thoughtful consumption

Here’s a salad made of sorrel, nasturtium leaves, salad burnet, and sliced radishes. Made me feel like a fuzzy brown bunny nibbling on fresh leaves.

Saturday I lunched alone but very happily.

• Tomato soup, a.k.a. a can of V8 with a little red wine, lots of summer savory, and Parmesan cheese
• Two scrambled eggs with chopped tarragon
• Multigrain bread with wildflower honey and butter
• A pretty little apple and lemon verbena tea for dessert (not pictured)

Scrambled eggs are a great way to use fresh herbs. I used tarragon here, but fennel, parcel, or savory would have worked, too. As often happens, I didn’t think about adding herbs until the last minute. So I ran around trying to find and chop the tarragon, soften the butter for the bread, not burn the eggs, and not boil over the soup. It’s a good thing my kitchen’s tiny. Everything’s just a lunge away.

Find an excuse to make scrambled eggs with CSA eggs. I noticed that they’re available on the online store again. If you haven’t tried CSA eggs, order some and see what you think. Or find another local source. But whatever you do, try some really fresh scrambled eggs. They’re so good!

Tomorrow I’ll be on my own again, so for lunch I’ll have Natalie’s steamed edamame and sliced radish salad. I’ll probably make baba ghanoush, too. Hopefully, I have more pita in the fridge.

Last week I made baba ghanoush from Asian eggplant. In the past, I’d had problems with using Asian eggplant because of the variety’s small diameter. After roasting them uncovered in the oven like the regular Globe kind, there’s not a lot of usable meat left per eggplant. So this time I peeled the eggplant, put them in a dish, covered it with tin foil, and roasted them in the oven.

I still couldn’t use all of the flesh because the outer layer dried out. So this time, I’m going to drizzle olive oil on them, wrap them in tin foil en masse, and then place them in the roasting dish.

One thing I learned last time while making the baba ghanoush is not to lose hope if it doesn’t taste right at first. I had a preliminary taste after mixing up the roasted eggplant, garlic, and tahini. I was not impressed and more than a little disappointed. Then I added the olive oil and fresh lemon juice, and it was suddenly delicious and I couldn’t get enough!

And for my solo supper tomorrow, I’ll have “tomato soup” again, squash tian, and radish greens-kale-artichoke dip with baked radish chips and crackers.