I know it’s been a few days since my last posting, and for those of you who may have been concerned—yes, we have still been eating. I made a few recipes I’ve already posted about, and a few that were new and fantastic but less than photogenic.

For instance, this weekend I made chicken enchiladas with the leftover roasted chicken. I’ve made it before, a few years ago, and we both really liked it. This time it just didn’t work out. I’m tempted to think that my oven is having temperature problems again, because it took much longer than expected to heat up, and the onions in the filling were still crunchy. Disappointing… guess I should have made another batch of white chicken chili.

I made some fantastic (but visually unappealing) omelets for lunch one day this weekend, using a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook that I’ve had my eye on for a while: Madeleine’s omelet with mustard croutons. Jeremy is usually quite specific about what he wants in his omelets, but this time he gave me carte blanche, so I ran right to that recipe and got to it. Judy Rodgers’ technique is of the fold-and-roll variety, which I’ve never used before. This particular recipe also called for 12 eggs, with the finished omelet divided between 4 plates. I didn’t have a pan large enough even for a half size, so I made 2 2-egg omelets in my little non-stick skillet, and that was good practice for the technique. I saved myself some angst and just garnished the finished omelets with grated cheese (good aged Gruyere to sub in for the recommended Beaufort) instead of trying to put it inside with the croutons. The latter were just fantastic: full of flavor and balanced between crisp and soft bits. We had a few extras that wouldn’t fit in the omelets, and they vanished off the baking sheet moments after Jeremy took his plate back to the kitchen. All in all, a delicious and unusual omelet. We’ll definitely be having them again whenever there are leftover chunks of bread floating around, so I’ll try and get a photo one of these days.

On Monday we had our favorite fusilli salsa di noci. (I was still working on using up that half-gallon of cream.) Very tasty as always, if a bit too garlicky… aged garlic cloves pack can quite a punch! We had our house salad to go with it, using toasted walnuts, apple slices, some Silver Falls goat cheese, and a cherry-white balsamic vinaigrette.

Yesterday, I made some linguine primavera in an effort to use up some asparagus and yet more cream. I didn’t really use a recipe, but threw in what I had on hand: sweet onion, carrots, garlic, celery hearts, rehydrated porcini mushrooms, that asparagus, and some frozen peas. I sauteed the first 5 elements with some olive oil, and the latter two went in with the pasta water at strategic points as the pasta cooked. When it was nearly ready, I reduced the mushroom soaking liquid with some white wine in the saute pan, and stirred in some cream and grana padano, then tossed the pasta and blanched veggies in with the rest, and that was that. Tasty, in a clean-the-fridge sort of way.

Tonight, Jeremy wasn’t feeling well, so he requested poached eggs on buttered toast. I tried to talk him into something more interesting, but he wouldn’t budge. Good thing I’m getting better at egg poaching. At least the toast was new: a local loaf of fragrant amaranth bread from LifeSource that we had pulled out of the freezer this morning.

The fridge is starting to look empty, though I still haven’t managed to use up all of the asparagus I got yet. Good thing it holds up so nicely in a glass of water… I hadn’t realized the bundle I picked up was some 2.5 lbs of asparagus! I’ve been holding off going back to the grocery store because we are supposed to be getting our new car any day now, but apparently I shouldn’t have been holding my breath. As long as it arrives in time for our anniversary, all will be well.