the world is your acorn

Last week I decided to take my first shot at making Indian food. Well, it’s possible I’ve bought a jar of something at TJ’s before and poured it over some meat and/or vegetables. This time, I went from scratch. I was encouraged by an article in Food and Wine about Sanjeev Kapoor and his new book, How to Cook Indian to give it a shot. Because of what we had in the refrigerator and pantry, I didn’t end up going with any of those recipes, but instead I used Aarti Sequeira’s cauliflower and potatoes (aloo gobi) and this spinach with chickpeas (chana saag) recipe. Something I learned: other than whole cumin seeds, I generally have all the makings for some Indian food in my house. Isn’t that weird? If you mix ginger and garlic and turmeric and ground corriander in different proportions, suddenly it’s Indian food.

via AfterEllen.com

Well, on Monday I woke up with the same Ick that The Little Red Haired Girl had last week. I don’t think I’ve ever had a stomach virus before. I had all the soreness of flu (achy muscles, sensitive skin) but the only other symptom was that my stomach was all a mess. All kinds of perceptual stimulation made me feel sick, so I didn’t want to read, watch tv, or even listen to music. So I just lay in bed and dozed and stared. Basically I think I experienced the kind of the day the dog must have. I have much more sympathy for him now when he wants to go on that walk SO BADLY every day.

Tuesday I was still feeling not quite right, so I tried to work from home, and made myself comfort food lunch:

Egg noodles, beef balls, yu choy, napa cabbage, onions, mushrooms, Chinese pickles, scallions, cilantro, and a squirt each of sriracha and hoisin.

Dinner was a little more normal, except we haven’t gone grocery shopping for weeks, so it was a “what’s left in the kitchen” kind of dinner.

Pea shoots, beets, Mexican zucchini, mushrooms, with a balsamic dressing. Rice and broiled flat iron steak on top, with blue cheese and fried shallots. I know now that the blue cheese was a terrible idea. Other than that though, not a bad go.

from my mom just now:

J,

It would be great that if you could live nearby. I can cook something for you from time to time. You could also drop off tthe baby when needed.

We may get a bit snow or rain tonight. It is hard to believe that you already started a garden

Our pond has a leak…needing repair now

We will be in Geneva and France in May.

mom

Well, it’s Sunday. Spring break is over, daylight savings time has begun, and my proposal is still in the same state it was a week ago. Oh well. Next week’s the week.

Meanwhile, it’s been a good weekend. It was gorgeous yesterday, and I spent the day getting the garden together. Planting in our backyard is a little ridiculous, since for some reason this house does not have a hose spigot. Nor does it have gutters, so we can’t set up a rain barrel. So either we fill up the watering can over and over, or rely on mother nature. Guess which we do? Still, the weather here (at least last summer) seems to be pretty sympathetic to the kinds of things we want to plant: herbs, cucumbers, beans. We rely on our CSA for everything else.

The baby also spent some time outside while I worked.

Today The Little Red Haired Girl has to work in the afternoon, so I’m on baby duty. I’m all fueled up with some oatmeal and Tivoed women’s basketball.

Now I’m all ready to finish this weekend up with some baby-time, house-cleaning, bill-paying, and some sort of interesting dinner-making. Doesn’t sound as appealing as it actually is.

friedapplepie posted a photo:

friedapplepie posted a photo:

I’ve been totally uninspired lately with making dinner, partly because we’re so poor now, partly because our new local grocery store is shit, partly because winter veggies are so limited, and partly because I’ve been in crummy moods. I’m ready to step out of all of that now, and find ways to make interesting and delicious things again with our tiny budget and my limited time.

Tonight I spotted the leftover chicken breasts from the garlic chicken I made last weekend (it was ok, probably more my fault than the recipe’s). I bought a ton of fresh herbs at the K&S yesterday, for some reason we have a profusion of mini pastas in the pantry, and there’s a bunch of broccoli stalks waiting to become someone’s vegetable filler. So, I decided to go with pasta salad, tahini instead of mayo:

Mini Ziti
Carrots and broccoli stalks, cut into matchsticks and blanched
Peas
Parsley
Mint
Celery, thinly sliced
Onions, diced small
Tahini
Olive Oil
Salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika

All topped off with some roasted sesame seeds and fried shallots.

friedapplepie posted a photo:

It’s spring break this week, which means very little if you’re a doc student done with coursework and no regular teaching responsibilities. For me, I think it means I have fewer meetings and if I want to go work at the office it’ll be much quieter. I’m not sure yet though, since I haven’t tried. I took yesterday off for a mental health day, which might mean that I binged on being sad and useless, ran some errands, had some pho, napped, and did some chores. I figured I’d let myself have yesterday, then pull it together today, and finish my proposal this week.

So far, I’m half successful. I think I’ve pulled it together for the most part, although I’m still not eating properly. My stomach is hungry, but my throat won’t stand for it, and then if I manage to eat (like yesterday), my stomach becomes a mess. However, The Little Red Haired Girl is SICK, so I’m trying to take care of the baby and do whatever I can for her too. No time to wallow about in any me-muck, which is a good thing. So far that’s mainly what I’ve been doing, but I’m hopeful that this afternoon will be productive in terms of writing. Fingers crossed.