The boys have no school today through Friday. Steve took off this Friday and next Monday. Last night, we greedily divided up that time and made plans.

Spaghetti and meatballs for new friends on Saturday night, pizza with old friends on Thursday. On Friday, I want a food adventure in New York City. I want to try something weird and ethnic and local and hand crafted and artisanal and made by a bearded man with disturbing facial tattoos. We’ll probably drive out to Brooklyn for that. As I’m writing this down, I’m realizing that a lot of my plans involve eating. Which also means that I’ll better fit in some time for raking leaves and running on the treadmill.

This pepper crusted tuna looks awesome. I haven’t made tuna at home, but I love it in restaurants. Need to change that.

I cooked a lot this summer, but I don’t think I blogged about it. My current kitchen has terrible light and dark 80’s cabinets, so it’s super hard to take good photographs of food. I’ve tried.

Thanks to my CSA, I learned how to cook about a dozen new vegetables and we have doubled the amount of vegetables in our diet. I sometimes make three or four different vegetable dishes in one night. Yes, it’s time-consuming. If you include clean up time, I might spend 3 hours in the kitchen. Am I insane? Did you know that it is socially acceptable to drink wine, while you’re cooking?

And thanks to having a large extended Italian-American family, I often cook large amounts of food. And thanks to being cheap, I can feed 20 people for $20. Honestly, I’m all set for the apocalypse or the collapse of the global economy.

What did I cook this summer? Delicata squash, acorn squash, butternut squash (roasted, steamed, pureed),  fish tacos, roasted cauliflower, curried cauliflower, steamed cauliflower, stuffed eggplant, grilled eggplant, fish with eggplant/tomatoes/capers , eggplant with tomatoes/feta, corn fritters, beets with goat cheese, and dozens of other dishes. I made up a few new ones. I made a ridiculous chicken and root vegetable pot roast last week. Ridiculous. I should take pictures and write it all down.

I need to write a blog post about yesterday’s elections, but I have two mewing children in the background who have been promised eggs and bacon at the diner. I may not have enough time. Yes, the Apt. 11D folks love food.