A prolonged absence

Well! Certainly it has been a long time between posts. So much has happened. I cooked, I went to Chicago, I moved houses. From the first two, I'll eventually catch up and post some of the things I made and ate. For the latter, we have finally moved though not quite moved in. There is much to unpack and find again. I'm adjusting to a new kitchen. The flat top is electric, as is the oven. So far, I've found that both heat up very well. But more on that later.

This is the first dinner I made in the new house. We had just moved (furniture, most boxes with the movers) the week before. Nothing was at our fingertips but we had been eating out every night. Josh defrosted an angus sirloin flap and I prepared the last of the PRFM veggies we had in the fridge. I made the whole dinner out on the Egg. It has been a while since we used the Egg so some of the veggies got a little over-crisp. I made a nice chimichurri to go with the meat. It was nice to eat at home.

Here is the second dinner, made two weeks later. It was a weeknight, and Josh defrosted this kobe coulotte. My parents had come to help move and clean so Josh had gone to the PRFM market Saturday morning alone. Among other things, he picked up these broccoli crowns and zucchini.

Dinner #3. An Eden Farms pork rack. I seared off the meat in the cast iron on the stove. It got a luscious color from the direct heat. Then I put it into the oven, which I think had never been used before based on the smell. The meat thermometers are all still packed and I had no idea what temperature the oven was truly registering at since I hadn't bought an oven thermometer yet, so I was very worried about the meat. All in all, I think it was about 15 or 20 minutes. And as you can see, the meat came out just beautifully. Along with the magnificent pork, we had roasted kale and still more of those McMullan carrots from the CSA. I also roasted up some of the leftover zucchini from our Whole Foods dinner with my parents.

Lastly, I made a quick salad with some mixed McMullan greens and some of their tomatoes. The champagne vinegar appears to be missing, so I went with burgundy instead.

It had been a long time since we have been to the market. And it was surreal since there was a special event at the cathedral on Saturday, so the market fell on Friday night. We handled it quickly, stopping in at McMullan and Burge, plus saying hi at Riverview and peeking in at some of the new vendors who have showed up since we've been. We picked up these pretty tomatoes, two heads of butter lettuce, four cukes (for $5), and a bag of baby zucchini from McMullan. I also meant to get a pint of luscious cherry tomatoes, but I apparently didn't have enough hands and forgot them.

From Burge, we picked up broccoli, potatoes, filet beans, radishes, spring onions, and blackberries. We'll eat well this week! Last night, we stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home from dinner and I bought several plants to pot. Among them, basil, cilantro, Italian parsley, mint, rosemary. No chives to be found. I'm still looking. And then a selection of succulents which all looked pretty.