COOKING AT THE CASA

Remember a little over a year ago when we were eating Paleo and I had lost 30 pounds and was excited by the weight loss, but wasn't feeling better from my severe GERD? And then I stopped eating Paleo, but continued to eat mostly gluten-free because I realized that when I eat gluten my joints swell and my body aches? Well, since then I've gained back all of the weight I lost and then some. I eat carbs now, but pretty much those found in things like cheese, beans, fruit, etc. I still don't eat bread or baked goods, and I've only had pasta once or twice this year that I can recall. The last time I had Acme bread was back in March when we ate at Chez Panisse for Alan's birthday. And yet I continue to get fatter and fatter. Interestingly enough, while being fat and ugly used to push me into a deep dark depression, I'm feeling okay about myself. In fact, I'm probably as happy as I've ever been. Do I wish I was tall and thin? Yes. But even if I went on an extreme weight loss plan, I will NEVER be thin. So I may as well be as healthy as I can, while embracing the body shape that I was given via my DNA. (I'm looking at you Jones genes.)

What does any of this have with cooking? Nothing really, except that I generally love to eat, and have been doing a lot of cooking around the casa. Our kitchen here at the condo is smaller than the kitchen at our old house, but it also seems better set up. I still haven't mastered the oven, and I'm completely convinced that it doesn't actually bake at the temperature indicated on the digital thermometer, but whatever.

Stuffed cabbage

Pork chop, radish & fennel salad, polenta

salmon & potato salad

Italian eggplant & sausage

Salad with fried egg on top

Seared tuna salad

Salmon & potato salad

Taco burger

Shrimp summer roll

Shredded carrot salad

The salmon & potato salad is a combination we threw together one night based on what we had on hand, and we liked it so much that we've made it again since. In fact, it's what's on tap for dinner tonight. The stuffed cabbage is a recipe I've made twice this year, using our crock pot. It takes a lot of prep time what with rolling the cabbage, but it's great because there are always leftovers. The sauce I used with the eggplant is from a huge batch I made earlier this summer and froze. We still have one meal's worth left of it and I'm sure Alan will ask me to make zucchini lasagna (we use zucchini instead of lasagna noodles). The seared tuna salad was a splurge since the tuna was more expensive than I normally like to spend, but it tasted magnificent. The salad with egg on top is something that I eat at least once a week for lunch (most of the time it's leftovers from the night before).