We pretty much have the Plague in our house. It started last week with MrBP suddenly reeling with a terrible cold/flu type virus. I was feeling like I was fighting it off until Monday evening when it suddenly hit me full-force. Lil' Rascal has it too, in fact everybody we've come in contact with has it.
Middle Rascal is coming home this weekend to attend an academic conference and yesterday she texted me a picture of the outfit she's planning to wear:
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| Medieval Plague Doctor |
I've been doing the most sensible thing I can think of which is to cook up lots of vegetables in soups and gratins.
For lunch yesterday I cooked a very simple soup of shallots, portobello mushrooms, fresh parsley, loads of chopped kale, and potatoes. Sautéed the lot, covered with water and herbed sea salt, boiled for about 15 minutes and it was ready.
One of the worst things about this virus is the sore throat so it was very soothing!
Do you know what else is soothing on a sore throat? That's right, a giant glass of wine. I had a half bottle of lovely un-oaked Chardonnay from France in the refrigerator, leftover from the weekend, so I thought I'd better whip up something that would do it justice.
Aduki beans are the sort of beans you could give to non-bean lovers and they would still be happy. They are softer, with a creamy texture and are easier to digest than other beans.
They are perfect in a vegetable gratin. I had about five fresh zucchini delivered in our organic vegetable box yesterday so I sautéed those with, again, lots of shallots, some herbes de Provence and fresh parsley. I added the rinsed beans followed by a giant splash of cashew cream.
I topped the lot with nutritional yeast, some fresh grape tomatoes (cut in half), more parsley, olive oil, and coarse salt.
Bake for about twenty minutes at 350 and you're done.
It went perfectly with that giant glass of chardonnay.
I've woken up this morning feeling worse so I'll be tucked in at home, doing some more cooking. I think I'll take the opportunity to rethink my travel colour story to New Orleans too, thanks so much to all of you who gave me packing-up advice on yesterday's post. You guys are the best!
Don't get the Plague,
xoxDani
