Sometimes, it all comes down to having a kitchen that inspires you to cook. Unfortunately, an inspiring kitchen wasn’t in the cards for me for the 2024-25 school year… It is, however, a completely different story at my parents' apartment. In my day-to-day life from September through December and again from mid-January through May, my main motivation to cook comes from the ingredients I get at the farmer’s market (wah-wah, so hard…I know – completely a luxury). Anyway, at my parents’, it’s all about what I can cook with: the gadgets, the sharp knives, the All-Clad pots and pans, the beautiful serving dishes, and the condiments galore. Their fridge is a dream too — it can effortlessly house a hunk of manchego or a bounty of fresh produce, unlike my limited fridge and freezer space on 110th.

Most likely a well known dilemna to anyone who has been a roommate in a college/young person apartment setting, anything placed in the center section of the shelf will freeze, forcing you to carefully confine any items that you don’t want to turn to an icy solid to the left or right sides of the fridge light. What little I can store isn’t exactly inspiring: a quarter stick of butter, miso, soy sauce, some old kimchi that fell victim to the center of the shelf, froze, thawed, and still sits there waiting to be turned into sundubu jjigae. There are trusty eggs, and a jar of really spicy marinated olives – the olives often serve as a desperate snack while I’m cooking dinner, just enough to tide me over for 30 minutes or so. 

I officially went back home on Wednesday and got right into dinner-making-mode. I made my parents something adjacent to what I seem to be eating a lot of this semester…I tossed the carrots, turnips, the turnip greens, and a sliced onion with generous salt and olive oil and roasted everything at 450° until the veg was caramelized and perfectly tender. I cooked some basmati rice (my favorite rice variety, in case you were wondering) with two cinnamon sticks and a bay leaf. I toasted some chopped Marcona almonds in butter and let the butter brown a bit and chopped up handfuls of dill and cilantro and mixed the nuts and herbs in with the rice once it was ready and fluffed. And then I dressed some greens with a fairly mild vinaigrette (because the greens themselves are the star of the show and SO peppery and flavorful and wonderful). I threw some chives over the vegetables and we ate! Music played, I think it was raining outside? Or at least it was frigidly cold, and we sat and enjoyed each other’s company. 

Other creations made from my duffel of farmer’s market treats included: a pretty crazy yummy Red Kabocha soup with dashi and cumin (strange combo, delicious outcome), a stuffing loaf, chicken stock, mashed potatoes, gravy, “leftover” sandwiches, and a full breakfast (I don’t want to specify Irish or English because I have both kinds of friends that I love equally and I don’t know the difference – between the breakfast plates, of course.). 

So this past week made me feel like a child/bull in a candy store that doubles as a china shop. I went home on Tuesday for a dinner, with me I brought a duffel filled with the following: Atlas carrots, Tokyo turnips, and the most delicious / beautiful mixed greens from Lani’s Farm; a pullman from Shewolf, frozen chicken bones from leftover Flor de Mayo, a stalk of celery, 6 Snapdragon apples (my favorite apple variety), a day loaf (also from Shewolf), and a half of an old baguette that could’ve been a weapon in Clue (the game)… 

wait…. sorry…. will you just look at this photo one more time…?  It’s too beautiful not to…