(shopping, garden, cooking, depression )

[elainegrey]

Happy things:

Making a little desert to celebrate the ripe figs last week -- cutting out star shapes from bread, toasting with butter and sugar, a creamy spread from thickened Greek yogurt and honey, the rosy slices of fig on top. (There wasn't much fig.)

Beans from the garden! Radiccio/chicory has persisted.

My scarlet rose-mallow has bloomed - i planted the plant in April 2017. I think deer grazed on it a couple years and then last year the cutleaf coneflower overshadowed it.

Cucumber salad: cut up cucumber, ginger, and whole ground cherries with a little sour cream dressing.

Planted buckwheat seeds for microgreens and started bean sprouts.

Pondering kitchen purchases: I'm thinking about a "Julienne Peeler" -- it juliennes on one side, peels or slices thinly on the other. Theoretically, it's all stainless steel. The julienne function may keep me from buying a spiralizer, a temptation for years. On the other hand the Kuhn Rikon brand, a highly recommended peeler but with plastic, comes with little snap in cones to support making spirals. The spirals i would make would be from sweet potatoes or winter squash: i'm not sure that the little cones would be effective. Anyhow, much reading of random reviews.

I'm also tempted to buy a microplane grater that comes with a container. It too is plastic. I have one that i picked up at a yard sale years ago and the plastic has cracked, but it was very nice to have the ability to catch the shavings in the little cup. The one i am looking at doesn't have the design flaws that led to the cracked part. I dunno, kitchen gadgets.

Trying to work on spiraling out of depression not further in.

Comments

[annie_r]

I have a spiralizer, and it's kind of a PITA, and I haven't used it in quite a while. I should look at the Julienne peeler. My favorite microplane grater had a plastic handle that broke, but I still use it sometimes, if awkwardly. I got a different microplane that looked similar with a metal handle, but it's not.the.same.

My spiralizer takes up a lot of cabinet space; tempted by the handheld one. Sweet potatoes are so hard/dense to work with. ooh there is a kitchen aid stand mixer spiralizer attachment, need to research. Too-busy workday now, closing tabs. I have fallen into obsessions like this lately; they keep my mind busy. I've had a post window open for at least a week but didn't write more than a sentence or two.

[elainegrey]

Yes, the recommended spiralizers do look space consuming, and Christine looks in askance at the crowding in the cabinets anyhow. And i'm really not sure what i would use them for. I think i could probably run a sweet potato through the shredder in my food processor if i needed to cook one more quickly....

I'm glad you found way forward to click post -- i understand.

[annie_r]

I realized I haven't used the spiralizer in quite a while, so I think it's getting moved to an upper (stepstool-requiring) cabinet. The zucchini noodles did come out well, but shorter strips would be fine, and just wouldn't have the visual noodle-like look. It's not like anyone is going to mistake them for spaghetti. Salting/rinsing zucchini helps with the texture, and that step is probably more important than the spirals.

I generally roast sweet potatoes, sliced thinly and brushed with oil (I learned to look for the skinnier long ones at the store, they are easier to cut through. I should probably not be trusted with a mandoline.) Or is this the 'yam' thing that you don't like? If you can slice them thin enough and keep them from overlapping, they are almost potato-chip like.

[cmcmck]

Hugs.

The cucumber salad sounds gorgeous!

[elainegrey]

It worked well together.

[warriorsavant]

I'm so happy I'm not the only one who writes "desert" when I mean "dessert."

I don't have that many kitchen gadgets (probably more than I think I do). I alternate mentally between thinking I want all the specialized gizmos, and thinking I just want the few, most basic items. (That might describe my entire life.)

[elainegrey]

Re misspellings -- i have never learned to spell well, and was fortunate that spell check came along just in time for my college writing. The one time i had to type instead of use a computer, the English professor was concerned that something had happened to me.

Re gadgets: i'm currently on the basic side, peeling carrots with a paring knife. A peeler didn't seem that extreme but - bam -- down the slippery slope to mandolines and siralizers.

[annie_r]

I am really too lazy to use my fancier gadgets. If I'm not peeling a whole vegetable I just cut off a section and use the paring knife.

I remember seeing a Star Wars spoof, or maybe it was about Dune? where the characters go to, or are from a dessert planet. Or maybe referred to in the Spaceballs movie? Memory is dim, other than the phrase "dessert planet".