Tonight

I'm officially instituting "one dollar dinner" night. Seeing what I can make for 1.99 or less. People who would like this: Sarah T., Pat, Jim Howard, and my brother. Although Bob is the one who would require receipts, and would also challenge me on how much the propane cost (true). Which I already figured, and is, at best, a nickel.

On tonight's menu:

Linguini, one box
1 squash (garden grown)
1 zucchini (garden grown)
1 onion (garden grown)
2 ears of corn (Fedex-ed from Kansas)

Veggies roasted on the grill in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, served over pasta with a sprinkling of parmesan. Tina would call it parm. Because she's an aficionado.
Corn also roasted on the grill, served hot, on the ear.

Total: $1.32

And yes. I know. It's not exactly a dollar, but if it's less than 2, it's still sort of a dollar. So go on, and get up outta my math grill.

Besides beets.

Pork chops. That's all. PORK CHOPS! Sometimes I'll sizzle one up for breakfast. Things are getting pretty crazy around here. My friend Sarah (probably the only one who will read this post) doesn't like pork. Or maybe it's just not her favorite. She either grew up on a pork farm, or lived next to one, or had to slaughter swine as a child (I can never remember), thus developing this crazy aversion to pork. 

Joren asked me the other night, "What made you think of cooking pork chops?". Are you kidding? I'm almost always thinking of cooking pork chops. Maybe I'm cooking one right now.

Where have beets been all my life?

My mom will smile when she reads this, which she won't. But if she did read it, she would smile an ironic smile. She was always trying to push beets on us. "Get off your beet pedestal", I would think. Jeez, lady. Ease up on the beets.

But, alas. Beets are now at the center of my very small and predictable universe. Have you had a beet lately? Roasted it in your oven in a foil pouch with a little olive oil? Holy shit. They are consistently (3 nights in a row) blowing my g.d. mind.

I'll be sitting there next to Joren. We'll be eating our salads, loaded with beets, silently. Except for the sound of me... "Aren't these beets delicious?" "Seriously, I could make myself sick eating so many." "Aren't these beets delicious?" "And look at the color."

It's a fascinating one way (except for Joren nodding) conversation. You should come for dinner sometime and join in on either the praising of beets or just the nodding. I'll make beets.

2013 recap

I learned how to make a PERFECT hard boiled egg, so I'm not sweatin' it. It's harder than you think. Try it. Cracking? Hard to peel? Grey-ish around the hard yellow-ish? I know! Or I used to. I hardly remember all those bullshit egg problems anymore.

That's it. The highlight of the entire calendar year.