Getting Back to Real Food

I feel like its been a really long time since I've cooked anything real. I did a sort of dashed together pasta dish tonight, I made some really simple canapes for our new years party, and I roasted some asparagus for Christmas dinner. Other than that, I haven't looked at a recipe or sat down to my own planned cooking since probably mid December.

This sounds outrageous, but its true.  I didn't want to buy a lot of groceries to be left to rot while we were out of town, so the week before Christmas I tried to cobble together some things out of csa ingredients, but mostly we picked on things, ordered in, and ate out.  While I was home, my parents cooked.  They eat less vegetables than I like to pack in, but make some amazing meals. Maybe some too amazing meals, because by the time Molly and I flew back to Boston, we were pretty food-ed out.  Planning a meal was unthinkable. We were basically content to survive on a few fried eggs, popcorn, apples, and peanut butter until Nic returned.

By New Years Day, I was ready to ease back into food with the healing powers of pho, but still not ready to cook. And then today, two pieces of cold pizza and some leftover cupcakes made a fine breakfast and lunch.

And then, all at once, I was reallllly ready to eat and cook some real food.  I made a little pasta with roasted eggplant and tomatoes and some assorted small bits of assorted pasta I dug out of the cabinet, and realized how desperately I needed to go grocery shopping.

So, weekly menu planning time. Shopping tomorrow.

This is what we're going to have, in an as-yet-undetermined order:

- Udon noodles with bok choy and poached egg

- Squash, bacon, and goat cheese pasta with basil

- Quinoa tabbouleh with a fried egg

- Roasted beet salad with goat cheese and crusty bread

- Creamy saffron mussel and spinach pasta

- Patatas Riojanas (This one is unfortunately contingent on whether or not I can find chorizo Nic will eat at this time of year.  Now that there is snow all over the parking lot, I'm fairly sure I'll have to wait until spring to visit Stillmans at the farmer's market.)

Two meals already with eggs, you say? Two pasta dishes? Another noodle related meal? Listen, eggs are cheap and delicious and full of protein, ok? Pasta is cheap and filling and always feels like a proper meal. Its post-Christmas belt tightening times.  Eggs and pasta are my best friends.

So ready to properly get back in the kitchen.