What We Ate: 5/31- 6/6

We survived a rather unusually cold and rainy weekend. Monday, but it's Memorial Day, and all the food pages are telling us what to cook for our summer kick-off. I think we should be grilling, but we're not big on grilling. I'm not really sure how we decided it, but somehow we settled on our curry fries (inspired by a pub in Bentonville, AR of all places), Indian-ish Nachos and Mango with chili lime salt. Then we decided to make this Chocolate Creme Pie, but because I was rushing it failed in spectacular fashion. Like I had to take it outside and put it in the bin spectacularly. Thankfully, I remembered this Chocolate Ganache Tart that is easy and delicious. In fact, this nut crust is one of my favorite crusts ever. I remember when I made it ages ago saying that I needed to make it for my aunt who is gluten intolerant. My aunt was here for three weeks and I never once thought of this tart until a few days after she left. Oh well. There's always next time. 

Tuesday. It was just me and the lad. I spent the hour before I needed to cook doing workouts in the living room while idly thinking about all the weird bits and bobs that were floating around in the fridge. By the time I was ready to cook I was also starving. So gnocchi, white beans, spinach and sausage it was. Easy peasy. 

The last day of EOG testing for Nuala is today, Wednesday. Which means that technically she had her last day of school except for tomorrow's graduation. Since it was her lucky day, she got to pick dinner which was Chile-Oil Noodles with Cilantro. We also gave it a hefty squish of lime because lime makes everything better. 

Thursday was Nuala's actual graduation. Lunch was at Sticks and Stones, our local pizza place. We ordered a lot and ate a lot at lunch. At dinner time we were still stuffed, but somewhat peckish so it was a charcuterie kind of night. 

Friday. I'm not going to lie. Friday is hazy. We went to my mom's pool and then came home and I grilled chicken. It was supposed to be ginger-lime, but it wasn't very potent. The chicken, however, was exceedingly moist, but it lacked in flavor. We did the same with tofu. 

One of my favorite parts of weekends in Summer is making dinner that's not really cooking. More like throwing together bits and bobs that are rolling around in the fridge or fancily plating whatever farmer's market or garden procurements have made their way into our kitchen. Saturday was that kind of dinner. I remember old beets and new carrots. I think there might have been bread and carrot top pesto. Maybe sausage? 

On Sunday I put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot with barbecue sauce and made some extra sauce to cook up with tofu later in the day. We headed north to walk along a troublesome town in southern Virginia where we met Watts at Ballard Brewing. I like the idea of this town. I like how they're trying to revitalize it. But I don't like that we walked by a confederate rally claiming the election of 2020 was a lie. 

There's something troubling all of the time for me about living in the south. I know people love it. I know wonderful people who have called it home their whole lives, but it's never felt like home for me. Like a sweater that is just too tight or too big or too scratchy, I feel like goldilocks without the just right. Someday I'll be back in a place that feels like home. Someday.