Tentative Steps Back Into the Kitchen

Tentative steps back into this space and into the kitchen, although, yes I confess, tonight, dinner is the only pasta I could find in the cupboard — fusilli — and bottled pesto sauce. (You would wrongly attribute the dearth of pasta in my pantry to sloppy shopping or mediocre eating habits; the truth is that if I buy it, I eat it, and that is to be avoided — seconds? I go for thirds! You would accurately attribute the bottled pesto — and the fusilli/pesto combination — to laziness and exhaustion.)
Nevertheless, after so many months largely eating for fuel, and steering clear of turning on a stovefor much more than to boil a kettle, I am thinking that there might be a time soon when I feel enthusiastic about cooking again.
In a Korean grocer in Chinatown yesterday I started to twitch, just a bit, over a luxuriant pile of shiso leaves, and bought them. $1.50's worth now waiting in the fridge for inspiration to strike. (In a confessional mood, as I am, I'll confess too that I thought I was buying betel leaves and dragged David Thompson's books out to study miang recipes. Is there a Korean/Japanese food scholar out there who could tell me if there are miang-style Korean or Japanese dishes?)
And I've been twitching a bit too over recipes I'm seeing online. So much so that I'm ready to reprise Elegant Sufficiency's long-forgotten Recipe Scout. So here's a selection of what I've found lately. I'm thinking I might make some nut butter this weekend. Tentatively.

1. Dahi Aloo Curry to celebrate Holi on America's National Public Radio site.
2. To satisfy my frequent cravings for Korean food, David Lebovitz's Korean Scallion Pancake.
3. Cream of cauliflower soup from the elegant Table & Spoon’s Ann and Meg.
4. A fabulous pasta dish from the beautiful Syrie at Taste Buddies — Sicilian Anchovy Pasta with Toasted Breadcrumbs.
5. From Heidi, at 101 Cookbooks, Seeded Flatbread.
6. How to make Nut Butter, from A Life (Time) of Cooking — for cashews, walnuts, peanuts, macadamias, pinenuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, almonds.
7. From Denise Santoro Lincoln on Bay Area Bites — Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes.
8. A simple Tahini Sauce with fresh herbs for steamed vegetables from Clothilde at Chocolate & Zucchini.
9. From Gourmet Traveller — an adaptation of Simon Hopkinson’s Chicken Kiev recipe, from his book The Prawn Cocktail Years.
10. A fine Fig Tart from Chez Pim.