Pork Chops with Rhubarb, Onion, and Raisin Chutney, originally uploaded by Vidiot.

We did some cooking this weekend to use up our Hellgate CSA vegetables. (Actually, we ended up having to go to Whole Foods to get some more vegetables because we needed more leeks and rhubarb than we got in the share, but hey, eating more vegetables ain't bad.

The above, which we had Friday night, is from this Gourmet magazine recipe. (Go here for step-by-step photos.)

We had them with chive mashed potatoes -- complete with chive flowers, which are edible and fairly intense. (B. did the presentation, as I suck at arranging food.)

Saturday, we headed downtown to the Crumpler Bags store for their first annual Beer For Bags event, which is governed by a very simple principle: instead of giving them money in exchange for bags, you give them beer. And then they share the beer with you. B. exchanged two six-packs of Brooklyn Lager for a nice purse-like shoulder bag, and Chico exchanged a bottle of nice tequila and two Foste's oil cans for a really sharp messenger bag. Unfortunately, the bag I wanted wasn't part of the deal, so I ended up exchanging my MasterCard for a messenger-style laptop bag, which I especially like because it's got a padded laptop sleeve built right into the wall of the bag. The Crumpler staff offered us beer and invites to their party on Sunday, and a good time was had by all.

Of course, we had to follow this up with a bit more conviviality, so we adjourned to a nearby bar before poking around the West Village a little more and heading home.

Sunday, Chico and I went to our local Chinese-owned, Mexican-operated pizzeria (oh, how I love New York City) to watch Mexico beat Iran in World Cup play. After that, B. and I did some more cooking, making cock-a-leekie soup. We were going to head out to the Crumpler party, but decided we were pooped and wanted to have a quiet evening at home.

More cooking was the result -- I wanted to try Mark Bittman's recipe for rhubarb-orange soup. We followed the recipe faithfully, but the rhubarb never lost its stringiness as promised. (I think that next time, I'll cut it into half-inch lengths instead of the indicated two-inch lengths.) It clumped into a gloppy snot-like mass on the whisk, and so we ended up straining the soup, then having it with creamy Greek yogurt. Very good as a dessert soup. And then an episode of "West Wing", and thence to bed.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention -- tomorrow night I'll be hosting Tuesday Night Trivia at the Baggot Inn on West Third Street in the Village. C'mon out -- you have nothing to lose but a few brain cells...and you could even win your bar tab. Hope to see you there.