A post in which I do some cooking

I had to go to the store and do some lunches for this week since I spent all my kitchen time working on cake this weekend. I found a recipe that sounded promising on line and headed for the Publix. The apples were kind of beat up so I was looking them over. I went through the cucumbers too, looking for one that hadn’t gone to seed. They let them get so fat before they go to the grocery store. After I got my produce a woman came up to me and said “I saw you picking things out, and I can just tell you know what you’re doing. Whatever it is you’re making, I bet it’s going to be good!” I thought that was pretty funny and sweet, and stopped to talk to her for a minute. I was telling her about what I was making. It’s a spinach and veggie sausage casserole. I’m going to dump some macaroni I had left in the cabinet, and the end of a container of couscous, just to use them up. So then I explained how couscous was incredibly easy to make – even easier than pasta. She said “Women cook, a lot of times, because they have to. Men cook because they love it.” Which I guess is generally true. Times like that, I love living in the south. I don’t think most people would just start up a conversation in the grocery store with you in other places. Although it wasn’t welcome Saturday, I thought this woman was nice. I should have invited her for dinner.

The recipe was a bit dairy-heavy (I’m trying to cut down), but it turned out good. I had bought a bunch of spinach the other week after reading an article by Michael Pollan. He had written about how much of our natural diet should be leaves, and how few leaves we actually eat. So I had bought a bunch of leaves without any real plan for them. I guess smothering them with cheese and eggs wasn’t really what he had in mind, but I am eating them. Of course, plain leaves really aren’t that exciting are they?

I was reading an old novel not too long ago that was set in Edwardian England. The characters were talking about a ‘French salad’ one of the characters had learned how to make while she was on the continent. The revelation was apparently the addition of a vinaigrette dressing. Apparently the English didn’t traditionally dress lettuce, but ate it in combination with other vegetables – plain. One of the more traditionalist English characters in the book was grousing about how good lettuce and fresh vegetables didn’t really need anything else. Its little snippets like that which make me realize how drastically our diets have changed in a relatively short period. I only eat salad to get the dressing off of it, and I think that’s the general attitude in the US. Of course if you could only get it in season, it would seem more of a treat, and not something to be eaten just because it’s good for you. That’s kind of how I feel about fresh asparagus.