Hee! So after those elaborate plans for dinner yesterday, I got home and decided I didn’t want to do dishes to start in on making food.

So I bought a loaf of white bread and had a hamburger.

Happily, however, after a scant cup of stew, a hamburger, and a lettuce sandwich (to use up the leaves that had been pulled off and cleaned but not used to quesadillas the night before), I was quite full and satisfied.

And I did the dishes this morning, so we are on course for bizarre chinese-ish food tonight.

Also, I might be a homewrecker. By accident. And without sex.

See - the new neighbors next door are a woman about my age and her slightly older boyfriend and his daughter.

I am occasionally nice to his daughter when I am sitting out on my porch and she is outdoors playing. Nice for such values that include giving her a young adult novel I had finished (and was reading the sequel to at the time) and giving her a harness and leash for her new kitten who they were letting wander around outside with just a collar and a general optimistic attitude that it wouldn’t stray from the back yard.

And then last week I was making red beans and rice and ended up using too much pork, so I used the entire one pound bag of beans… so I popped my head out and asked the girlfriend whether she’d like some for dinner the next day when it was finished. She said yes, and I filled up a bowl for her… but apparently she has never had red beans and rice and the boyfriend is very very fond of the dish.

Item three. So I was just popping out to get bread, and I paused a moment on the porch to admire the backyard, as I do, and then I noticed the boyfriend was out on his porch - so I covered for my standing a bit there like a dork by saying I was trying to identify the smell. And then I covered for saying he smelled by pointing out that he was smoking. And then mentioned that it was actually a rather nice smelling cigarette (one of those dark ones). And it was three steps down the alley later, when he was saying, “Yeah, it does smell nice,” that I realised I had just complimented the smell of the cigarettes for which he had been banned to the outdoor porch while it was raining.

*facepalm*

If they break up, I will be full of guilt.

The original Battlestar Galactica, you know - the one with Lorne Greene, is so much better than the new one.

Driving on highways during the daytime is always worse than driving at night. Driving at dusk, dawn, and 3am joyous.

Dairy products are interchangeable.

The key to running an economic kitchen is just the right amount of storage space - too much, and those exotic sauces and fancy jams start looking sexy; too little, and you can’t stock up on sales. It’s the freedom to be able to buy the six boxes of pasta for $3 that saves you from running out of pasta and getting stuck with a box for $2.50. It’s knowing that you have enough meat in your freezer that you can wait for good sales and never pay more than $2/lb for any kind of meat (and can stubbornly wait for some to get even cheaper - like chicken thighs below $.50/lb, whole chicken and pork shoulders or picnic ham roasts for $.80 - and if you live somewhere these are cheaper, that alone will be enough for me to spend at least 5 good minutes considering moving there). Produce is pure luck, though - luckily, I have people selling lots of good produce cheaply off the back of a truck.

Sewing your own clothes from scratch doesn’t save a dime.

People think I can garden even though most of the pots on my porch are empty. The pots are empty because I have been systematically killing the plants that were passed to me when my neighbor moved out of state. They think I can garden because I have pots.

So I snuck out for lunch and ate at a restaurant so that I wouldn’t have to discuss whether I was or wasn’t eating with the other people in the staff lounge. While I was there, not only did I write a bunch more, but I also had three cups of tea.

Now I really want more tea - but people will see me.

Yes, it is very silly and I am kind of enjoying that aspect.

As for heartwarming traditions - My family was never very good at the whole fasting thing, so every year for Yom Kippur we would remove ourselves from the temptation. We’d all pile into the family car and go for a long drive north (and sometimes west toward the mountains) so that we could catch the best of the autumn foliage. We’d go by back roads, and occasionally we’d accidentally end up in another state, and then we’d turn around and head home in time to stop (almost always a little early before dark) at whatever restaurant looked new and interesting.

Wow! The weekday farmers’ market is way different from the weekend one.

There was nowhere to get eggs, but there were different produce vendors than usual, and they were all willing to haggle to get rid of their produce!

I got a quart of peach seconds - so now I need to layer them with sugar and set them to ferment.

I got 7 rolls for $2 - so now I need to eat massive quantities of bread - I did my part by eating 3 with garlic butter and pot roast - Mmmmm.

Two wee little baby melons for half price!

a bunch of bell peppers for a dollar!

and some yummy cheeses - not discounted. Often farmers’ market cheddars taste a bit bitter to me, but not these - so great find.

*rolls about in the glory of good food*

Last March, the apartment of one of my coworkers burned down, and she is still looking for a place. Since a couple apartments near me are opening up, and she looked really tired last night, I invited her over tonight - and even offered to feed her… because that’s what you do with guests, especially tired ones.

Only I forgot about it.

And now I am looking in my fridge and realising that I have been in the eating down stage of food buying and have gotten down to one bag of spinach of dubious virtue.

Did I mention that this woman is vegetarian and dieting? Did I also mention that she is a very good cook in her own right? And she is from india, so I probably don’t want to try making my amateur versions of indian food… which takes out most of my best vegetarian dishes.

I do have a grocery on the way home and the produce truck, but I need a plan.

Asian food? I can cook the spinach up and have rice - and season them with a sauce or spice that’d be appropriate. Or I could try to buy eggplant and tofu on the way home - I make a great eggplant and tofu stir fry… but that would mean stopping three different places: produce truck for the eggplant, grocery for peanut butter, and asian grocery for tofu.

Italian food? I could whip together pasta and spinach and olive oil with parmesan. … which would be great with sausage or bacon, but those are out. But I think it’s a low carb diet… maybe. I could stop by the produce truck for eggplant and squash and grill them to make sandwiches… but that takes time, and I’m likely to get distracted and burn them because my oven is tetchy.

American food? Well, I could see if the spinach is up to turning into a salad, but she usually has salads for lunch. I’d want to buy a blue cheese on the way home to crumble in.

So do any of you have any better ideas?

ETA: Suggestions in comments included - Pasta Primavera, an egg white frittata with spinach, lentil soup, chilled cucumber soup, hummus, peanut soup, and this recipe:

Here’s an adapted recipe, quick and tasty, good for two people (or more), great for vegetarians - the walnuts have protein, so it’s fairly complete, and the pasta gives it good heft. You can obviously leave the apple out, but it’s a fun, springy addition.

1/2 tablespoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 pound cavatappi, fusili, rotini, penne, or other small-sized pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound asparagus , bottom 1 inch trimmed and discarded, spears halved lengthwise if larger than 1/2 inch in diameter and cut into 1-inch lengths
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup walnuts , chopped
2 cups spinach (lightly packed), washed and dried thoroughly
3 ounces blue cheese , preferably Roquefort, crumbled
1 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 Granny Smith apple , peeled, for grating over pasta

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in stockpot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta, stir to separate, and cook until al dente. Drain and return to pot.

2. While pasta is cooking, heat 1 tablespoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until beginning to smoke. Add asparagus, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook, without stirring, until asparagus begins to brown, about 1 minute. Add walnuts and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until asparagus is tender-crisp and nuts are toasted, about 4 minutes; toss in spinach until wilted. Add asparagus mixture, cheese, vinegar, and remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pasta in stockpot; toss to combine. Serve immediately, grating apple over individual servings.

It’s a good idea to test your smoke alarm. In fact, my lease stipulates that I should check it every month. But since I was never quite sure what kind it was, whether it would notify the fire department, or whether it would go off quickly - and because whenever my neighbor’s cooking sets it off, it stays on forever until the fire company comes and fixes it somehow. So I have been understandably nervous about testing it and disturbing my neighbors.

So this morning I was toasting up some pecans to pack with a salad…

Consider my fire alarm to be in full working order.

No apartments were harmed in the creation of this public service announcement.

Tuesday
chicken, chinese cabbage, and soba noodles - stir fried

Wednesday
butternut squash, risotto - with or without tomatoes? is it kosher to make curry risotto? I still have two pieces of pita bread to eat with this. (note: yes, I know it sounds weird, but why not experiment?)

Thursday
ground beef - in something

Friday
Italian Market

and then I remember that I’m not actually a big fan of green bell peppers…

It’s too hot to cook. That’s my excuse for why it will take four days to make Shepherd’s Pie.

Day 1: Have the roast that provided the leftovers
Day 2: Brown the flour for gravy. Decide that it is too fucking hot to cook.
Day 3: Buy milk for mashed potatoes. Make gravy and add diced roast, carrots, and peas. Decide that it is too fucking hot to keep cooking.
Day 4 (tomorrow): Make mashed potatoes. Hollow out bell peppers, pour in meat mixture, add a layer of shredded smoked cheddar, top with potatoes. Decide that it’s too fucking hot to actually bake the stuffed peppers
Day 5: Invite someone over and eat the stuffed peppers because I don’t actually have a container deep enough to hold the peppers for freezing

Five. Five days to make sheperd’s pie. Well, six if I boil the potatoes and decide that it’s too hot to mash them.