Today, I was on a mission. After spending the morning doing work-related things, I went out in search for affordable cookware to replace the baking dish which had exploded a couple of weeks ago into smithereens and to purchase a nice, large stew pot, for the purpose of making soup, or dry beans in a stew the right way (winter is almost out of sight and those beans have to be cooked!).I also envisioned a tiered fruit basket because the counter of our bar had been long obscured by produce bags of apples, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and bananas. Well, today was definitely a great day for accomplishing something. I came out with a 6-1/2 quart Calphalon pot, a 9x 13″ covered baking pan, a basting brush, a can-opener, and a two tiered fruit basket for a great price. Not bad.

I’m preparing to have a few high school girls that I know over for a sleepover, and what sleepover doesn’t involve comfort food? So, I felt obliged to hurry up and prepare for warm, delicious wintry foods.

All that walking and considering of my purchases merged into considerations of dinner (which, as you can gather from my last post, began as I was heading home with purchases in tow). I inspected the condition of the long tube of garlic bulbs I’d purchased a couple of weeks ago, and decided today I’d use it.

 

~ A simple, flavorful and light dinner ~

[directions, if any, are embedded within the ingredient list]

Salad

1 cucumber, de-seeded and chopped into chunks

1 roma tomato, chopped

1-3/4 oz mozzarella ball, chopped

1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 3 of olive oil, 1/8 tsp grated parmesan cheese = dressing

 

Pasta

• 1/2 pound whole wheat organic pasta, cooked

• 1 whole bulb of garlic

– take outer skin off

– chop 1/4 inch off the top of all the heads of garlic

– drizzle olive oil onto the tops and smooth over the surface if necessary

– wrap in aluminum foil

– roast at 400degrees for 35 minutes

– mash the roasted garlic

• toss garlic with the drained pasta, drizzle olive oil over pasta, sprinkle grated Parmesan liberally over pasta, and freshly grind black peppercorns over the pasta dish.

 

Delicioso.

[food-related]

One thing I liked about New York was the fact that there are so many little family-owned markets, reminiscent to me of every other place that I’ve been to, except for the U.S. of A., where we thrive on and even export to places like Sao Paolo, Brasil our Super Wal-Marts. If there was one down the street, that would be nice. Also, another food-related aspect of NYC that I like is that there are so many little delicatessens, bakeries, and ethnic fooderies (did I just make that one up?) that cover the city with all 5 of its boroughs. I believe it would not be possible to visit each one before another came or went out from the city.I never really appreciated the omnipresence of delis prior to my trip. You can get 5 garlic-basil knots for $1.25, which is just enough to tide over enormous waves of hunger. And, there’s never a moment that you have to be without coffee. Be comforted: you won’t have to pull out the iphone app that helps you find the nearest Starbucks 🙂