My cooking life

Kitchen Success!

Wednesday I went to the market and got amazing fresh fruits and vegetables. (They aren’t Daddy Joe’s Arkansas-homegrown-vegetables, but they were fresh nonetheless and hit the spot for dinner last night). It was nice to be able to eat in and cook myself what I wanted to eat. I sautéed asparagus, fennel, peppers, portabella mushrooms, onions, etc. and marinated them with a filet of tilapia and had a fantastic dinner. But after putting the fish on the grill I realized I don’t have any plates. I have plastic cups and ice cream bowls (thank you Amanda) and Gladware containers. None of which are a plate equivalent. So? I washed the styrofoam tray the fish came on originally and used it as a plate. It’s amazing how resourceful I have become with the lack of typical amenities. I dumped all the cooked veggies in a Gladware bowl.

After fixing myself dinner, which I will proudly say, in total only cost $6, and I have another tilapia filet leftover.

Basically, this put my PB&J to shame.

Besides all the vegetables, I proudly made several bowls of fruit that I could throw in my bag, take to the park and enjoy there. So as I write, I am having a bowl of fresh pineapple, mango, bing cherries, and raspberries. (Saving tip #2: don’t buy precut fruit, it is nearly a 200% mark-up. So I bought all local whole fruits and have cut them up myself). Yes, I bought a whole pineapple and cut it into pieces with a butter knife.

Utensils. Over two years ago, I bought my first kitchen table. It is very 50s with a red vinyl top and chrome legs. The chairs were my grandmothers and nearly rusted shut (old school metal folding chairs) but DIY, I covered the chairs in black damask vinyl and gave them a new coat of paint. What does that have to do with my utensils? Everything.

I don’t have room for my table or chairs in this apartment, but the $7 set of utensils that are red and white frosted plastic (I guess that is a way to describe it?) are still with me, 6 knives, 3 regular forks, 4 mini forks, and 2 spoons. ­­

Today I went down to Washington Square Park and enjoyed the sun and breeze before heading to visit a friend at work. After a quick coffee break and hello I walked around Union Square, oh how I miss it (Last year I could walk there, but now its 20 minutes on the train). While walking in Union Square I checked out the farmer's market. Eggplant, cucumber, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, spinach, basil, squash, zucchini, garlic.... pure bliss!

After I loaded up on vegetables I came back to the apartment, dropped eveyrthing off, checked the mail, (thanks Patpat for my nothing letter, made my day! Glad you got to see Karen) and then ran by the grocery mart to grab some actual chef's knives. (So much easier to cut all those vegetables with a real knife, compared to a butter knife).

And I had again, the best dinner. The eggplant was my absolute favorite! hit the spot! I grilled the veggies on the George and also had a nice little filet of salmon alongside. Yum!

Now you have heard all about my cooking experiences thus far, and my love of vegetables!

maggie