Soup and Salad

Yesterday's lunch. Yummy, and surprisingly, I wasn't hungry 5 minutes later. Maybe it's because I'm a Taurus, or perhaps it's due to being at least half Hobbitt, but I'm generally not convinced that soup and salad can, by themselves, comprise a meal. I grew up in meat-and-potatoes land. I think there's magic in homemade balsamic vinaigrette, though. Especially when it's accidentally too tart. It slams into the tastebuds so hard that your brain says "Ok, that's it, we're full!"

The soup was Potato and Leftovers Soup. Classy. But delicious. I won't bother calling it a "recipe", but the basic idea was: onions and celery in bacon fat until getting soft, some garlic and fresh-ground pepper, some chicken broth. Then a diced Russett potato and a small-chopped parsnip, simmered until soft. I put most of that in the blender, then back in the pot with some leftover steamed veggies and chopped chicken. Voila. Lunch.

Dinner last night was FIC: Fabulous Italian Creation. The nickname stuck a few years ago when I was planning the menu and didn't care specifically what would be served. The base ingredients were all the same. It's always pasta (rice pasta these days), with meat, marinara, sometimes a veggie, used to use lots of cheese, maybe pepperoni, mushrooms, and/or olives... pop it in the oven to meld together. Pretty fabulous.

Well... it was a lot more fabulous with cheese. But, it's still pretty good. Pretty Good Italian Creation doesn't have the same ring to it, though.

The greens there are mustard greens. I will never make mustard greens again as long as I live.

I love kale and collards and excel (if I may say so) in their preparation. I somehow went very, very wrong with the mustard greens. I didn't even finish them.