This Week In The Kitchen

Geez the way I write around here you'd think the new job has killed all the cookery in our kitchen (Say that five times fast)
…In reality it hasn't, just this past week I made fusilli with chicken and asparagus in a spinach cream sauce (we had some fabulous company), a bacon and asparagus risotto (topped with poached eggs!), and a quinoa pilaf with leeks and spring peas that I made too much of and ate for the next two days in my little cubicle at work, totally unwilling to share the leftovers with the man. I’ve been quite good about feeding us right lately and I have every intention to continue it. As soon as the spring vegetables started poking their way into my reading, and my line of vision at the grocery store, I felt more awake about what I’ve been eating than I have in months.
I’m working hard to keep that spirit going, even as the food prices rise and the mercury dips back down into the thirties. This week I’m going to the grocery store armed with a plan. A weekly 'menu' based loosely around what I’d like to eat this week, what looks good around the internets, and what interests me at the moment.
It’s really for my own good,, because if i don’t start writing things down I will come home with one of the 'forbidden' vegetables that I can’t eat unless the man is out of the house, (or at least out of sight) like beets, or chard...you know those colorful and delicious winter veggies that got the rest of the food blogging set through the winter? Yeah, he can’t stand them, and really I can't stand to make something we both won’t eat…and so I wait until he goes out to eat them.
On the menu this week is a dish of chicken dress in pine nuts, lemons and cracked green olives, another quinoa pilaf, (with kale I think this time...), a gingery pork and napa cabbage stir ‘fry’over brown rice, and linguine with fennel and sardines…you might notice that I’ve added meat back into the equation, but it’s a very small amount of meat for the amount of vegetables and grains we eat…I find that that balance works best for me.
As for right now, well… I have to go rescue the cat, because she’s being slow motion chased by the man and its giving her anxiety. More...

Lettuce Wraps

Do you ever have trouble finding the words to make someone understand something? I feel like my life is a series of those moments lately. I must brush up on the english language...or whatever.


I made the lettuce wraps a WEEK AGO after eating some sort of nasty ones at a bar / restaurant that will go un-named. It was in Cambridge, but that is all I will say. Also the service was terrible, its like it would have killed the waitress and the bartender to smile...but anyway, lettuce wraps! they are super easy and delicious! and they are like asian tacos...its a beautiful thing really when you can eat a lettuce taco filled with charred (from the grill pan!) chicken -or tofu, ahem- thats had a bath in spicy, chili laced peanut sauce.

there. i put some words out...thats a step in the right direction! whew!


see you soon.

xo-elle. More...