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I took a huge zucchini from Mitsuwa, cut it into eighths, tossed it with a little bit of canola oil, sprinkled on some ginger and garlic and cayenne, and roasted it at 375 for 15 minutes.

It’s sitting on a bed of whole wheat spaghetti with some ponzu and peanut sauce.

I brought it in here to eat while I watched season 3 of 30 Rock and used a dishtowel as a trashy trivet. Before long, lo and behold:

Today’s post is brought to you by these directions on the back of some rice vermicelli! I don’t know what they say but do you see the number 5 in there? That’s what I decided was the cook time.

The noodles were to pair with some curry I winged after realizing the mix I bought was full of dairy products.

Since my cat holds my interest more than many events in my own life, here’s something that made me laugh loudly off and on all evening. See, from this side, everything looks fine. You’re like, “Who cares? That’s not a paper bag, this cat isn’t being funny at this moment.”

But wait! A simple 180 later . . . Do you see it? Do you see my remote control sitting lengthwise under one side of my cat?

WHAT IS SHE DOING? CLEARLY IT IS FUN FOR HER BUT WHY? I can’t answer these questions.

Now that we’re in the back half of Mofo I’m doing some heavy thinking about what I should do once October ends. But more on that some other day, I got 13 left.

This weekend began Friday night with a beautiful dinner at Karyn’s Cooked. I had the steak wrap. My compadres had various other delicious looking things, and almost everyone had wine or a beer with dinner. I, of course, had to finish off the meal with the insane, brain-exploding bread pudding. This dinner was large enough that I took half home and made a second meal of it. I was out the door for $15.

Saturday I hauled booty out to Mitsuwa hoping for my favorite, favorite pickled vegetable maki, but it was too early and there weren’t any out yet. I settled for cucumber and avocado maki and some inari — fried tofu wrapped around rice.

Mitsuwa’s produce is varied and usually much cheaper than at neighboring American grocery stores. I picked up a veritable bounty and am not sure even what I want to do with all of it now, but what a wonderful problem to have, amirite?

Then last night after finally wandering out of my friend Lindsey‘s birthday / housewarming party I dropped a buddy off in Old Irving and remembered, with a big beautiful grin, that French fries are vegan. Especially the big beautiful skin-ons from Susie’s, my favorite fast food place in the history of everywhere.

I have a couple of things to return to stores out in the suburbs today, and may, in fact, check back at Mitsuwa for the pickled vegetable maki I wanted yesterday.

I’m sorry, foods in this bad cell phone photo, you don’t come off very well here.

Today I am eating some really HUGE wonderful seedless black grapes, and some equally huge, equally wonderful dark chocolate toffee almonds from Whole Foods. (The ingredients listed on the bin were vegan, and I’m taking their word on no confectioner’s glaze.)

I always think it’s funny when we end up eating whole meals of the same color, and in this case, similar colors AND shapes. Especially when this photo makes them look like they’ve already traveled through the digestive process, to be, um, delicate.

This has been a cruddy week here in Aetatauraland. I am broke as a joke, kind of bummed out about some stuff in my personal life, and in a poor humor.

But never fear! Broccoli is here. Remember the other day, the broiling? Well, I don’t have a broiler, and obviously didn’t want to go for mayonnaise, so I improvised.

First a little boiling:

Then a little dijon mustard, a little olive oil, chili powder, curry powder . . .

Tossed it with the broccolis and then let them all bake in a 425 oven for five minutes. Afterward, they were so delicious and I was so quick that this Blair Witch-like blurred vision is all that survived:

As far as the rest of my dinner, I’ve been in a pasta frenzy this week, keeping it relatively in control. Here’s some spinach penne tossed with a mix of tomato paste, pasta water, curry powder, garlic, onions, and chili powder. You’ll notice I went with a chili-curry theme for the evening.

Last night I wasn’t feeling quite ambitious enough for the boil-and-broil broccoli method I posted yesterday. Mostly, I didn’t want to trim and cut up the broccoli, what an effing drag, no thank you.

Instead I went a classic route. You’ll need a bunch of asparagus, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt.

Trim off the bottoms of the asparagus as far as you see fit. (Save the ends! They are great for making asparagus soup or vegetable stock. Also, the awesome weird rubber bands, I love those.)

Arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet. I use nonstick foil because it’s awesome and I am highly unlikely to scrub on my baking sheet, that much is for sure. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, the same amount of balsamic, and salt to taste.

Throw in a 350 oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it after 10, and pull it when the asparaguses look done.

The new Esquire arrived this week and I didn’t have a chance to read it until today. It contains their 2009 Sexiest Woman Alive (Kate Beckinsale immortalized in a really porny, maudlin interview through no fault of her own), some good times about the Big Lebowski and Stephen King, and then this, in their Best New Restaurants feature:

Their Chef of the Year is Barton Seaver of Blue Ridge in Washington, D.C. He’s an activism-minded young chef and really, seriously, a giant broccoli taking up the whole page? I love it. Here’s his delicious-sounding, easily veganizable broccoli tip:

Broiled vegetables are the future. Simmer broccoli in salted water until it’s soft. Take it out, put it on a cookie sheet, put a drop of mayonnaise on top of each piece, and put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until it’s crispy, even a little burned. Season with salt and pepper. Throw some chili powder on it if you want. Or cumin. It’s awesomely delicious. I can’t make it any easier for you.

Did . . . did he make broccoli sound kind of sexy? Talk amongst yourselves.

In other earth-friendly news, Mew Mew continues to advocate recycling. First, with her friends the paper bags:

And then with a stack of bills and other mail!

Oh ponzu, you were on clearance today at Meijer and I couldn’t have been more glad! Behold the $10 shopping trip:

I imposed the $10 cap since that is all I had. Haha! Desperation breeds good sense! So this particular bottle of ponzu was marked down from $6 to $3. As you may be able to tell, it has no preservatives or MSG, and the ingredients are primarily acids. It’s very low in sodium and has no calories.

Mushrooms and onions went into a heavy-bottom saucepan with about a teaspoon of canola oil and a generous tablespoon of ponzu. I wanted them to just absorb the liquid and steam amongst themselves.

To that I added some grape tomatoes sliced in half lengthwise, which I’d originally prepped for the other day’s pizza, and two tablespoons of barbecue sauce.

I let it cook together on low heat until the liquids came out of the vegetables and reduced. In the meantime, I cooked a half cup of quinoa, which swelled up to about a cup and a half. Uppity little complete protein!

What’s interesting about this dish is that it could go saltier OR sweeter, or maybe even both if you were really getting carried away. It’d be easy to throw in some magic sriracha, some reduced-sodium soy sauce, some pineapple!

Sometime you may be thinking about dinner, and you may think to yourself, “I wonder how delicious it would be if I took a pizza crust and laid on some tomatoes, a lot of freshly roasted garlic, baby bellas, fresh fresh basil, and a generous handful of dried oregano, then draped the top with some thin slices of Teese mozzarella?”

And while they’re baking in the oven, your friend’s dog might think, “I wonder how much fun it would be to make a big mess of myself so that I need an immediate bath? And since I’ll be wet and cold after that, will I get to wear my much-hated sweater when we go outside?”

Well, I think the answer to that sweater question is self evident, as is the question of deliciousness.

Then on the way out I saw this amazing, huge spider with the most beautiful, perfect web. The spider was the size of a quarter.

Talk about things you never think you’ll say.

But seriously.

My coworkers and I both rag on Subway constantly and go there constantly, sometimes for the same reasons:
1. It’s cheap
2. It’s kind of healthy
3. You can get the same thing every single day of your life forever!

But Subway is absolutely transparent about all of their ingredients, the nutritional value of those ingredients, and all the ways they let you choose how healthy or unhealthy your food is, including this comprehensive FAQ on almost all the big dietary restrictions.

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