Spring Rain

Today it flooded on our street during a morning downpour. It came and went so fast that I didn't even get to see it myself. The better part of the day was spent dealing with wet car floorboards; our rental car had two inches of standing water in the bottom of it. Now I can feel like a true NOLA resident as I own a wet/dry shopvac.

Photo courtesy of Vida's iphone.

Pad Thai

Today my husband and I drove up to my parents house in North Mississippi for a short visit. We were greeted with dinner, which is always welcome. My dad made pad thai for the first time; he felt that it needed tweaked, but I really enjoyed it. He also made some condiments to go with it that I didn't photograph, such as a vinegar/sugar/pepper sauce. The recipe came from here.

North African Bean Soup

Todays soup is from the New York Times, as has been the theme this week. It is good, although I do have some comments about it.

I am not sure I like the noodles, at least as many as I added. I only added them to the bowl I was eating tonight, and so I may just leave them out as I thaw the soup. Also, it got pretty thick - it is more of a stew than a soup, I would say. Maybe it needs more liquid. I vote yes to the lemon wedges, and no to the cilantro/mint garnish. I was very light on the cayenne, and I kind of wish I had added more.

I used the extra squash just as a roasted side dish with cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Oh gosh, it was good. I need to do that more often.

That peeler is awesome, by the way. It made short work of the squash.

Lentil Soup

I made this for dinner tonight. I doubled the recipe, and I used 8 cups of water and 2 cups of chicken stock because it tasted a bit weak to me. I also threw in some parmesan rind. It was really good, and I am glad I doubled the recipe.

Continuing the tradition of eating what I want instead of what goes with a meal, I had beets -and- sweet potatoes. Double yum. The beets were peeled and sliced and roasted with olive oil.

Farmers Markets

I watched this last night during a moment of insomnia. It was pretty disheartening. It reminded me a lot of The Corporation, only not quite as watchable. In a nutshell, big money-hungry food corporations own almost all of the food supply and don't give a hoot whether it is safe or not. It certainly made me want to shop only at my local farmers market.

I have yet to find a market I like here as well as the one way out at the edge of North Lamar in Oxford, Mississippi. It had a pretty decent variety of fruits and vegetables, although I never seemed to buy their fruit much. They also had bulk grains which I like to use. However, most importantly to me, they had Stan's Meats. On a student budget, my husband and I never ate much meat, but we would splurge for this. Plus, you could get two 1" pork chops for a fraction of the cost of a steak, and it was just as satisfying. And it was local meat! That is a biggie, and I have no idea how to go about finding a similar place here.

I never was big on the Mid-Town Farmer's Market because I tended to sleep away my Saturday mornings. I am a late afternoon shopper, and I liked being able to go whenever I wanted. I have seen fruit/veggie stands here, most notably the one that is always on Napoleon. I somehow never have cash for it. I also have visited the Hollygrove Market, which has a box food program where you get a whole lot of veggies in a box for 20 bucks. Again, though, it is a Saturday morning thing. The Crescent City Farmers Market is uptown on Tuesday mornings, but how in the world am I supposed to get there at that time?

I hope to find a solution to all of this sometime soon. In the meantime, I am trying to be picky about what produce I buy. The movie sure made me feel guilty for putting out of season zucchini in my minestrone earlier this week.

Comeback Sauce

Something I have been doing but not posting about is eating salad. I really wanted to make some Comeback Sauce, and with some guidance from my dad I ended up using a recipe that was posted here, although I can't seem to find the actual post.

It isn't quite right. I have to do more thinking on this. I would really like it to taste like the greek salad dressing at the Mayflower in Jackson.

Cauliflower Soup

This soup ended up a little odd. I like it, but it is more of a side dish than a main dish. I suppose the reason why is that it is so heavy and rich; you can't eat a lot.

They had these really beautiful cauliflower at Whole Foods. I wish I had photographed it before I cut it up. I also added a few dashes of Tobasco to the recipe.

I was glad that I roasted some sweet potatoes to go with it. They didn't really go with the soup, but I wanted them so I went for it.