Cooking and me and the city have, thus far, not been very...copacetic. I've written before about my theory on New Yorkers and eating out and I still pretty much think it's true. Unfortunate, being on a student budget and all, we can't do a whole lot of eating out. Hot dogs from the cart or noodles from the cheap but yummy noodle bowl place are about as fancy as we get take out wise. Add into the mix the fact that this term Will has a night class twice a week and isn't home for supper on those nights till very late and you get me, falling back on easy to make meals. Not even meals. Easy to make things. Mac and cheese. Cheese on toast. Scrambled eggs and cheese (cheese figures highly into most meals since, along with pasta, it is something Evelyn will always eat). It's not how I'd like it, but this year I'm giving myself a bit of a pass. Budget and time is tight. Life is crazy. You gotta make things easy on yourself where you can.
The good news is that it's finally cool enough that our apartment isn't 100 degrees every time we (or really anyone below us) turns on the oven, and this is bringing back a little bit of the cook in me.
Lately, on Will's late nights, I make the kids something very kid friendly and then cook myself something that only I would eat. Out of the four of us, I'm the most adventurous eater. Followed, probably, by Briton, although Will has become much more game to try new things over the years. Still, there are lots of foods (especially of the vegetarian ilk) that my family probably wouldn't eat as a meal. A side, sure, but not as the whole meal.
Right now I'm having a love affair with root vegetables. I've always been a big fan of Parsnips and Sweet potatoes, but again, as a side. And last year I discovered that I really like beets (who knew? I also love brussel sprouts which, after a bad run in with bubble and squeak during my formative years I thought I'd never eat) So a lot of my solo cooking experiments have been centered around whatever root veg I can find at the farmers market.
This weeks favorites (and, sorry, no pics, these meals are usually made and eaten after the kids go to bed, by which time our apartment is so dark and yellow that photographs look very unappetizing) have included Sweet potatoes loaded up like a taco (avocado, sour cream, corn salsa, black beans) and roasted beets with kosher salt, sesame oil and greek yogurt. Delicious. I can't stop eating them. I almost accidentally bought $30 worth of beets on Sunday (15 pounds might have been overkill) and I saw a little mention somewhere about beets with curry spices which might be on the menu next. By the way, the sweet potato taco thing ended up on everyone's plate the day after I tried it and everyone (except Evelyn, go figure) liked it. The beets I'm keeping to myself for the moment. Because, really, I don't want to share.
Do you have any root veg as a main dish recipes that you like? Share, please!
