Thankful

For two amazing children, who at least pretend to sleep.

Silenced

Why haven't I thought of this sooner? For the low, low price of my old iPod, Laurie Berkner has been silenced—at least to my ears.

Applications

Applications filed this week so far:

1. Golden Retriever rescue.
2. Backyard chicken permit.

If I don't get my estrogen levels in check soon, I just might start filling out another adoption application.

Menu: Bean/Pumpkin Soup, Baked Eggs, Ethiopian Food, Vegetarian Bolognese,

I just can't seem to talk about anything but food these days—which is kinda funny, since with this lingering cold I haven't really been able to taste anything for about a week. Still, we need to eat, which means I need to plan. Here's what's on the docket:

• Black bean pumpkin soup. Needless to say we'll skip the ham, and we'll use dried black beans from the garden, leftover Halloween pumpkins, and garden tomatoes (we still have a bunch of them pinking up in a box in the pantry—awesome). 
• Ethiopian food (yellow peas, spicy lentils, shiro, and greens with injera from the merkato a few blocks from here. Have I mentioned that I love our new neighborhood?)
• Eggs in Purgatory with Artichoke Hearts, Potatoes and Capers. Mostly because I like the name. I might swap out the artichoke hearts since a) I don't have any on hand and b) the kids aren't huge fans. Any ideas of what would be good in there?
• Spanish White Beans With Spinach tossed with pasta.  
• Pasta with Vegetarian Bolognese Sauce. I don't have a recipe for this one but can write it up if there's interest. 

   

Recipe review: Pasta with tender greens

I made this Pasta With Tender Greens recipe (thanks, Lauren!), and it was delish. In fact, I'm counting down the minutes until lunchtime so I can put a dent in the leftovers. Yum.

I used beet greens from the garden and followed the recipe pretty closely but used pureed oven-roasted tomatoes in place of the tomato paste. Here's my gripe with tomato paste: Recipes usually call for one or two tablespoons, but the smallest cans contain much more than that and so I end up with almost-full cans of the stuff spoiling in my fridge every time I use it. When I lived in Italy the tomato paste came in toothpaste-like tubes that kept it fresh longer. Those probably exist here too, don't they?

Bet you regret asking me to explain my gripe with tomato paste, don't you?

Cauliflower & White Bean Soup

We all have colds, so this soup was the perfect thing for dinner tonight. The only modification I made was to roast the cauliflower before starting. I love the flavor of roasted cauliflower, and I figured it would deepen the flavor of the soup. And, big surprise, I was right.

Everyone except Nora gobbled it up, but she's been more or less boycotting dinner ever since she stopped napping. Actually, boycott has a sort of "silent protest" connotation, so that's not the right word. More accurately, she's been staging violent, screaming mutiny when asked to behave like a civilized human being anytime after 4 p.m. So she didn't eat it so much as fling it around the room while her head spun and she spoke in tongues.

Also, don't let the truffle oil scare you off. If you don't happen to have any in your pantry (what kind of barbarian are you?), you'll be fine without it.

Wordless Wednesday

Menu

We're scraping bottom again, so it's time to plan. Here's what I'm thinking of doing this week:

• White Bean and Cauliflower Soup with Truffle Oil
• Pasta with Tender Greens (using beet greens and chard from the garden)
• Fried Rice with Tofu and Veggies (don't have a recipe, but I can concoct one if there's interest)
• Leftover Lentil Tacos
• More Pizza (in case I haven't mentioned it before, I should make it known that I make the best pizza between the coasts. If you live between the coasts, you know that's not saying much.) 

While we're on the topic of yummy family food, be sure to check out my friend Lauren's new blog: Cookbook Recipe Mom. It's the source of the Pasta recipe above, and so far all the recipes I've seen there look like ones that would go over very well in this house. The blog, in Lauren's words, "is about seeking, testing, and reviewing healthy, easy recipes that my whole family likes—and, yes, we've got some picky eaters in the mix."

Tiger vs. Goldfish

This is fun!

This is a little less fun.

This is officially un-fun.