yum

My coworker Angela gave me some onion and roasted jam that she made and canned the other day. It was so CUTE, compact and nestled in a little jar, curled up in all its own caramelized goodness. We'd talked before of recession specials, making gifts edible and inedible. I went the inedible route and she got to work making jams and butter after hauling 25 pounds of jam jars home on the subway and canned every one of her jams.

I am a moderate consumer of garlic and a light consumer of onion. Angela, however is an ardent garlic fan. I wasn't sure I was ready for this yet - she had only just talked about an over consumption of garlic on her part, which she never thought was possible. I opened the jar and whole cloves of garlic starred back at me. Surrounded in the onion mix, it looked like edible amber. I scooped up a little in a teaspoon and tasted it and was completely bowled over. It was unexpectedly sweet and tangy and garlicky....almost like a spiced mango chutney but with a lot of kick. And to top it off, when showed me the labels she made and I might have melted from cute and tasty overload.

if garlic cloves were a rating system, i'd give her jam a whole head of garlic (which probably is the amount of garlic in one jar).

back in the groove?

i've been in california, land of bounty, laden with fresh produce. i was so excited..maybe i'd make something delicious, maybe i'd raid a farmers market, maybe i'd whip up some applesauce, maybe i'd make a cake...but instead, my body kicked into vacation mode allowed itself the luxury of being tired. i stuffed a large cinnamon roll into my mouth...mmm this is sooo good. i asked my aunt how she made it but she refused to tell me. 2 days later, i walked buy a freezer at sam's club and saw pilsbury cinnamon rolls....aw crap....did this mean my toiling and cooking, baking and rolling had really been for nothing if mass produced baked goods could more than convincingly pass off as homemade? i might sneak a grocery store survey into my week. and maybe sneak home some dough boy cinnamon rolls.

a couple days ago, i quickly slipped into a cafe and ordered some pesto linguine vongle and slurped it up. it was so easy...maybe i should give up cooking and eat out again? the frozen tortellini in the freezer wasn't THAT bad. today at the farmers market, i was freezing cold. why was i even here? it wasn't even the week i was planning on making a love stewed ragu and maybe after my california adventure, maybe i wouldn't even bother with these ragu shennanigans. i begrudgingly picked out some shallots. not only was it hurting my hands to pick them and pay for them, they would hurt my eyes later when i cut them. 2 pounds of apples to weigh me down....did i really want apple butter this week? might as well grab a bag of spinach. and OOF a load of potatoes. i was getting grouchier by the minute. at this point, what was another half pound of mushrooms? i thought about my fridge at home....there was nothing in it. this meant that when i got home, i'd actually have to MAKE FOOD. like my 15 pounds of produce would magically make itself.

i washed my spinach, brushed the oyster mushrooms, cut some garlic, put the fresh whole wheat pasta in the pot, half moping. i sauteed the garlic, spinach and mushrooms in olive oil and a sliver of butter. i couldn't smell anything. my nose has been blocked for the past week. more pepper. i dished it out and spun around, grabbed my parmesean from the fridge and swiftly grated it over the food.

still waiting to smell something amazing.

nothing.

oh well. here we go. i take one bite and wolfed the rest down. it was delicious. and lovely. and took less than 10 minutes to make. and Mario Batali has almost the same recipe. i'm back in the kitchen. for another 2 weeks. then i'll switch over to island time, shave ice, poké and poi.