"Give a girl a Subaru...

and see what she can do," is what Mike said to me when he came home last night and saw the vast amounts of grocery shopping I had done.

And with all that food, I made a very simple dinner and somehow used nearly every bowl, measuring cup, and utensil we own. It's like a cooking tornado has gone through the kitchen. And what did I make? Fruit salad, tabouli, and grilled veggies.

For awhile I've been thinking I should try making tabouli with quinoa grain instead of wheat and I finally got around to it yesterday. It was amazingly delicious! We gorged ourselves on it and my mouth is watering, thinking ahead to lunchtime today. I used the recipe in Moosewood. I'm not good and deciphering tastes in things, so I need recipes for guidance. Salt? Lemon? Garlic? Something else? Obviously I exchanged the bulgar wheat for quinoa. I steamed it early in the afternoon and by dinner-making time it was cool. I eyeballed the ingredients amounts and added them to taste. Garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsely, scallions, mint, tomato--mostly stuff we have on hand regularly.

Mike put veggies on skewers and I brushed them with herbed olive oil (dried herbs de provence and fresh garlic added to the oil about an hour beforehand to steep), then he grilled. Mike heated up some pita for himself, and voila. Fantastic meal. (We ended up not eating the fruit salad last night. It was a good breakfast this morning.)

And the kitchen is still a mess. We ran the dishwasher last night and I really should get up and empty it so it can be refilled with the dishes sitting on the counter. Boo housework. Yay sitting and drinking coffee.