To be fair, I mean that less towards the establishment
itself and more towards the inevitable end result of my trips there.
Every time – every DAMN time – I walk into Whole Foods
simply intending to buy, oh I don’t know… some apples and a carton of milk… I
walk out many tens of dollars poorer, but with many pounds of organic-y
goodness in tow.
Today, for example, on my way back from the gym (took my
first “cardio kickbox” class this morning, and consequently hate life very
much), I strolled (hobbled) into Whole Foods with the aforementioned
apples-and-milk grocery list in mind.
Aaaaand this is what I walked out with:
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| That big yellow thing on the right? Spaghetti squash. Stoked to try it. |
Don’t look at me like that, it’s all health-tastic and I
felt a range of good ingredients would help me refine my budding cooking abilities in
this restaurant-free challenge.
 |
| (I also bought an organic kitty, but he wouldn't pose with the rest of the groceries.) |
Incidentally, the restaurant-free challenge is four days in and going strong (much to my own
surprise). I mean, I haven’t done MUCH
cooking yet other than my daily breakfast…
 |
| Scrambled eggs, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, avocado. Occasionally wrapped in a tortilla if I'm feelin' carb-y. |
I did, however, also made a contribution to my friends’
nascent club, currently identified as “Food Group,” in which each participating
chef is given the monthly “mystery ingredient” – yeah, we’re all Iron Chef and
s*** – and assigned a course in which they must utilize said ingredient. This month’s ingredient of choice was
vinegar. I was assigned the hors
d’oeuvres. And while the rest of
my very organized friends had their recipes planned out several days in
advance, I, the eternal procrastinator, decided on my plan of action the
morning of the dinner – spring rolls, with a rice vinegar-based sauce. Minimal cooking. Loves it.
The spring rolls were easy enough, other than those little
douche spring roll wrappers being occasionally feisty. The sauce looked simple enough as well,
so off I went, boiling peppercorns in vinegar until it reduced and then adding
some ketchup, just like the recipe told me. I let it simmer.
I tasted it. And my
reaction was essentially this:
“Noah… Noah…??
NOAHHH!!! THIS JUST TASTES
LIKE KETCHUP! NOAH!!!”
And so Noah, my lovely chef of a roommate, swooped in like a
curly-haired Superman and saved the day with ginger and garlic. Et voilá – delicious sauce.
And then there was today’s dinner, which was actually rather
miraculous. Miracle number one was
that I turned down going out to a restaurant.
Actually, that’s a lie. What happened was this: boyfriend wanted to get dinner, to which I gave a shaky
response of, “Ehhh wellll I kiiinda want to stick to this no restaurant thing,
buuutt I also don’t want you to go hungry… so, we can go out.”
 |
| Why yes, that IS a blurry picture of me cooking. |
Thankfully, he decided to brave my cooking. What a nice guy. Didn’t stop him from giving me nonstop
crap during the process, of course.
 |
| Stew portion |
 |
| Enter: dumplings. |
Today's culinary adventure began, unsurprisingly, with half an hour of badgering Noah with yet more cooking questions. But while he talked me through the beginning stages, I actually did the rest of it on my own – and I am delighted to say it did NOT crash and burn! In fact, it was pretty solid. I cooked it a little long so there wasn’t much actual stew left, and the dumplings were just a tad dry, but taste-wise it was pretty on point and overall I think it was a damn good first shot. And it was Noah and Devin-approved, so… that’s a success in my book.
 |
| A little brown on the bottom, but a lot delicious everywhere else. |
Thanks for the inspiration, Dad. I think you woulda liked this one.
