What we eat when we eat alone

I think about this topic a lot.  Ever since I was a little kid I have had certain rituals around food, most of which involve eating alone.  Even as an adult I have relished nights when I cook only for myself, since I can indulge in my own strange culinary whims.  Or at least I thought they were strange until I stumbled upon a charming little book by Deborah Madison, in which she shares anecdotes and recipes from a myriad of people she has met over the years, talking about the meals they make when they eat alone.  Moral of the story: people have complex, varied, and often bizarre relationships with food.

In elementary school, I remember walking home from school and watching cartoons for the 30 minutes or so before my mom got home from teaching across town.  I would do some mental calculations of how many cookies I could take from the snack drawer without my mom noticing.  The best cookies were chocolate sandwich cookies with chocolate filling, and I would break each one into quarters, letting each piece dissolve in my mouth to make it last longer.  If there weren't any cookies I would climb up on the counter and search through cupboards for my mom's "secret" chocolate stash.

Once I learned to use the oven, my go-to food when I was alone became homemade parmesan breadsticks.  I can't remember where I found the recipe, but I made it so many times over the years that it's stuck in my head. A dough of flour, baking powder, salt, and milk baked in a pool of melted butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Totally unhealthy, but the perfect comforting crunchy carbs.  (True story: I attempted to veganize this recipe this weekend for old time's sake with less satisfying, but equally calorie-intensive results)

When we moved to California and Kevin started traveling a fair amount for work, I relied heavily on the Trader Joe's freezer section... things like garlic fries, Parmesan Pastry Pups, and frozen pizza.  The mix of comfort and indulgence made being alone a couple weeks a month seem fun and exciting, but it also made my jeans not fit very well.

Now eating alone usually involves finishing leftovers, concocting meals from any remaining CSA veggies or making a meal that I like but Kevin doesn't.

Kevin was out of town this past weekend for a bike race in Modesto, and then he drove down to Santa Barbara for meetings on Monday.  With 4 days to myself, I planned some meals, and tried to whittle down the stash of leftovers in our freezer.

Quinoa with braised pattypan squash and green pepper/onion/shallot tomato sauce:

Random leftover veggies

All mixed together!

Roasted vegetables with balsamic thyme reduction, over quinoa (can you tell Kevin doesn't like quinoa?):

Fennel, spring onions,  artichoke hearts, carrots, radishes, zucchini,
pattypan squash, red potatoes, eggplant. 

I think I got every possible vegetable in there.

While Kevin was gone I also started packing for our anniversary trip Hawaii next week

What?  It was only a week early!

On Saturday I went for a hike on Mt. Tam with my dear friend Niki.  It was a beautiful day, nice trail, and a great chance to catch up!

What a view!

On Sunday, I went down to Marina Green to watch the start of the final stage of the Tour of California bike race.  It was a bit anticlimactic, because they passed by so fast that I couldn't really pick anyone out.  Then I went for a 50 mile bike ride with a group from Sports Basement, a local REI type store.  I forgot to put sunscreen on under my arm warmers so I got an epic inner arm sunburn after I took the arm warmers off early on in the ride.

Dressing room sunburn photo!  I added that dress to my packing pile.

We leave for Hawaii for a week on Saturday, which happens to be our 5 year anniversary.  Prepare yourself for beachy pictures and stories when I return.   :)