Comestible adventures

As I said at dinner tonight, there is no reason not to eat well. I guess there are caveats, like, No reason if you have the time/resources/energy. But I do, so why not?

Last night, it was steak with melted brie, mushroom risotto, and pickled beets followed by pound cake with black raspberries and fresh whipped cream. Tonight, pasta with cheddar sauce and tuna and a mixed greens and spinach salad with yellow and orange bell peppers, tomato, shredded beets (yeah, I like beets), dill, thyme, garlic, oil, and vinegar.

Now there is an experiment taking place: I am attempting to make my own vegetable stock. Or rather, I'm seeing what's going to happen; the only real effort I had to make was to get myself and my roommates to save all of our vegetable leavings for the past couple of weeks. Then I just dumped it all into water, brought it to a boil, and now it gets to sit for an hour. I did have a guide for what kinds of vegetables are best to use (which is most of them). In the pot you'll find bits of tomato, onion, garlic, potato, sweet potato, celery, cucumber, bell pepper, beet, cilantro. It looks like this:


Yes, that's a beet top in the upper right corner of the bottom picture. I've made some delicious food with beets this summer--vegetable borscht, beet risotto (it was bright red)., and now this salad. The first two were kind of by happenstance; a friend gave us some beets and I figured we should do something tasty with them.

I love cooking, by the way. Was that clear?