The Common Mommy Denominator: Time in the Kitchen

Yeah, so...I'm mildly obsessive. (When I say mildly, what I mean is generally.) But the thing is, my favorite stalls at the farmer's markets are the Mediterranean Food stops where I can buy flatbread (or pitas, depending), tzatziki, cucumber salad, hummus, what-have-you. Oh, and I have a thing for beautiful veggies. I'm not talking beautiful in appearance...I'm talking about small farm organic yumminess beautiful. (Don't get me started...let's just say I believe it in.)

And lately I've been thinking to myself, why am I buying this stuff premade when I could do it on my own?!

I know, I know, because it's easier. Yes, that's true...but it costs a HECKUVA lot more for much less than you'd get if you made it.

Case in point: Cucumber salad. What is it? Put simply, my favorite fresh prepackaged salad, consisting of the following: peeled, seeded, drained and diced cucumber, diced tomato, chopped green onions, minced garlic, salt, pepper, a shot of vinegar, and a drizzle of EVOO. And it's $4 for about a half pound at the FM. So I bought myself a couple of cukes, a good sized tomato, and a bunch of green onions (of which I used 3), chopped up some garlic I already had, and used the artisanal olive oil and a touch of red wine vinegar in my cupboard with some freshly ground pepper and freshly ground sea salt to make...you guessed it!...Cucumber salad. About 8 cups of the stuff. For about $4. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm.

Did I say Yum? 'Cuz what I meant was UUUUGHRRGHGHGHAAAGGHGHHH. (Think Homer Simpson.)

So what else? Well, I had to try making my own flatbread...and though they came out okay, they were too salty and not fluffy enough. Back to the drawing board on that one.

Then there was the tzatziki; Greek yogurt + finely crumbled feta + minced garlic + more peeled, salted and drained diced cucumber = Tzatziki heaven.

Oh, and hummus: plain hummus, artichoke hummus, and jalapeno-cilantro hummus thus far, but I think I need to use less tahini paste. And for those of you wondering what the heck tahini paste is, it's basically roasted sesame seed paste, like peanut butter with a funky flavor. (Come to think of it, for those wondering what hummus is, it's Mediterranean bean dip made from garbanzo beans, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and water to thin it down a bit...plus anything else you want to put into it, as, in my case, either chopped artichoke hearts or pickled jalapenos and chopped cilantro.) I'm still learning on that one, too, but it's worked out okay so far! (Why didn't I take any pictures?!)

Been on a serious soup kick later...from Flapper Food's Italian Wedding Soup (Butterfly Soup to the kids, who think bowtie pasta is butterfly pasta) to any number of veggie bisques.

The most recent ones are pictured here and range from Squash and Corn soup (Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, and Summer Squash with onion and garlic and all sorts of Southwestern-y spices, plus a can of whole kernel drained yellow corn) to Zucchini Soup

(my new classic standby, this as zucchini-y as I could make it!) to Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup...I knew a guy who served a mission in Italy and made pasta sauce with red pepper and tomato and onion, and then added cinnamon. Sounds super-weird, I know, but it's oddly yummy and makes a great soup!

Finally, of course, there is pesto. I've never been willing to try to make it because Buitoni makes this phenomenal pesto

and I couldn't stand the idea that mine wouldn't be as good...not to mention I own a BLENDER, and it seemed that a blender couldn't possibly work as well as a food processor or - the preferred method - a mortar and pestle (which I wouldn't have the strength or patience for, anyway), so I've never tried...until I had this giant basil surplus, and realized I own a veritable tankard of Greek Kalamata

Olive Oil, and that ages ago my mom gave me some walnuts that have been hanging out in the back of the fridge, and I had that garlic, and some fresh grated Parmesan, and...well, I was out of excuse and needed to use of the basil before it went south. Whoda thunk a blender could churn out such awesome stuff?!?! Not to mention it's the single most beautiful batch of GREEN I've ever seen! That, and all told, with what I "needed" to buy, I spent...$1 on 8 oz of pesto! (It's about $6 for the same amount in the store!)

So...there's the food front. (I made zucchini bread too, but that's nothing special, all things considered, and not a "staple" that I decided to make myself.) I'm going to try the flatbread again once I find a better recipe, and in the meantime, I'll be sucking down veggie soup at a rate of 16 oz a day (great way to get the kids to love veggies!) and swirling pesto into those soups when I'm not stirring it into hot pasta...folding tzatziki into pitas with a schmear of hummus...spooning cucumber salad on top of lettuce and drizzling it all with more oil and vinegar...and just generally enjoying my homemade yums.