Friday Fun! (Rain, Gardening, and Cooking)
In spite of the torrential downpour that Boston experienced last weekend (check out pics of the sinkhole that erupted under a line of the T here), I still managed to have a very nice weekend. I got to flex my Beirut playing muscles Friday night and got to spend most of the rest of the storm holed up inside, except of course for Monday when I had to commute to work. Also, inside didn’t exactly mean no rain as both my library and my apartment sprung leaks in the roof. They thought they had fixed the library ones. They were wrong. The hospital didn’t even bother wet vacing the carpet this time around. As for my apartment, it held strong for most of the storm, but on Monday morning, I woke up to water running down one of the walls. It appears some of that wind finally took its toll on the roof tiles. Almost everyone I talked to though said there was at least some water damage to their homes, so it has been proven yet again that I am not a unique snowflake (thank you, Fight Club).
The weather the rest of the week almost totally makes up for it though. It’s been in the high 60s to low 70s. I haven’t had to have my heat on in days! I took this as a sign of spring and started my herb and flower seeds last night. I’m planning on ordering my veggie and strawberry seeds today and hopefully will get them planted soon as well. I’m honestly pretty darn stoked for all the food aspects of summer–plants in my kitchen, farmer’s market on the way home, possibly taking a whack at canning by myself for the first time, berry picking, etc… So much yumminess and new skills to learn!
I tried out two new recipes this week. The first was a low-calorie, low-dairy mac and cheese bake (I printed it from some random website, which I can’t remember off the top of my head). It used pureed butternut squash to replace most of the cheese. The only cheese used was 1 cup of mozzarella and 2 tablespoons of cream cheese. Naturally, the pasta was whole wheat. I enjoyed this, and I think it will be a good recipe with time. A little something was missing from it, though. A wee bit bland. My dad suggested nutmeg. Any other thoughts?
The other recipe was for stuffed eggplants from my cookbook The Vegetarian Bible. Basically you halve the eggplant, scoop out the insides, then mix the insides with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and al dente pasta. Then you stick it back in plus mozzarella and bread crumbs then into the oven. This wasn’t a bad recipe. It was nutritious, filling, and tasted fine. I just didn’t love it or really like it enough to warrant the labor intensity of it. I doubt I’ll make it again unless I randomly have lots of eggplants I need to use up. The other recipe I’ve tried from the cookbook was really good though, so I think this might be a personal taste thing.
What did you guys get up to this week? Any new things tried? Happy weekends!
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Opinions of a Wolf 
As our storms stop yours seem to start, however we have also been warming up, I was very excited to be able to for the first time this year hang out the washing. I hate having airers all round the house haha and I only use the tumble dryer as a last resort. Washing smells all nice and fresh when its been outside. I haven’t tried any new recipes recently which is a bit sad. Haha eggplant, ya’ll have funny names for things, we call that an aubergine!
Always glad to hear from you, Jessica. 🙂
I got a cookbook at a yardsale once and upon opening it discovered that it was a UK cookbook. It took me a while to figure that out though as not many of the recipes had pictures, and I was standing there wondering what veggies like “aubergine” were. Lol.
The mac and cheese sounds good. I dont know about nutmeg, but maybe with the squash….
I think it’ll be a good recipe with time. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t know why, but I just don’t really like eggplant. I think it might have something to do with how it’s often the only “vegetarian option” at plated events. The best thing I know about it is that’s purple. In the summer, though, we get a lot of them, and I make Eggplant Parmesan with our homemade tomato sauce. It ends up being pretty good–I bread the eggplant with matzo meal instead of bread crumbs (protip). 😛
Lol, maybe my dislike is also residual bitterness…..it’s a possibility! I’ve actually stubbornly avoided Eggplan Parm, because it just seems like it’s trying too hard to be chicken, but I may have to try it given your hardy recommendation. 🙂