Herb Play

One of the things I look forward to about moving come August 1st (of many) is the potential to reinstate an herb box. Nothing compares to fresh herbs. My current over-obsessions have been sage & cilantro. Hence last night's kitchen shenanigans:

For immediate dinner I used Tinkyada brown rice veggie pasta which I topped with sliced Shiitake mushrooms sauteed in "butter" (I used Earth Balance, my second favorite brand) with minced garlic, shallots, and fresh sage. Not too much effort, not too much time in the toasty kitchen, not too heavy in my belly!

And to carry me through the weekend I tried, for the very first time, my hand at gazpacho. It came out fairly well. I followed a standard recipe (from America's Test Kitchen cookbook) but the food processor in my apartment now is not entirely up to par. And is tiny. So the veggie prep took much longer than I anticipated. Future tips to myself: more cilantro and pepper, maybe a shake of curry and extra Tabasco to kick up the kick a skoche.

Tonight I'll be mashing up some avocados & fixin' some more arepas for dinner - enough to have leftovers for a quick dinner tomorrow night since we're having a little social engagement with the upperclassman.

I'm not sure why my passion for food creation briefly ebbed but my goddess am I glad it's back!