late night broccoli hits the spot.

man. a night on the town (with copious alcohol) is the sort of thing which builds a fearsome appetite!

preparation and planning is not often appreciated. in fact, often the forward-thinking i do is only appreciated at times like this .. at 1 or 2 am, between night and morning.

        i'd say it's kin to being a good teacher, to a class of college freshman, in the sense that they won't know until they are close to graduating how much it mattered to have a good class in the beginning of their college career ..

       .. and that kicking their @$$, giving them a hard time to teach them how to work: that it served a purpose. a teacher is a little like a parent, and often you don't appreciate how you grew up until you are grown up and realise what could have gone wrong ..

        which is not to say that a parent can do no wrong, but some things you can appreciate. anyway.

but i mean to say something about cooking, and cooking in advance:


tonight i am exceedingly glad that i made extra sauteed broccoli, because after an evening of bars and visiting the abodes of friends of pretty acquaintances, i felt a little hungry as i walked through my front door.

broccoli, and some good baked bread: a solid combination. the former dish, a vegetable, is not hard to make, but i'm glad there was some left over from lunch. here is the ingredient list if you want to make it in a way similar to mine.

• 2-3 broccoli heads
  
• as many cloves of garlic, medium-sized, as heads of broccoli
  
• salt & pepper
  
• dried herb lemongrass
  (it's a drysaute anyway; fresh bruised lemongrass will be a waste)
  
• a bit of rice vinegar
  
• a drizzle of honey, at the end
  
• water, to re-wet the veg.
  

if there is a lingering, light gravy from the pan of broccoli, do not deem it waste: you'd be surprised how tasty it can be on warmed bread.

on some days, i forgo the intrinsic taste of bread to what it can inherit from its tasty environs: think of good tomato sauces, or curries, or in this case, slightly tart and woody broccoli residue ..

.. maybe i was a vegetarian in another life, then an omnivore, and i cannot distinguish my karmic legacies. alas! but broccoli, when understood, is a fine, fine thing ..

breakfast, you are MINE.

breakfast is my foe, but i wouldn't call it an arch-nemesis. it is my foe in the way that mr. mxyzptlk [1] annoys superman, but means him no real harm.

but this week, i've made my peace with breakfast .. if only in the sense that i have strategised to overcome it and make it do my bidding. oh, let me count the ways [2], oh yes ..

1. i have 1/3 of a round of italian paesano bread left, safely in the fridge so it may not rot. its fate is toast, but not french toast: not spongy enough and too many holes.
   
   then again, holes in french toast mean more crevices for honey and syrup, but no matter: it's still not spongy enough. ):
   
   
2. i am prepared for an approximation to muesli. you see, i have gone to trader joe's today, and now i have:
   
   dried orange(?) cranberries,
   old-fashioned oats,
   lowfat yogurt,
   dry-roasted peanuts,
   
   and a leftover peach from last week's sojourn to the produce station.
   

then there are enough coffee grounds to last me into august, even if i do go on a bender.

it's a plan, at any rate. maybe it will even work.


[1] speaking of which, i love google search sometimes. i didn't even have to know how to spell "mxyzptlk" and instead, started with an approximation. you see,

[2] admittedly, i was torn between choosing an ordered list <ol> and an unordered list <ul>, but then that cliche came to mind and i was sold.