First, as you read this, I am hopefully gracefully soaring across the country on my way to San Francisco 😀 My brother’s wedding is tomorrow, and then I’m staying out there for the week so I can get in all my sibling- and niece-visiting. I can’t wait! This plan also very likely means that posting is going to be sporadic (and perhaps nonexistent) next week again. I foresee many exciting food experience taking place during my trip, however, so I should have some fun reports when I return!

Second, I am aware that posts containing food I have created myself are few and far between, but I have still been cooking/chopping up my usual storm. There was one morning when I made myself a breakfast of sliced CSA peach with homemade mixed nut butter and cinnamon:

I have also continued to delight in my daily portions of CSA crudites:

I recently baked a CSA spaghetti squash, roasted the seeds, and tossed the whole thing with some homemade CSA three-leaf pesto:

I received a sample of sprouted soybean silken tofu from Wildwood, so I blended that with fresh ginger, ground flax, CSA pear, and nutmeg to make a flax pudding of sorts (which went especially well topped with cinnamon and more homemade mixed nut butter):

I’ve been getting home late at night due to class and other obligations, so dinners have been relatively low-key. Behold: Carr’s rosemary crackers topped with Wildwood probiotic raspberry chipotle hummus with a centerpiece of frozen grapes and 70% dark chocolate from a CVS ExtraCares coupon:

(P.S. CVS is my favorite store in the world … and even more so now that it gave me a coupon for a free giant bar of chocolate.)

I have also been using my Nature’s Pride 100% whole wheat bread (Thanks, Foodbuzz!) for egg sandwiches:

This type of egg sandwich was a staple of my childhood. I have missed it!

And free bread isn’t too shabby, either.

Many snack times have featured my high-end glamorous dehydrated fruit salad, courtesy of my mom and her fancy kitchen appliances. Kiwi, watermelon, mango, pineapple, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, peaches, plums, banana, and more:

The most dramatic food story of all, however, has involved my urban garden. If you recall, I’ve been nurturing a little tomato plant from seed ever since last fall when I saved and planted the seeds of an heirloom tomato I had bought from the Farmers’ Market. I actually had several little tomato seedlings, but all but one got crushed in an unfortunate incident with my window shade back in May. I transplanted the one remaining seedling to a pot on my balcony in the beginning of summer, and I have been devotedly following its growth — and the growth of my very first tomato — ever since. The weekend before last, I noticed that my one tomato was finally starting to turn red. I was SO excited!!! After my wild night in Jersey with Erin Gunn & co., I came back home and rushed to the balcony to check on my steadily ripening treasure. There was a problem:

Where the f did my tomato go??????!!!!!!!!!! I started looking around wildly for a squirrel I could scream at. And then I looked down:

Closer:

In all the rain and wind, my poor little tomato had simply blown off the plant and landed in the backyard of my downstairs neighbors. I debated the best course of action. Would it be weird to ask my neighbors to retrieve my surely destroyed tomato so that I could say a real goodbye in person?? I don’t live in Kansas where people understand that sort of thing. I live in Brooklyn! I tried to restrain myself, but I eventually sprinted down the steps to knock on the door of my neighbors and confess my craziness. They were not home!! I grabbed a post-it and wrote a hopefully-not-creepy note about how my first tomato ever was in their backyard. And then I signed it with my address, my phone number, my email, and probably several other methods for contacting me. I had dinner plans, but when I got off the subway later that night, I had the sweetest message ever from my neighbor, stating that she had found my tomato, tried her best to clean it up, and was holding onto it for me so I could decide for myself how to proceed:

I gave my tomato a slice to check internal integrity:

There were no slugs, and that was good enough for me! I chopped the tomato and tossed it with my pesto spaghetti squash, baked BBQ tofu, and spicy spaghetti squash seeds:

Yummmmmm, my tomato was excellent!! I am so proud of that little seed for growing into a real live plant that gave birth to a real live fruit.

Have you ever felt maternal pride toward something you have grown or made?