No surprise

Porcini stock cubes obviously lead to mushroom risotto. This one involved a tiny amount of chanterelles, a lot of cheap white mushrooms plus the stock cubes -- lots of mushroomy goodness.

(I promise that the next photo I post will involve a green vegetable -- enough with the orange and brown!)

Breakfast for dinner -- sort of

When I was a kid and my dad was out of town (which was a lot) we sometimes had breakfast for dinner. I thought it was so weird, and promised I'd never do it when I was an adult. Right... note that the cornbread was from the freezer, and the beans from a can.

De-Stressed Baking

I woke up on Saturday at 4.30, ran starting at 5, and finished work at 4.30pm. I came home ready to relax. This is what I did. The cake is the Cook's Illustrated chocolate snack cake (fudged because I ran out of vegan mayo -- I used some old sour cream, which probably wasn't a great idea -- too dense). The cookies are from 101 Cookbooks, thanks to David Lebovitz. Really super tasty.

Gluttony

I spent about 10 hours wandering all over Manhattan today. Sustaining me in my travels were many wonderful bread products:

• a sesame bagel from Absolute Bagels (So good! Crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside -- light textured and substantial at the same time.)
• pizza patate from Sullivan Street Bakery (Imagine pizza and potato chips had a love child. Crisp, rich dough topped with thin sliced potato (crisp and brown at the edges), rosemary and lots of olive oil.)
• vanilla bomboloni from Sullivan Street Bakery (This prompted fond memories of my Polish grandmother's homemade doughnuts, but was many times more amazing than they were, and they were good!)
• pizza at Motorino East Village (I had the filetti: mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and thyme. It was excellent. I will never be a restaurant blogger, because taking photos of food is embarrassing, but here's a review with some nice photos.)

I also went food shopping at Zabar's and Fairway. I really liked Fairway. Here's what I bought there:

Noho lunch

Back in Noho for a lightning visit, we had a perfect lunch of baked beans (a Deals & Steals score: two cans for 99c) and rosemary bread from the Hungry Ghost (still warm!) plus a mini (vegan) apple pie also from the Hungry Ghost. Yum.

Salads

I'm not actually a very good cook. I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm cheap... and after a long day of trying (read: merely but mightily trying) to be creative, my meals are less-than-inspiring. But I have a few tricks for lunch. I always pack, and because it is the highlight of my day, I try to pack something good. Here's today's sampling, posing for you from the bench where I ate it.
Bottom left: carrot slaw, dressed with miso-sesame. Bottom right: navy bean and tuna salad with great chunks of pickle; center (upper): broiled eggplant, pepper, local goat feta, and greens, dressed with balsamic.
It's true... in my laziness, and in the summer heat, I've opened more than a few tins of tuna. It started (?) in Australia/NZ, where I spent most of my days working or walking, and needed something easy to prepare but full of protein during the day or before bed. Excuses, excuses.

Back

This is what I've been eating, and mostly how I've been eating it, for the summer in New Orleans.