munchymom

An afternoon drink: I apologize to all who wanted cocktail umbrellas; I looked today but neither the liquor store nor the grocery store had any in stock. At least I mixed a drink in which such an item would not be out of place. I would have taken it out by the pool but the clouds are looking a bit threatening, and while I do like pina coladas, I don't especially care for getting caught in the rain.

Answering some questions... re: horseradish sauce - It is half mayonnaise, half fat-free yogurt, and a couple tablespoons of prepared horseradish. re: Indian food - Yes, I do like to make it myself - I cheat using spice packets like these instead of buying, grinding, preparing, measuring from scratch. My favorite things to make are dal makhani and saag paneer. But I'm a sucker for a good buffet lunch now and then. re: local restaurants - I relocated here in June so am still finding restaurants - haven't really become a regular anywhere yet.

Good morning! Today's breakfast used up a little more of the CSA box: Two-egg frittata with broccoli, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and fresh chevre. If anyone's keeping score at home, I still have a few cherry tomatoes, three slicing tomatoes, half a watermelon, three ears of corn, and a bell pepper to eat up before the week's out.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, after eating four big servings of food at the Indian restaurant I felt no need for dinner. I'll be back soon with breakfast.

I decided to have Indian food for lunch. (Sorry about the picture quality, the restaurant had these weird LED lights.) Pappadam, spinach pakora, and vegetable samosa: Tandoori chicken and naan: Four vegetable dishes: Kheer and gulab jamun:

Re: the CSA. The one I belong to has a few options - you can get a large or small box, and weekly or biweekly. I get a small box weekly. They will bill monthly, but they give you a discount if you pay for the season in advance, so that's how I did it. You get what they give you, although you can specify likes and dislikes - my only "dislike" is green bell peppers, so when they have those they substitute something from my "like" list in my box. Also, you can order extras from a list they post every week - these are things that they grow or get from other nearby farms but don't have enough to put in every box.

Breakfast time! Brie on cranberry-nut bread, and some orange segments: Pretty much anything tastes better when eaten poolside.

Tonight's dinner: Roast beef tenderloin: with horseradish sauce Creamed corn: and a salad of cherry tomatoes, roasted red bell pepper, basil, and fresh mozzarella On the plate: The corn, tomatoes, and peppers are from the farm; the basil and mozzarella are also local products:

The week's haul: A bag of salad greens, five ears of corn, four slicing tomatoes, a bag of cherry tomatoes, two red bell peppers, and a small head of broccoli. I also have a watermelon left over from last week and some acorn squash from two weeks ago. Should be eating pretty well this week...

I'm in Wellington, which is just west of West Palm Beach. The farm I get my veggies from is in Boynton Beach. With luck we'll get to some waterfront destinations this week.

Good morning and hello from sunny South Florida! Later this morning, I'm going to pick up my weekly CSA box, and then we'll know what I'm going to be eating this week. Until then... This is a Cara Cara orange, a navel orange with red flesh. It has very low acid and is sweeter than most oranges. I bought some this morning from Whole Foods; they were grown in Winter Garden, FL. A little juice for breakfast: See you after I'm back from the farm!

Meh. I go to Whole Foods all the time and the people who work there are nice. Nobody makes me go down the vitamin aisle or the beauty products aisle. I was there this morning and escaped unscathed with my local fresh mozzarella, cucumbers, and oranges. The only thing that annoys me about going to Whole Foods is gazing at all the delicious desserts, cheeses, and breads that I shouldn't be eating.

I love oatmeal! Of course I doctor it up so much that it might as well be oatmeal cookies, so it probably isn't so good for me. Steel cut oats, nice and chewy. A bit of butter, a dash of salt, some maple syrup, whatever nuts and dried fruits might be around... yum.

They did bring the Bloody Marys.

Some of these bad meals bring to mind the saying "You can't get milk from a hardware store." I wouldn't expect a random North Carolina sandwich place to have great Philadelphia-style hoagies, but I wouldn't go to Philadelphia and expect a great barbecue sandwich either. It pays to look around and see what everyone else is eating. That said, my worst restaurant meal in recent memory was one I didn't get to eat - we went to a well-regarded restaurant for brunch (with a reservation!), but they were almost completely filled with one large party - about 25 people or so. We ordered, and waited, and waited... and left 90 minutes later when the food was still nowhere in sight.

This one goes back to the dark days of the mid-nineties, when my husband and I lived in the culinary wasteland known as Kankakee County, IL. My husband had just gotten a raise, so we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to the Olive Garden. (I know, but 1. we were young and 2. the aforementioned culinary wasteland - we would have had to drive 50 miles to get to someplace better.) So we ate our dinner, and my husband decided that since we were celebrating he'd have an after-dinner drink. He'd spotted a decent cognac at the bar on our way in, so he ordered that. Apparently this Olive Garden didn't serve cognac very often. The bartender at least knew it was supposed to go in a snifter, so that's how he served it - full to the top. I got to drive home that night.

My parents, perhaps in misguided reaction to their parents (who lived through the Depression and were very frugal), when they cook beef they only use tenderloin. Stew? Tenderloin. Fajitas? Tenderloin. Of course there's not much flavor in the finished dish, but it sure is tender.

I think Jaymes is right that turmeric could be a common thread. Also, my husband doesn't like any food that starts with a combination of onion, garlic and ginger, which is pretty common in most kinds of curry. (Sad because those are my favorite kinds of food!) I wonder if texture could also be a factor - curries usually are kind of soggy, with all the ingredients thoroughly cooked through, which could be a turnoff to folks who like crisp vegetables and rare meat.

I was about to make the "How can you dislike all curries, there are so many different ones, they don't all taste the same" argument, then realized it would sound pretty silly coming from a person who doesn't like any seafood.

I love Bulgarian feta! Don't have the good luck to be near stores that sell it in bulk - I usually get it in 500g cans. The block of cheese is stored in brine in the can, and I just take what I need and put the rest back in the can with the brine - no adding or changing water. It keeps for weeks that way, at least.

A poached egg is only a poached egg if it's been stolen from the forest in the dead of the night...

I tried to make a one-egg omelette for lunch after seeing Soba's blog - was aiming for "classic" but mine very quickly went to "country". Luckily eggs are inexpensive and delicious, so getting some practice is no hardship.

"Supposed to" might be a bit strong. I actually prefer hummus with a little texture so I usually don't bother. But if you want the hummus to have a very smooth and creamy texture, then you have to peel them.

Put the chickpeas in a bowl of water, and rub them gently with your fingers to take off the skins. The skins float up to the top. It's much quicker than peeling them one at a time.

Mr Holloway, your doctor gave you that?! Mine just keeps telling me that I need to lose twenty-five pounds.