In Which I Enter The Kitchen

So, I did decide that $13 is not too much to pay for grocery delivery. However, when I went on the Safeway website to set up my order, I noticed that a lot of what I buy is not prepackaged stuff or time saving things, but exotic ingredients, spices and vegetables. All that I can get so much cheaper it kills me to pay Safeway's prices. And Aces says she'd be happy to take me places in return for Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee, or even just to leave the house. However, it would be great to have someone bring me a case of Coke and a watermelon. I still have to think on this.

I have been on an experimental cooking jag, which means I have been making new recipes, not that I have been all Alinea At Home.

Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing was good and will be made again to use up the $10 tub of white miso I had to buy to make it. I also made Ginger Pudding with it, and Aces really liked it. It wasn't even a good batch! I used the crystallized ginger from Sprouts that wasn't dried into nice chips, and forgot that the last step on that recipe is WRONG. You have to cook it on high heat to get it to set and thicken. It spilled all over the fridge and is still there. You know I am Katrina Fridge Kerry--don't look too close.

I also made my not particularly famous, but very delicious, vegan potato salad last week.

I also made this Fennel Red Pepper Salad last night for lunches this week. My main modification was to use the garlic olive oil Aces brought me from California. I am trying to put together the Cherry Cornmeal Cake (Sprouts had cherries for 99 cents this week--I bought 3 bags), but am stymied by the fact that I know I have a cherry pitter, but I have no clue where it is. I also have a wheat berry carrot and cumin salad to make, and some Turkish bulgar cherry pilaf to use up my bazillion pounds of cherries.

We need family dinner sometime soon. I have also been thinking about making some of the recipes from my mom's old Trader Vic's cookbook, the one that covers the exotic foods of Hawaii, Polynesia, Asia and...Mexico and Texas. A true mid century marvel.