Veggin'

This post is Part II of recovery after a week of eating buttery, dripping New Orleans food. Proving that I still vaguely know how to cook and eat vegetables.


Brussels sprouts, purple cabbage, and russet potatoes.

roasted up with a little bit of olive oil, kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and a drizzle of balsamic.

topped with shaved parm and a hard boiled egg to give it substance

Just as good leftover for a Sunday snack.

Grill it

Just got back from a week eating my way through the Big Easy. Spring break for grown-ups. I tried many new things: turtle soup; oysters on the half shell. But the common thread in my vacationing was, as it usually is, major indulgences. Beignets, dude. Fried chicken. Chicken fried LIFE. Pralines.

My body ... craves ... vitamins. Like I've never needed them before. Detox.
Strangely, it's very nice to be back home from vacation. Routine dishwashing doesn't seem so painful anymore. That could have something to do with the warm spring weather so easily lifting everybody's mood.
It's a beautiful day today. We normally don't have days like today (sunny, in the mid-70's) until late April. But sure enough, spring has sprung at the Park Hills apartments and we are firing up the grill!

bottoms up.


Grill smoked camera


A Pre-grilling snack--Katie's imitation of the sesame cucumbers at P. F. Chang's. It couldn't get any better than this!


BEFORE

after.


Did I just heave an accidental sigh at how delicious that was? Excuse me.

Vegebul Soup

Easy.

Grapeseed oil, Garlic. Leeks. Potatoes, already baked in the crock pot. Barley. Lentils. Frozen peas. Sweet corn. Carrots, Celery. Chicken stock. Cooking sherry. Herbs, spices.

Whatever I feel like.





Steamy. So you can see what it smells like.

Dig in.

Smooth Criminal

It is a cold, cruel world out there.

So this blog is about feeding myself, right?

Proving that I am (mostly) taking care of myself in regards to sustenance?

Not simply letting myself waste away on 99-cent Crazy Bread from Little Caesars (except on Mondays)?

somehow this is not me, even though it sure looks like it


Turning a combination of raw materials into something edible, for the purpose of this blog post, totally counts as cooking.

Look, Ma, I'm eating breakfast.

Smoothies are the easiest thing to do, really. Some combination of frozen fruit mix + bruised bananas + yogurt + honey + refined sugar + whatever old fruit/fruit juice is in the fridge, a couple seconds in the blender, and you have yourself a nutritious and fruity start to the day.

So that even when the morning looks like this:


Your breakfast can look like it's summer:


All thanks to the wonders of freezing and trucking.
God Bless America.