We just got back from a wonderfully lovely week in Vermont where we didn’t actually eat as many greens as I’m used to, or as many whole grains. And before that I was at a conference in Cambridge, which added up to nearly two weeks away for me. Neighbor Onion not only picked up our CSA share last week but actually brought it upstairs for us.  Seriously a wonderous thing to come home from vacation to find fresh greens (and strawberries and radishes) in your refrigerator.

I’m stuck on the worlds most simple cabbage recipe because usually when I have cabbage (which, thankfully, I won’t for months to come!) I just want some way to eat it already. So we did this:

I made some red quinoa by heating up a few tablespoons of olive oil (I’d say just one but I know I used more than that) with two cloves of garlic and then adding the quinoa (rinsed many times over, which gets rid of the bitterness) and stirring that around in the hot oil until I got bored, added water and slammed the lid down. I managed to get both the water to grain ratio and the timing just right, which is the kind of scary miracle that will turn me into a grandmother tout-de-suite (the kind of grandmother who will give you a pie crust recipe that she’s used for decades and never mention that in fact she always uses half butter and half crisco and no where near as much water as the recipe calls for, which is why your crusts won’t turn out. Secretly, though, now that I think about it, neither of my own grandmothers ever gave me a single recipe.)

I did the vitamin greens orangette style: greens, sambal olek (from Tracie’s pantry, which she emptied into my care in exchange for J-ro picking up her mail and watering her plants. A great arrangement in my book. Not sure how J-ro feels.) some soy sauce in a frying pan. Just to keep things classy I garnished it with toasted slivered almonds (because we had them) and one sliced hard boiled egg (same logic).

It was super simple, and vitamin greens might be too bitter to swap out for cabbage but it made me really happy to be home, cooking whatever I want.

PS. We did buy a shiny new camera but I haven’t worked out any habits about actually using it before dinner is over. Sorry.  I’ll get there