iPhone Blog

I hate winter. I know it's cliché, but I do. I don't mind the 10ish days after winter starts, when the holidays are happening and everything is all jolly and merry and warm fires and stews, and then January 2nd hits and it is just endless drear. I feel incredibly unmotivated, twiddling away the hours and then when the sun sets at noon (ish) I feel like it is time to crawl into bed. That's only a slight exaggeration. Maybe that's why new years resolutions are so historically unsuccessful--people are full of holiday cheer and positivity, make some plans for a newer, better life, and then BAM. The SAD hits, and all you want to do is hibernate until spring. (Except for the one obligatory snow day. I do love that. I like sledding and snow shoeing, and traipsing through the freshly fallen snow. Once. And preferably before Christmas, when the idea of winter is all romantical and stuff. I'll still take it in the New Year, I'll just grumble about it a bit more.)

Around this time I also tend to get a little wanderlust. Not so much related to travel (although I am very much looking forward to a trip to St. John in May), but to getting away from winter. I love seasons, but it is incredibly difficult to remember that in this godforsaken time of the year. This year, since TW and I are seriously contemplating a move in the near future, it's been almost a desperate get-me-out-of-here-before-another-winter desire. We are concentrating our search on the Pacific Northwest, but I have been looking at the weather in southern California with envy...sigh. It's a winter thing.

Anyhow, with a potential move on the horizon, studying for my nurse practitioner boards, a new part time job starting soon, and other big changes at my regular job, things have been busy. I have been cooking some, and often thinking 'ooh this would be good to put on the blog,' and then we eat it hurriedly and remember belatedly that I meant to take a picture. So, for the next couple of months, until things simmer down, I am going to own this whole iPhone blog thing. I have been doing it, but not loving it. Until today. I am going to take pictures in the poor late afternoon winter light, apply an Instagram filter and slap it on up here. I am so succeeding at this whole new me no guilt thing.

Just look at this beautiful, grainy, green-ish, slightly blurry masterpiece:

A couple of years ago, back in take one of this blog, I wrote about a delicious salad with black bean patties that had become a regular in my kitchen. Then times changed, and now I am preferring things that are less fussy (see above re: busy life). This dish is a perfect example. It comes from an article in Food and Wine on one pan dinners, it's a curry, so it makes me feel fancy, and I can make it without referring to the recipe (a never for me). I like it even in the summer.

(Apologies for the post about my laziness. What can I say. I am boring in the winter. It's almost that time of year when I spend tons of money on the very first microgreens and anything-we-haven't-been-eating-all-winter so things are about to get crazy in the little brooklyn kitchen.)

Curried Eggplant with Chickpeas and Spinach
very lightly adapted from Food and Wine

2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4-1/3 cup canola, grapeseed or olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into chunks (the recipe says 3/4", I don't know what that looks like, but if you do go for it)
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup julienned fresh ginger (not going to lie--I tend to get the canned ginger)
Pepper
Spinach, swiss chard, kale, or any other green--and lots of it
Warm naan and plain yogurt for serving

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. On a large baking pan or jelly roll sheet, mash the garlic and salt together. Add the curry powder and oil. Add the eggplant, chickpeas and ginger and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Add the greens (like I said, lots of them--they wilt and get small so I just heap as much will fit on the roasting pan) and roast until wilted, about 5 minutes. Serve with naan and yogurt.