yeah, that’s not my kitchen.  i wish.  our deeee (wait for it, barney stinson-style) lightful kitchen is a one-and-a-half butt kitchen, which means you can get about 1.5 people in the kitchen, as well as about 1.5 dishes on the counter and then it’s at its limit.  and what with the ZERO drawers, cracked floor tiles, poorly grouted counter which traps food in it for eternity and no windows — DREAM COOKING SPACE.  right there.

but that doesn’t matter, because some excellent things are cooking in there this week.

that, and it does contain the periodic table of spices.

but more on that later.

for no other reason than this is something i like to know about other people and because, well, i need to put it together for the week anyway, this is what’s cooking around here for the week, not laid out in daily fashion because we’re orderly and all, but seriously, we’re never that organized.  i will always be the girl with some crumbs in the bottom of my purse, know what i mean?

also, a HUNORMOUS thanks to my mother who graciously came and cooked/prepped nearly everything below, and to my long-suffering husband who will cook/prepare everything below for us due to my zombie foot, named for the bizarre coloring the puffyfoot has now taken on.

we’ve had friends bring us some meals this weekend when, upon accidentally slamming my fingers in the car door on an evening drive designed to get me out of the house for once, the husband shouted and shook his fist at the sky proclaimed that he needed a break.  we realized that him taking care of everything that i take care of AND having a seriously full workload this week (with no imminent end in sight for my recovery), we needed a bit of help.

our friends brought us great take-out (seriously, chick-fil-a counted as great take out and frozen pizzas and whatever they could to tide us over the weekend until….

mom came home.

the second-best three-greatest-words.

my mom was on a much needed vacation last week to visit her best friend, and so missed our mini-meltdown over the weekend, but came right over and spent nearly all day monday cooking food for the week for us — using our food and a bit from the grocery store.  that might not sound like a big thing, but i tell you, a few nights of take-out or other meals is fine, but then i just long for the food that we eat.

our recipes.

our food, not going to waste.

our favorite dishes, served on our dishes.

when you are laid up like i am, it’s small things like that that make a big difference.

so here’s what’s cooking around here, and email me [saradarlingblog [at] gmail [dot] com] if you want any of the recipes and don’t want to troll around the internet like i do looking at all the delicious food blogs out there.

note: all meals homemade unless marked.  names with a * come from mark bittman’s uber-awesome cookbook, how to cook everything vegetarian.

BREAKFASTS:

grapefruit

homemade granola, adapted from orangette’s recipe

mountain high vanilla yogurt

green smoothies

LUNCHES:

mom’s chicken salad sandwiches (this chicken salad rules, and uses up the last of the chicken meat we had — apples, onions, celery…so good.)

falafel in pitas with tzatziki*

veggie burgers (mom-made and dr. praeger’s are our favorites)

blue cheese potato salad*

leftovers

veggie sticks

DINNERS:

quinoa/black bean stuffed bell peppers

salads (most every night)

BBQ roasted veggies with buffalo/blue cheese patties

spinach/feta penne pasta

artichokes/spinach/sundried tomato pizzas (homemade dough)

mom’s mac & cheese casserole

lentils w/ potatoes and curry*

chocolate chip cookies (slightly adapted) (yes, for dinner!)

the library has cookbooks, people.

for free.

and you can check them out for 2 months (as long as they’re not uber-popular, of course).

free.

cookbooks.

for free.

to cook from.

[are you getting the awesomeness yet?]

here’s my loot for this week:

oh, and we’re not becoming vegan, really, but i am attempting to expand my culinary repetoire, and we’re making some changes around casa derose in the food department, but more about that later.

until then: who’s coming for dinner?

*      *      *      *     *

note: as i gushed about my incredible bounty of culinary literature, the dear boy informed me that this is no new thing, as i have this thing called the “internet machine” which contains thousands of recipes.

my reply: FREEEEEEEEE! BOOOOOOOOOOOKS FOR COOOOOOOOOOKING! and then i proceeded to run around the apartment banging bowls and pots with a spoon.  mature, right?]

note to the note: this entire exchange may have just been imagined.

final note, associated with the asterisk at the beginning: i tend to “discover” things about 7 years after they are popular, or (and this happens less often) exactly 9 months before they become ubiquitous, and then prattle on about them to others as if i’ve just found the NEXT BIG THING.  my kind friends tolerate me.

i’m not entirely sure, but it looks like I may have purchased these blueberries in 1925 this week.

Roasted Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Spears.

WITH a fried egg on top.

need i say more?

as it turns out, yes; there is one more thing to say:

scrumptious.

related, but off-topic: i also got my beloved kitchenaid mixer for the wedding, and it has exceeded my non-cooking-experience expectations.  it seriously rules.  also?  it’s the color of pistachios.

i mean, just look at it…

i digress.

where was i??  yes, falling in love with books; cookbooks, books that will magically make me a cook.

but then, i didn’t cook anything out of them.

i’m not sure why, but i have a theory: recipes are…intimidating to me.   i’ve followed recipes before, sure, usually in some pre-planned ordeal that takes me several hours, special trips to the store and way too many dishes; however, recipe books are particularly intimidating.  especially bound up like that, in huge volumes that taunt me, they dare me to just try to make something that looks like anything in the book.

apparently i give voice, thought and an attitude to inanimate objects.  inanimate objects that mock me.

so today i determined to crack open the first big volume to see if it, as it advertises, might contain my joy of cooking.

also, the boy really, really likes banana bread.

i looked for the banana bread recipe and found it (how thoughtful, this organized little book!) in the breads section.  i scanned the titles, looking for simple, plain banana bread.

i came up empty.

i looked again, and the closest i could come to something entitled “banana bread” or “plain old banana bread” or “hey, you, weird-intimidated-by-cooking-lady, here’s your freaking recipe”, but the only thing i found was a recipe for “banana bread cockaigne”.

or, as i read it in my mind, “banana bread cocaine”.

according to wikipedia an expert, cockaigne is not some extra ingredient that makes this a new dish, but rather:

“the author’s favorite recipes include “Cockaigne” in the name, (e.g., “Fruit Cake Cockaigne”), explained in the foreword to the 1975 edition as after the name of the Becker country home in Anderson Township, near Cincinnati, Ohio.”

so, instead of something special, this is just a REALLY good banana bread recipe, one that inspires people to eat the entire loaf.

or, as it will now be known in our home, banana bread cocaine.

i’ve been packing one of these in my lunch for the last month.

fan.freaking.tastic.

it’s the perfect amount of creamy rich cheese.

i recommend the gouda and the cheddar.

but, it’s not just the taste.

as always, i’m a sucker for packaging.

so, when cheese comes in a convenient wax container that you can then play with?

that’s LOVE.

but now, hours after getting sucked into a final and reading, it’s 9:45.

dinner at 9:45?

typically i’d just go to sleep and take care of this in the morning.

but i am STARVING. STAR–AR–VING.  so hungry, it requires extra syllables.

this is not the time for my mother to have given up on cooking food.

also? not the time to be discovering the sheer volume of the pioneer woman’s mouth-watering recipes.

or to be watching the food network.

sigh.

off to scrounge…

this picture really doesn’t do anything
to help my immense dislike of ginger.
or cauliflower.

i’m not even talking about actual s’mores.

no.

this description applies only to the marriage of two of my favorite things: word puns and gooey desserts.

i present to you:

the smortuary.

One layer of marshmallows, a layer of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, another layer of marshmallows sandwiched between two S’more Pop-Tarts topped in chocolate sauce. (via)

you’re welcome.

let me say this, there are many expected pleasures of joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) group. [note: if you have no idea what a CSA is, go here or here to read more, but in short, you pay money up front and get a weekly delivery of organic, locally grown (my favorite part) basket of seasonal veggies/fruit/dairy or what you signed up for).  after you wheeze a little from the dent in your wallet (after all, even if it is a good deal, paying up front for anything necessitates a lie-down and the commencement of cocktail hour), you get a present each week of very fresh food from your CSA, or as i like to refer to it, the magical vegetable fairy.  convenient, healthy, all-granola and politically correct, you know, all that.

my parents and i decided to split a small vegetable share and a single fruit share (they have shares ranging from single to large family), and chose a pickup that is 1/4 mile from our house.  every tuesday, around 3:00, one of us goes with our bags in hand and picks up our loot.  we sort through the trade box to offload anything we have too much of or want more of, say hello to the other veggie-philes, and haul it home.  surpassing the expected plusses, however, is the unexpected good stuff.

i'm not going to lie, it feels a little like christmas, each time.

i get really excited to pick it up, peering inside the basket to see what awaits.  see, you don't ever know what you're going to get.  [insert overly-used and unfunny forrest gump chocolate box comparisons here.  or don't, because you're my friend.]  sure, there’s a calendar showing which foods are in season which months, but you don’t know which kinds, how much, what’s new, which farm had a frost…it’s a surprise.  and if i like anything, it’s gifty-surprises.  and the fact that this surprisey-spirit now surrounds not electronics, or clothes, or music – but vegetables. (side note: my family calls surprises  “sussies”, does yours?)  VEGETABLES.  now, i do enjoy vegetables, but in the busy-ness of life, i often forget how much.  i settle for the quick food that comes in its own packaging and requires no less than 30 seconds to get at it.

i’m food impatient, sometimes.

well, if we’re honest, i’m impatient about many more things.  i am a card-carrying member of the instant gratification league.

so this is why the CSA is perfect for me.  because it is conveniently inconvenient.

conveniently,
- it reminds me, weekly, to eat my vegetables
- it is overall much, much cheaper
- it supports local farmers
- i don’t wander around the grocery store figuring out what to buy; it makes the decision for me

inconveniently, but rather good for me:
- i’ve already paid for it, so regardless of whether i’m in the mood to eat veggies or not, i do.  i don’t like things to go intentionally to waste.
- it puts food in front of me, food i would never have chosen, and forces me to figure out a way to cook it; thus, i find new recipes.
- i have to clean all the vegetables and find a place for them, therefore making me LOOK AT EACH VEGETABLE and naturally think about when i’m going eat it and with what = built-in meal planning
- i have to spend TIME.  not a huge amount of time, mind you, but just time paying attention to what i’m eating.

good, good, good, SO GOOD for me.

now, lest we affix that healthy-halo a little too tightly to my head, let me say that not all my recipes are the healthiest.  i mean, put enough spices, oil/butter, sour cream and cheese on something, and i’ll make anything taste good.  but those are just first few weeks trials, as you get used to cooking new foods and fearfully add more fat so that you don’t disappoint your dinner companions.  or the weeks when i’m too tired to cook and clean up the meals (although it should be said that the boy actually likes doing the dishes, the weirdo, so i’m lucky).

also, what else can you do with that much dill or cilantro but make lots of creamy dips, I MEAN REALLY.

i have never bought so much buttermilk in my whole life; i now have the facts that the small container is $67 cents and is the exact amount i need memorized.

but it’s good.  it’s been one of my favorite things this summer, both visually (i took all of these pictures) and especially gustatorily.  this week i’m making salmon salad with dill sauce, lime-cilantro chicken fajitas with pea-pasta salad, and halibut fish tacos with greens and roasted radishes.

doesn’t this make me sound like a fancy cook, or even someone who cooks rather than only reads books about julia child and watch the food network, jealous?

good thing we all know the truth

thanks, magical vegetable fairy and sidekick fruitman, you’re making my life better.