tonight's batch of cooking.

before i forget to write it, i never did get to pulverizing oranges into juice. i did buy three last week, but they were easy to peel and i ate them wedge-wise.

but now, to what i aimed to write:


man, i love cooking .. but not all the time. i only learned that recently, and realised the need for cooking shortcuts or substitutes.

(for example, the prepared foods at the produce station come to mind: see an old lj post for the details)

the serious cooking comes in solid blocks of time, where many things are done at once. take tonight: after walking home from the office, i ended up cooking ..

1. barley with cardamom and nutmeg. this will likely serve as breakfast tomorrow, if i add to it brown sugar.
   
   
2. green beans with garlic, thyme, and rice wine vinegar. none are left; i ate them too quickly.
   
   
3. green beans with garlic, portabella mushrooms, oregano, and port wine. i haven't gone crazy, except in buying too many green beans, so i cooked them in two batches.
   
   
4. a savory soup, made from a leftover baked potato, sauteed asparagus, some diced green beans, and leftover turkey from thanksgiving (preserved through the modern wonder that is the freezer). i ate it over hacked cubes of old but tasty bread, and it tasted more like a stew.
   

cooking is one of those pastimes when i can feel good about myself, and when i can feel capable. in these latter years of my ph.d., such self-confidence is hard to find!