from Germany. Let's make both. How sensible! And so the Phactors found themselves with a willing sous-chef. The curry recipe uses an amazing amount of spice, especially coriander and its juvenile alter ego cilantro. Problems arise in the conflict between a metric person encountering antiquated recipes leaving to yours-truly, the one who flips back and forth daily between the metric and English world of measurements. Why the USA lacks the spine to simply adopt the metric system is a mystery. The discovery that teaspoon and cup are actually standardized measures and not just approximations based on spoons or cups in your kitchen helped explain why some attempts at cooking using USA recipes was less than successful. The next discovery, a measuring cup with dual metric/English markings adds a must buy item to the shopping list. Both the meatballs and muffins were very successful. And it was easier to explain than football.