Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Leeks, Garbanzos and Bacon, Turnips and Arugula

We considered ordering out tonight, but one glance in the fridge suggested we may want to use some stuff up. I'd been sitting on a Melissa Clark recipe for an arugula and shaved turnip salad so made that (wonderful!) and improv'd with my leeks and remaining bacon and garbanzo beans by: cooking and draining the bacon, sauteeing the leeks and the zest of 1 Meyer lemon in a little butter + bacon drippings, adding garbanzos, stirring in the cooked pasta + some cooking water + some fresh ricotta and topping with crumbled bacon. It was all quite good, and we're now retiring to the basement to eat the rest of the rice pudding and watch The Help. PS- we recently watched Super 8. TERRIBLE. Don't waste your time.

Ricotta in the potta, did a bad mood sweep over DC?

People, I was overcome by a desire for fresh ricotta this morning. It's been an unprecedented three weeks since my last batch -unreal!- so I just whipped up a pot, and it's curding away in the pot right now. I'll strain it just before I head out to get Ol in another 15 minutes or so. I love, love it with honey and walnuts. A breakfast or snack of champions. Mmm... And a stellar cook on food52 just alerted us all that rather than throwing out the leftover whey (I always hated to toss this goodness but hadn't a clue what else to do with it), we should use it to make a lovely polenta. Fantastic idea! T doesn't love polenta but I might foist some on him tomorrow night. I completely forgot that a friend was coming for lunch today, and when I got home from errands this morning, I -who see the warzone that is my home every day- I was shocked by its appearance. A 20 minute blitz ensued, and I'm quite satisfied.

For those of you who live in my area, have you had constant experiences with mean and/or rude people this morning? I have, and it's been a real bummer. A tractor trailer almost ran me over twice in his haste to go the the cul-de-sac near my house?? An old lady honked for a good 20 seconds at me after I tooted at her to go AT THE GREEN LIGHT, and a woman who parked directly in front of my house but took up two spaces, thereby rendering the remainder of each large enough for no more than a bike, refused to move up a few feet when I asked her in an exceedingly nice voice if it might be possible for her to do so. I'm tempted to just stay inside for the rest of the day but alas, such is not possible.

Off to strain curds!

Muffins in the oven

Yesterday was such a whirlwind- I don't even remember half of what we did. Whew! Last night, T and I went to his company's holiday party which was lovely though a 70 minute drive each way (not ideal!); it's so much fun to get dressed up sometimes. I just love holiday festivities and plan to wear very high heels as often as possible in the next month. I woke up with a major yen for muffins; as plum season is long past, I decided to make my whole pumpkin muffin recipe but sub dried cherries for the plums. It sounds good in theory but I'll let you know. We'll head out to the farmers market later for some provisions and inspiration. Off to sneak a read of the paper while the boys watch Elmo as a cowboy.