This Week Recap(tured)

Hey All!

So I've had some downs in the past few weeks, feeling those ol' blues again. And they had a different feeling, a kind of 'I know this isn't based on anything specific, so I have to just try to wait it out" feeling, which doesn't do much when you are feeling powerless in general. I also started binge-eating, a new and not-good symptom. (Since when do I buy Hershey bars? That chocolate is half plastic!) Symptom of what? I'm trying to figure it out.
The icky feelings have mostly receded this week though (O Happy Day), thanks to a sick day on Friday.
Here was my attempt at getting out of the hole I'd dug on Wednesday evening:

It was a super simple recipe, which I'd settled on by searching lemon + pasta on supercook, a good website for inspiration, if not for the exact recipe you use. You plug in ingredients and it gives you possible recipes you can make from a number of cooking sites it searches for you- perfect! Just buyer, beware, it doesn't quality-test some of the search results...
I took this MS recipe (I don't like giving her name any more currency) as a base, and did what I wanted with it: no whole wheat spaghetti, but semolina linguine should work; parsley on the windowsill (first cut!) but not 1/4 c- oh well. It was kind of exciting to use parsley cuttings from the windowsill kit I got from Mom. :-) The parsley and chives seem to be acclimating, but sadly not the basil. It might be a little cold around here, even in a plastic greenhouse.

Fast forward to Saturday morning: I'd had the Friday to myself, I'd gotten a haircut (a real one!), and I was feeling better, more committed to getting back on track. I had Pink Lady apples wrinkling in the crisper, so I decided to make a fruit compote for breakfast, throwing in some chopped prunes (a la francaise), brown sugar, butter, 5-spice powder, cinnamon, and fennel seeds (My own improvisation, no recipe). You may deduce from the fact there is no picture that it went fast. But don't worry, it was enjoyed thoughtfully in two servings.

Next adventure: biscuits yesterday. I amassed a few potential recipes for something to bring to Book Club on Sunday, but reading through found that one of my frontrunners, Irish-American Sodabread Scones, should be made day-of because they get very dense and rock-ish after that. But I wanted to BAKE Saturday morning. So I made these Buttermilk Cheddar Jack Biscuits from the DC blog Cherry Tea Cakes.

Buttermilk Parmesan Biscuits

There they are, resting on our Book for February (we were a little late getting together on a date to meet), Arthur and George. Pretty good. I am looking forward to the discussion.
As always, I adapted: substituted 1/3 whole wheat flour, exchanged cheddar jack for parmesan (apparently the only cheese that does not go bad, and therefore I have 4 varieties of it still on my fridge shelf). I had one and a half of these before a dance class in the afternoon (which was great fun and had a great instructor), which is why for dinner you see one and a half below. Not a mouse. Just me.

The biscuits were joined on the plate by various leftovers cleverly (if I do say so myself) combined with others: spaghetti squash and beans (from the cinnamon-spiced red-and-black beans from the party, and I hope leftovers that last like that don't gross anyone out, ahem, Eileen) and the last lettuce leaves of a greenleaf head mixed with some bagged herb salad from TJs, tossed with homemade vinaigrette. It felt like the perfect proportions for what I needed.
Here's to recapturing more of what I need in the weeks ahead!