Cooking up a storm

   Today one of my generous coworkers, David H, brought me a bag of tomatoes and fresh herbs from his garden. Though I'd intended to spend a quiet evening recovering from Roatan (read: zonking out on the couch), it inspired me to cook a big meal: marinara and spaghetti squash, and roast chicken and vegetables. Yum! So lucky to have such awesome friends. :)

   I forgot to add roasted red pepper to the label, but you can taste it for sure. And the cayenne and red pepper flakes too. I made up the recipe, but it is my best batch of sauce yet! Here's what I did:

- chop the ripe tomatoes and sauté them with olive oil and garlic

- roast carrots with a little olive oil

- separately (they cook faster), roast the red pepper, onion, and garlic 

- when veggies are roasted to carmelized perfection, throw them in the food processor until smooth. Blend with sautéed tomatoes.

- add a can of tomato sauce to thicken 

- add fresh basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage

- stir over low heat as the spaghetti squash roasts (45 min at 425 degrees)

   Eat and enjoy!

   The chicken was adapted from this classic Ina Garten recipe: http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/21404 . It's as good as it claims to be, or better. Which is good, because with these quantities, I will be eating this meal for days!

Dinnertime!

   I'm a decent cook, but some of my best work is undoubtedly born of some amount of desperation: I'm starving, it's 8:30 pm, and I'm NOT running to the store. (By some miracle, I'm pretty good at avoiding the supreme temptation of takeout food.)
   I think this method of cooking works for me because I'm not trying to follow a recipe; there's a certain freedom of figuring it out as you go, tasting and adjusting, leaving the measuring cups in the cupboard. (Unless I'm baking. Because that, my friends, involves actual science. And you do not f with science!)
   Tonight after work & yoga, I began the familiar ritual: open the fridge, stare down the contents and ask, "What's it gonna be?" My own Top Chef-style quick fire competition.
   I had salad fixings, a little marinara, half a red pepper, a few portobellas, and goat cheese. And I ended up with: a salad of Romaine hearts, cucumber, carrot and heirloom tomatoes; and a spicy sauce of roasted red peppers, sauteed mushroom, and garlic over rotini. Topped with chunks of warm goat cheese. Garlic bread. And, not pictured, (ate them too fast for plating. Oops.) baby portobello mushroom caps stuffed with seasoned goat cheese.
   I wish I'd had a hard-boiled egg for the salad, and some spicy Italian sausage for the pasta. Otherwise, perfect. They say to ensure a healthy meal, your plate should be colorful. Check! It was a lot of food, however. Sometimes I forget I am but one person. If you need me, I'll be in a coma for the next couple of hours...