Cooking and eating on gray days

It isn't actually cold today, but it looks like it should be. And for lunch, I found myself wanting something hearty and warm but not too heavy. What about compost salad gone warm + toast instead of crackers? Perfect! I sauteed some mushrooms and a chopped leek in a little butter with salt and thyme and added chopped radicchio towards the end. Then I scrambled an egg into all that, grated some Gruyere over the top and stewed it all together. Meanwhile I toasted a slice of multigrain bread, and then, true to form, I slicked it with two kinds of jam. I like options, lots of tastes. It's why I have a cereal buffet in my pantry and often for breakfast combine 3 or 4 of them in my bowl.

Anyway, this is really tasty, healthy too, and just to make it even more comforting, I put it in a bowl. Sending sleep vibes to little O. After I eat I'm going to look into easy bread recipes.

I made, I ate, I conquered (almost)

I am telling y'all, this eggplant dish is the cat's meow for me. Frig. I just ate 75% of it for dinner. Plus wine. Love this Fiano! I never got around to the zucchini salad but that's OK. There's always tomorrow. I am slightly intimidated by, but mostly excited about, the amount of cooking/baking I plan to do before Saturday. We'll see where the energy runs out but I have high hopes for good recipes, good pictures and a lot of fun.

Friends, I am trying to be understanding about the absurdity that is Congress, about the desire to be the bigger man, to actually be a mature professional, but I am, at heart, really feeling disappointed by Obama. What was that ridiculous letter-writing cockfight over the scheduling of his speech? Crying Tan Man is a ballsy a-hole whose mother clearly never taught him to respect authority figures, even those with whom he disagrees, and Angry Mannequin Cantor is just so self-righteous that I can't get over it: was he elected to take care of himself, or some constituents who really need it? Bonkers Michele is never going to get gas back down to $2/gallon; on the contrary, we NEED a gas tax and to make myriad other sacrifices, and Obama needs to be giving us the heavy hand of love about why and how. Crazy Coyote Shooting Texas Mannequin Perry is a dangerous, not-real-bright, xenophobic ideologue, and hopefully his flame will burn out before he can inflict the same "TX Miracle" on everyone that he has down there. His economic and sex-education policies leave a little something to be desired! I wish there was a 'sarcasm' emoticon.

I'm off to bed. What a day! Happy eating, cooking, sleeping to you all!

On tap

I have a giant eggplant so think I'll make, you guessed it, Yotam's Burnt Eggplant. I also saw a lovely recipe for shaved zucchini with pistachios and a lemony dressing. I think T's working late tonight, so I'm going to have myself a veggie dinner and some wine and get to bed early. Unless something radically changes, I'm done canning in anticipation of the Arts Market this weekend. I fixed all the plum jam today using the thinning technique I just learned- seriously, I'm so relieved about that. Meanwhile  I got all the ingredients for a delicious streusel coffee cake, strawberry cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, browned butter brownies, blackberry pies, strawberry-rhubarb pies, pecan-oatmeal pies, and fresh ricotta which I'll be bringing with me to the market. Exciting!

Is anyone in the market for great and stylish kitchen gloves? I just bought some pink Casabella ones and must admit that I love them. I enjoy washing dishes anyway, for whatever reason, but these gloves make doing so even more fun. The only odd aspect of them is the picture on the packaging. Why would any woman ever be wearing them while reclining and kicking her legs up joyfully in the air?? I think in large part we've left the '50s behind, folks.