A Look Back at Today's Meals

Inconveniently timed meals and an afternoon bout of lassitude that quashed all desire to cook combined to make today's eating experience a little unsatisfying.

I puttered around too long this morning, postponing breakfast (yogurt w/fruits and nuts, of course, and tea) until later than usual, so I wasn't hungry enough for a real meal when my window of opportunity for lunch rolled around.  So, before heading uptown for my voice lesson, I grabbed a couple slices of sourdough, toasted them, and slathered them with PB and butter, respectively.
This snack — wonderful-tasting, but ultimately not all that nourishing — was insufficient to last me until dinner.  Sadly, after grocery shopping in a surprisingly-for-Monday-afternoon-crowded Whole Foods followed by walking the dogs in the chilly dampness, I didn't feel like digging in to the pasta bake with eggplant and homemade tomato sauce I'd just bought the ingredients for.  (Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion to that story. . .unless I get hit with another case of the afternoon lazies.)

So, too hungry to last until after my final student of the day (who leaves at 8 pm), I gave in around 4 pm and heated up a plate of left-over mélange with olive oil, cubes of artisanal garrotxa cheese (don't ask me how this is pronounced, but I'll report that it's delightfully sourish, a bit on the goaty side, but not too much), and a sprinkling of my favorite salt.  I can't tell you what brand I mean, because I put the remaining salt into an unlabeled container after soaking the label off the jar to use it to hold a gift of homemade chutney I gave my mom at Xmas.

Of course, having eaten "dinner" at 4, I will be ravenous again after teaching.  I'll probably have another slice of the sourdough or perhaps a whole-wheat naan that I bought recently during a rare excursion to Trader Joe's.  (2 whole avenues away, or a light-year by NYC standards of convenience.  But they do have killer sourdough, as it turns out, as well as the best commercial peanut butter I've tasted, made with only organic peanuts and the exact right amount of sea salt.)  Sadly, we are out of Amish milk until our pick-up on Wednesday evening, so whatever evening snack I have will have to be accompanied by the grass-fed, organic whole milk I bought at Whole Foods to tide us over for the next 2 days.  (It's pretty good, but a little too rich for my taste and "cooked-tasting" from the pasteurization.)

Or maybe I'll just have a slug of bourbon......

In closing, a pic from today's shopping trip, showing my favorite feature at Whole 

Foods — the cheese-ends basket!!!