Learning to Cook Again

I know it will sound like I'm whining again, but the fact is that this move and the subsequent barrage of challenges and drama have left me clueless in the kitchen. During the intense time table of the actual packing and moving, we, as usual during a move, relied on fast food for our sustenance.

Subway sandwiches and Chipotle's burritos were frequently on the menu. Luckily, they both offer vegetarian options so we were able to eat reasonable healthy food. Higher in fat and salt than my home-cooked meals, but far better than some other restaurant options.

After previous moves, I usually had the kitchen unpacked and set up within a couple of weeks at most. Not so this time. As you know from reading previous posts, all manner of obstacles have popped up, ranging from no hot water for two weeks and leaks in the kitchen to surgery on the dog to remove cancerous masses and the death of my nephew. In between were a lot of minor repairs and a looming deadline to finish editing nova's second book.

We have been here for two months. With no space to work and no time to prepare food, we came to rely heavily on frozen, processed, and take-out food. I will not get into the ugly list of what we have eaten but suffice it to say it has not been up to our usual standards of a healthy low-fat starch-centered plant-based diet.

Here is what my kitchen looks like today.


Every surface is covered with stuff, making it very hard to prepare food. The big fridge is gone but I haven't had time to empty and move the smaller fridge into its space yet.

Despite the mess, I started trying to make some meals again over the past few weeks: a few soups and stir-fries, a potato salad, some pasta dishes, and homemade ice cream. I keep running into the problem, though, of not having a clue what to make. I've forgotten how to cook.

This morning, I wanted to be sure we wouldn't end up going out for food over the weekend. The challenge, however, was to come up with cold dishes to help us cope with the 100 degree days. Salad to the rescue!

I preheated the Sun Oven and got several containers of potatoes ready - one sweet, one mixed red and Yukon gold. When they were tender, I removed them and put a big pot of water in the oven to heat.

The sweet potatoes were peeled, mashed, and seasoned. I have an abundance of candied citrus peel in the refrigerator so I minced up a small bowlful, added water, and simmered them in the microwave for 30 seconds. That plus a scoop of Earth Balance veg. margarine and some salt and pepper yielded a tasty orange mash.

The waxy potatoes were peeled and cubed. While still warm, I tossed them with juice from my refrigerator pickles - the sweet ones, not the dills. Diced onion, pickles, celery, vegan mayo, and salt and pepper turned the spuds into a nice potato salad.

Once the water in the solar oven was hot, I brought it in and cooked up a pound of macaroni plus a handful of frozen green beans. The pasta was split after draining for two different salads.


One has celery, onion, vegan "hammy bits", canned peas, vegan mayo, some pickle juice, and salt and pepper.


The other has the green beans, some roasted carrots from the freezer, celery, canned peas, onion, and lite Italian dressing.

You're probably chomping at the bit to point out that the food I've prepared still contains processed and store bought ingredients. Yes, it does. However, it also includes locally grown, organic produce from the CSA and food that I preserved from past seasons. It may not be much, but at least I'm finally moving in the right direction.


Where were the dogs while all this cooking was going on? Well, Polie likes to hang out under the porch chasing lizards. Angel likes to watch Squirrel TV.


In front of Angel, just at the bottom edge of the shadow cast by a tree, is a cross-shaped hole where the ground squirrels live. There are four little babies and they like to pop their heads up, along with an adult, and survey the big wide world around them.

(Click the photo for a close-up view. If you zoom in, you can spot the cross-shaped hole in the section of fence just to the right of Angel's right ear. The light spot might even be a baby squirrel's head...)

There's another hole off to the right where one of the mature ground squirrels spends some time digging during the day. When it's going back and forth, Angel looks like she's watching a game of ping pong. The squirrels know they're safe and are fairly bold, especially when Angel stays up on the porch to watch. She could watch them for hours, twitching her stumpy little tail every time one pops up.