Novel Eats

For the last three years or so we have done container gardening. It isn’t quite the same as doing regular gardening where you have your own land, but it is a decent substitute. We usually grow about a million tomatoes (slight exaggeration), and a few other random items. This year we’re trying to grow artichokes, have successfully grown radishes and turnips (more on that in a future post), and strawberries.

Another thing we grow, but never manage to use all of, is basil. It is probably one of the absolute easiest things to grow, but we rarely take full advantage of it since there is so much of it.

Ah, summer. It seems that we’ve finally gotten there. With 100+ degree days in spring, it kind of makes wonder what to expect for the next few months. If it’s anything hotter than what we’ve had so far, I am not sure that I want to be turning on the stove – or at least for very long.

If I were to list my favorite foods, Mexican would likely not make it. This is an unfortunate dilemma for my marriage, however, as it tops my husband’s list of favorite foods. If it were up to him we would eat burritos every day or at least every week. When he says, “What do you feel like having? We could have Mexican,” I usually respond with “I don’t really feel like Mexican.”

“But you never want Mexican.”

“Because it’s not one of my favorite cuisines.”

“You suck.”

“You suck.”

“That’s it. I want a divorce.”

“Whatever you want, dear. I’m here to make you happy.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Okay, well, maybe not exactly like that, but it does come close sometimes.

Looking for a new bean soup recipe? This one is creamy and has a touch of heartiness.

I have meant to share this and other recipes with you for the last several days, but we have all been sick for almost a week. Even our cat, Pixel, is sneezing while looking cutely pathetic or pathetically cute. Now we’re on the mend, which is probably a good thing since it’s back to work tomorrow.

Weekend before last we went to the year-round farmers market in Union Square. Since we are now in the winter months farmers are mainly selling root vegetables. There are other goods to be had – fresh meats and eggs, wines, cheeses, and assorted odds and ends. My mission was to obtain some fingerling potatoes, which I have never had before, and prepare them for our Christmas meal. It was a success – although I had a hard time figuring out which varieties to buy. I settled on three, but I’ll admit that I forgot which ones they were.