duh

I think one of the reasons it took me so long to get into cooking is because I'm a ditz. Well, maybe spacey is a better word for it. I have a habit of starting to boil water for tea, then walking away and forgetting about it until almost all of the water has evaporated. In general I forget about one ingredient for every three recipes I make. At first it was really frustrating, but really I've been dealing with this my whole life and so now it takes a lot for me to have a real 'duh mary-claire. duh.' moment. The above image is one of them.

I somehow managed to pick out, purchase, open, measure, and food process (?!?! really mary-claire??) a bunch of olives with pits in them. And this is a recipe I make a lot. I just didn't even think about it until I bit into the first pit in my pasta.

So that's the reason my food processor almost fell off the counter. Well huh.

appetizers for dinner

Some people enjoy having breakfast for dinner as a treat. I personally enjoy appetizers for dinner days. I try to save it for when I'm really tired, busy, or hung over. Tuesday was all three, so I went big. I bought some ricotta cheese and mixed in fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and some red pepper. Then I roasted a pint of grape tomatoes, sliced a fresh baguette and went to town. Good food fixes a lot.

v&t

I owe my sister Sarah a lot. She has been hands-down one of the most influential people in my life- introducing me to ska, Beatles movies, They Might Be Giants, and feminist literature to name a few. Let's add a new one to that list, shall we? A couple of weeks ago she called me telling me I needed to try a vodka and tonic. I initially dismissed it, thinking it would just taste like college. Then after some hounding I finally tried it. Woah! Now I'm hooked. Hands down the drink of Summer '09. Thanks sissy!

diamonds

You know what's awesome? When you're walking to the thrift store on your lunch break and your boyfriend calls and asks if you want a lemon meringue pie and he bikes up to give it to you and then you go home and eat it at your kitchen table with your cat in your lap and feel the sun shining for the first time in days and right then everything feels like it's absolutely going to be ok.

Some days are diamonds.

curried chickpea and cauliflower stew

After moving on the first, I didn't have internet until yesterday, so it was all Amish for me for a while. That's absolutely not true. I had lights, I rode in cars, I zipped up my pants, but it all felt very old timey without the magic box. To get recipes I had to look in this thing called a magazine and flip through its pages. My boyfriend actually had to call 411. Yeah, that does still exist. It's cool, I didn't know either.

So I looked through my old Bon Appetits and actually made some of those recipes I dog-ear every month. Turns out they're really good! Last week it was an awesome oil and vingegar potato salad. Unfortunately I only seemed to make it late at night and then finish the left-overs by the time I remember to take a picture of it the next day (this actually happened twice). I'm sure I'll make it again next week, so just cool your jets.

Last night I went with the curried chickpea and cauliflower stew recipe. Oh my! So simple, so tasty, I'm all aflutter. I forgot that cooking is fun when there's good food at the end! Don't call it a comeback, cause I never left.

...and I'm back

So I'm back. In so many ways. I've moved- my concentration is back, finally. I feel more focused than I have in months. My counter tops are tiny, but I have walls!! And these walls have doorways!! If you've seen my last two places you know how exciting this is for me. Also, you no longer have to walk through my closet to get to my bathroom. Because I don't have a closet. But I'm working on it. Above are some pictures of my dividing wall (geeee!), and my tiny counter (singular).

I'm also back on cooking. I've gotten my avocado thing down to lunch a couple days a week and that's it. The rest of the time I eat actual meals! That I make! And will soon post! And I saw Senior Ponytail on the street the other day and he said hi. So I think mija is just around the corner.