craved

I’m a meal planner (to a sometimes obsessive degree) but sometimes you just have to maaaaaake what you crave.

I think that’s perhaps why Sunday brunch is my favorite meal. I don’t eat before church, I arrive home a Starvin’ Marvin, and I make absolutely whatever I feel like. As long as you have eggs in the fridge, pancake mix in the pantry, and bread on your counter or even in your freezer, brunch is your oyster (no I don’t mean oysters for brunch, unless you go to one of those awesome hotel ones that have raw bars. I was citing the world is your oyster metaphor. Roll with it).

This week my brain went FRENCH TOAST!

And I realized it’d been far too long since I had french toast. So I whirred up some farmer’s market eggs with a splash of milk, vanilla, and cinnamon, and dredged some bread (straight from freezer to toaster!) in it. Skiddled and skedaddled (no idea what that phrase means).

Topped, for good measure, with strawberries, a wee drizzle of maple syrup, and pecans.

     

So much sweet and delicious! I had it with black coffee ;D

Another craving. Somewhat alarming: I arrived home Saturday night and realized that summer was basically over (SOB!) and I had yet to eat any deviled eggs (GASP!). I quickly, quickly remedied that.

Beautiful fresh farmer’s market eggs, hard cooked (cover eggs with cold water, bring just to a simmer, simmer one minute, remove pan from heat and cover, let sit 13 minutes, and drain and rinse. Flawless).

Peeled them (a total pain- oh fresh eggs, you are a coy mistress), then halfed them and mixed up the yolks with fresh chives, capers, mustard, yes mayo (I hate it on its own but you can’t have deviled eggs without it! I only use a little, though). Topped with paprika, OBVIOUSLY.

I’d had a large, delicious lunch at Tackle Box and as a result really just wanted nibbley dinner. I love nibbley dinner. We already had yummy nibbley deviled eggs, so I made a carb plate:

Crackers ‘n homemade tortilla chips, and then got out things to dunk them in:

Chimichurri and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome smoked salmon dip from the farmer’s market. It is so light and fluffy. I am choosing to believe that there is less cream cheese in it than there actually is. I am thinking of it as nutritionally equivalent to a fish oil supplement. If you want to tell me otherwise, I will stick my fingers in my ears and hum a song. It is SO good.

And though nibbley dinner is fun, you do want it to be nutritionally sound. Fortunately, we had GORGEOUS fresh veggies, including these lovely and graceful green beans.

I came home Saturday to discover both these and FRESH ARUGULA (who knew you could still get it in September?!) in my house. Score.

A salad was quickly made, dressed simply with olive oil and lemon juice.

          

Getting ready for lunch on Monday, I really didn’t want to give it a great deal of thought.

What could be simpler than a PBJ?

Mine was, of course, considerably classed up. We begin with the BREAD!

My enormously helpful mother said this was “Celtic or something” and made of “some” whole grain with “some other kind of grain too”.

No idea what’s in it but it’s homemade, it’s fresh, and it’s delicious. A bit sweetish!

Classed up my fillings with delightful Costco MaraNatha (the only way this stuff is remotely affordable) and the delightful and crap-free Smuckers Simply Fruit preserves, in blackberry.

Rounded out the meal with a salad, a Yopes and a wonderful local plummy.

  

The salad is more or less an exact repeat of the dinner salad, though I did cut the super-intense arugula with some spring mix we already had open (I don’t know if late in the season arugula is more peppery?!).

I am still ROCKIN my repurposed take-out-container-turned-salad-dressing-holder. Just olive oil and lemon juice!

It was a stellar lunch. I’d forgotten how PBJ can just HIT THE SPOT.