so here's the story

For all of you who have been complaining that you miss my posts , I just want you to know that my life is so boring that there is nothing to write about. Drudge, drudge, drudge.  This is not a complaint; merely a fact.

I spent 3 hours in my mother's apartment this morning attempting, without success, to tidy it and throw out a lifetime's clutter. In the process, I filled a supermarket cart with, among other things,

• well-made hangers that will replace the thin pieces of wire in my closet that become misshapen as soon as I hang heavy cotton sweaters on them.

• dozens of neatly folded shopping bags from elegant stores no longer in business. One of them had a receipt from 1997 at the bottom (it was mine, from Eileen Fisher. What was it doing in my mother's closet??)  I have their clones in my garage - what am I saving them for?

• an old wooden drying rack that I suppose I will take to my studio, where I do not have room.

 Then I went to the supermarket - the most fun I've had all week because it was not my usual one. Imagine how exciting my life is if going to a different market is the high point of my week.

The fridge was empty because on Monday I heard Melissa Clark, the wonderfully inventive NY Times food columnist talking about her new book, Cook This Now.  She periodically forages through her refrigerator for food about to rot and spontaneously creates imaginative dishes with them.

 Inspired by Melissa's creativity, I opened the vegetable drawer when I got home.  Uh. One hairy carrot,
one shriveled parsnip, a quarter of a cabbage about 3 months old, something green that used to be lettuce, half an onion, four ends of celery root that were turning blue, a few limp brown former stalks of celery and a few other unidentifiable items.  Hmmm... The makings of something.

I threw away the green slime, trimmed the black from the cabbage, the blue from the celery root, and peeled/cut up the other unhappy vegetables.  Then, into the pressure cooker with six cups of water, a variety of dried beans from the pantry; bay leaves, other herbs, salt, pepper, garlic.

 I added some tomato paste, pressure-cooked it for 25 minutes and it was SOUP!! Not bad.(which I always maintain is not the same as good). But it will do.

I feel so virtuous -- so far I have had two soup lunches and have two quarts more in the freezer for the winter.  Now I'm on a roll. After my supermarket trip this afternoon to replenish my vegetables and stock up on meat and canned goods, I will try to be more efficient and maybe even cook ahead. Maybe.
We'll see.

Meantime, as I cut up the pristine cauliflower to roast tonight I noticed all those leaves that I normally throw away and thought, "what can I do with these?"  I sliced them, cut up another half-onion, threw them into a pan with olive oil and a tinch of butter, added salt/pepper/a garlic clove and sautéd them together.  It was delicious.