I've Been So Bad

I was really rolling with the blog thing for a while and there is SO much to tell you but, as I said, I've been a very bad blogger and since I can't possibly catch up on all that now, I'll just pop in for a brief bite.

I'm obsessed with dates and golden raisins and anchovies right now. The golden raisins in Chile, ooooh, I know what you're thinking but you probably have never had a golden raisin from Chile. The ones I have from Guercio's are a faint substitute but I throw them in everything, from oatmeal to red sauce, which reminds me that I made this sauce from tomatoes and zucchini, onions and garlic of course, then added copious amounts of basil and mint, some anchovies, capers and the raisins. It sort of reminds me of St. Joseph's Day pasta con sarde, but fresher. Or pasta puttannesca I suppose.

That leads me into anchovies, which are delicious with pasta of course. Also, the other day, I grilled some baby bok choy, laid an anchovy down each one and poured some homemade caesar dressing over it. This was inspired by Greg's famous grilled caesar salad that I adore. It was spot-on with the bok choy, the crevices between each tender little leaf a perfect receptacle for holding little pools of lemony-salty-briny delight.

Dates. I am buying these fantastic dates from Guercio's; they're big and dense and moist, not like those nasty, dry, ashy-looking ones you get sometimes. I just eat them plain or, like the raisins, in my oatmeal OR stuffed with goat cheese that has been jazzed up with walnuts, mint and lemon zest. I made these treats last summer and loved them and now I'm kicking myself for wasting whole year without them.

You may think I've been cooking a lot but this is really all I can handle lately. Stuffing goat cheese into dates. Boiling pasta and making quick-cook tomato sauces. Add to that my other dishes in heavy rotation including....Peanut butter toast. Massive amounts of green beans from the garden sauteed with onions. Really, I'll just eat a whole pound of beans for dinner sometimes. Tomato-basil salads. Fried eggs. I'm not feeling terribly motivated to cook these days. However, I am looking forward to moving back to New Orleans and having all kinds of fresh seafood and other goodies to mix up my current, funky, rutted eating repertoire. That's right, I said it, going back to New Orleans! More updates to follow!