Inspired Cooking

I have been bored with cooking lately.  BORED, I tells ya.  I was resorting to canned soups, fast food, cold cut sandwiches, and so on.  Not pretty.

So, to solve the problem -- to jumpstart myself, if you will -- I went to the farmers' market yesterday. 

Wow.  The haul?
A small tub of goat cheese
Heirloom tomatoes
little bitty beets
small flaky potatoes
lemongrass
small cauliflower
cucumbers
some hot peppers (a variety)
garlic
bok choi
butter lettuce
eggplant
3 crab rangoons (I ate them in the car on the way home)
a Jamaican chicken pie
chocolate chip cookies

So, what did I do with my treasures?

Roast the beets, spread the goat cheese on some rough bread and grilled it, tossed the lettuce with red wine vinegar, layered the salad, added sliced tomatoes.

Scrubbed and roasted the little potatoes with olive oil and sea salt.
Served with Jamaican chicken pie and slices of cucumbers.

Plans?
slices of eggplant, grill them.
Layer with goat cheese (that I will mix with chopped parsley, rosemary, garlic), and sliced tomatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Scatter toasted whole almonds.

Smash and then thinly slice lemongrass
Add to rice, which I'll prepare with some peas and onions.
Stirfry sliced bok choi, carrots, cauliflower, garlic, and some hot peppers.  Soy sauce, fish sauce, and a scrambled egg to finish it off.

It's not really cooking.  It's assembly.  But who CARES?  It's awesome.

Oh, and for tonight's snack:
Saltines spread with goat cheese, then topped with thin slices of an apple we just picked at an orchard near us.  Oh yeah.