use real butter

Recipe: citrus cordial

If you shop like me, you try to eat something before you hit the store(s) and you try to shop responsibly. That means picking up foods that are both delicious and good for you as well as economically unstupid (economically stupid = picking up two heirloom tomatoes at Whole Foods and watching your partner’s eyes pop out of their head when they ring up to $8). I generally try to buy a lot of produce because it’s good for you. Those bags or flats of fruit from Costco are a great deal, except when you can’t consume them quickly enough before they spoil.

I hate to let good food rot for no good reason, but now my citrus doesn’t have to – ever. My dear friend, Kell, shared this brilliant idea with me several months back. It sucks that she’s all the way in Australia, but I love that we keep in touch electronically with all sorts of food ideas and other snarky observations about people, life, and politics. She’s amazing, and so is this cordial. I suppose cordial is a nice fancy British Commonwealth term for what we uncultured Yanks would call syrup *grins and exposes gap tooth*

I know that some people refuse to eat leftovers, and I have nothing but pity (okay, some disdain too) for them. I look forward to eating leftovers assuming the first time around was pretty good which is more often than not. I planned out our menu last week so that I’d have plenty of food to last until we left town. Well, we have plenty – or rather, I have plenty.

Jeremy left this morning for two back to back conferences on the east coast. I packed up some lunch for him and dropped him off at the park and ride. I make a point of trying to eat the things that need to be eaten first – things that will spoil versus foods that will keep. Jeremy is refrigerator-stupid for such a brilliant scientist and if left to pack his own lunch will either take the first thing within sight (perhaps a slice of cake even) or something like a frozen tamale while a salad languishes not eight inches away. So it’s usually left to me to finish things off accordingly and I was standing there this afternoon realizing that I have a veritable shitload of red beans and rice, and Chinese stir-fried rice to polish off before I leave on Thursday.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: beet salad

I love beets. I mean *love* beets. I rarely think to cook them since Jeremy is the limiting factor on the range of foods we eat (he’s getting better – you should have seen him at the tender age of 19 when we met). But while I was walking through Whole Foods the other day, I was dazzled by their produce section. That’s why they put it right in front of the doors – so parrots like me will make a beeline for the rows of beautiful produce stacked perfectly enough to make you forget you are paying Way Too Much. I always find it amusing (or downright aggravating, take your pick) that we pay extra money for foods without chemicals and other things that Monsanto likes to add to our foods. Where was I, oh yes, in the beets aisle. I grabbed a bunch of gold and regular beets.

I’m a beet novice and didn’t realize you could cook the greens too. By the time I read about this wonderful use for the tops, I had already sent them to the compost bin in my over-eagerness to cook and clean up at the same time. Damn me.