An unusual season…

Late August and early September have been an unusual moment in my cooking life. At the end of August I had an unexpected dental procedure which required the consumption of “soft” foods for a while. Plus, September brought an extended period of the worst heat of the summer. These two things together made it so I wasn’t much in the mood to eat…or cook.

So in keeping with my notion that what this newsletter is really about is how a professional cook who lives in a small household actually eats at home…I’m just going to share with you some of the things that I made for myself this month. Sadly, there are no nuts in this issue (I didn’t look, but I find it hard to believe that I have ever published a newsletter that didn’t include at least one recipe with nuts). All the foods in this issue qualify as “soft.” And since for the most part I was able to eat normally for the past week or so (still no nuts…), the two main recipes (a pasta and a couscous bowl) will look a lot like my usual fare.

If you haven’t seen my most recent blog post for Fig Leaf Panna Cotta, it was part of my quest for cool, soft foods this month. It is delicious…whether you need soft food, or not.

New to me…

During a conversation with my best friend after my dental procedure, I mentioned the restriction on my diet and she said “you can make smoothies!” And here is where I admit that I had never made a smoothie. (I think this may make me a bit unusual.) When I got off the phone I started looking for some appropriate recipes.

My main criteria for a smoothie I would be willing to make was that it had to include only things that I already had…or would use if I bought (no protein or ”nutritious” powders….no strange seeds/meals…etc.). I ended up making a smoothie almost every day for lunch for a while. I liked the one I finally settled on as “my” smoothie so much, that I even made it for myself for dinner after a long day of work on a particularly hot day (smoothies, as it turns out, are cool and milkshake-like…).

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.