WIAW 60

Don’t you like round numbers? Somehow 60 sounds more as if I’ve accomplished something than 59 does (or 63, which is just plain silly…)

It is finally getting warm. We’ve even had a few sunny days! There are rumors that vegetables are starting to grow…  though I have not gotten to Greenmarket this week to see if any have arrived there yet.  One advantage we have here in New York City is that several agricultural zones meet in our general area – greens start growing in South Jersey when there’s still frost on the fields in the hill country of New York, and the New York farmers have lettuce when it has bolted in warmer areas. So hopefully… a little spinach soon? (There is never very much, now – strawberries and asparagus are June crops around here.)

So, a day of food. My regular breakfast – beans and eggs, over tortillas. Fast and easy. I’m afraid the pictures never do look all that alluring… it’s a plain looking dish to begin with, and I’m just not up for food styling first thing in the morning! Tastes good, though. (These were the pintos that had simmered in the pork broth – delicious!)

Lunch was a bit more interesting. You may remember that last August when we got a huge influx of cucumbers, I experimented with pureeing them and freezing the puree in ice cube trays. Organizing the freezer (to make room for all that ham) I discovered that I still had one bag of the cubes hidden away in the back. So I’ve been melting a couple of cubes of cucumber into the kefir, sometimes adding a bit of dill, for pretty much an instant cucumber soup. The cold soup is welcome on the warmer days, and the taste of August is welcome in this vegetable-less wasteland of April.

And that added interest to a fairly plain chicken leg. Chicken legs were also on sale last week, along with all that pork, so I got one pack of them, and baked them all, just so I would not have to think about it again… I’m sure I also had some sort of complex carb with this meal – rice cakes? muffins? but I didn’t get a picture, and I don’t remember which. (Corn muffins, I suspect…)

Then dinner was odds and ends. I’d put most of the slow cooked pork in the freezer, kept some in the fridge and used it, and now had not quite enough to make dinner. And the same with ham. No law says I can’t combine them – in fact, they tasted quite good together. Equally, I cooked one carrot, and then added some frozen peas. I cooked the carrot and heated everything else in some of the pork broth, stirred precooked rice in, and there I had dinner.

Jenn’s throwing her party again! Hooray! (I hope this means she’s feeling refreshed…)  So run over to Peas and Crayons for a wide variety of meals.