Crystallized Ginger; or, a Very Hungry Sam Valentine's Day

Ok lads and ladies, readers and readettes, get ready for a Very Hungry Sam Valentine's Day 2012! Last year, we explored home-made ginger-cognac truffles, which were impressive, delicious, and pretty easy. This year, keeping with the ginger theme, I offer for your gift-giving and tasting pleasure a related treat: Simple crystalized ginger!

Yes indeed, folks -- you can make your beau (or yourself, dammit) some intense, spicy, sweet, nicely-textured ginger candy to celebrate/rage on this most-contrived holiday! The best part? You can do this tonight for under five dollars and still be super impressive tomorrow evening.

(Sidebar: If eating too much candy gives you a stomach ache -- what my friends and I call "candy belly" -- but ginger is good for settling your stomach, is this the candy you eat when you have candy belly?)

Answers and the recipe after the jump!

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This is What Way Too Many Latkes Looks Like; and Maybe I Should Buy a Food Processor

BEHOLD:

This is, by weight, approximately ten pounds of latkes, and making them entailed the grueling and forearm-building process of hand-grating every last ounce of potato. That's just how much I like my friends (who needs a Jewish mother for guilt when there's Hungry Sam?).

The following is a list of things I learned last Saturday in the context of the Chanukah get-together I was hosting and feeding (after the break):

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