Potato and Veg Salad with Chermoula Spiced Potatoes

Monday was another one of those busy days for me. It started early with some strength training at home and then went for a hot and sweaty walk. With the heat and humidity I cut my walk short and stopped after 2 miles. It was one of those days where you came home dripping in sweat. *ugh*  At the moment I am really missing winter.

After I had a quick shower and felt more human I made myself a kale smoothie with wild blueberries. It always surprises me how draining our hot and humid weather can be. I should do my cardio inside but I find being outside to be more mentally stimulating so I typically opt to brave the humidity. ;-)

I met our friend Will for lunch on Monday. Will has been swamped working at Woodberry Kitchen so we haven’t had much time to catch up. We decided to go to Jesse Wong’s in Hunt Valley since they cater to vegetarians and vegans as well as omnivores. I ordered our usual Hunan “faux duck” and Will had sushi. I ask Will to try the “duck” and he was surprised by the texture too. Hopefully between the two of us we can figure out how to make the “duck” at home.

To throw my “cyber stalker” off the track I checked into Jesse Wong’s on Foursquare as we were walking out of the restaurant. It is such a shame that people need to behave inappropriately. We will see if checking in when we leave places works. *fingers crossed*

Will and I ended up chatted for about 2 and ½ hours and then it was time for me to get home and try to get caught up on my never ending to-do list. Did I make much progress on my list? Not really, LOL. *shakes head* For a retired woman I sure do have a busy schedule. ;-)

When it was time to make dinner I had no idea what I was going to prepare. I ended up making a batch of chermoula which I used to season roast potatoes and this became the basis for dinner. In addition to the potatoes I also roasted zucchini and add that to the potatoes. Both of these went in the refrigerator to cool. I also added artichoke hearts, shaved raw carrots (for texture and color), cilantro, and sliced almonds (for crunch) to the dish. I served the salad cold with tomato wedges.

This is how most of my meals develop. I typically have no idea what I am going to cook and just start winging things together. Usually I am inspired by something that I have eaten or cooked in the past but not always. One of the nice things about cooking now is that I have been doing it so long I don’t need to use cookbooks for recipes.

If you are new to cooking and thinking this will never happen to you, I disagree. I wasn’t always a good cook either. In fact I grew up in a home with a mother who hated to cook and consequently she didn’t. I learned to cook out of necessity because it was cook, buy carry out or go hungry. Believe me if I can become a good cook anyone can do it.

Happy thoughts:

Monday was a good day even though it was busy. Here is what I am grateful for today.

• It was very nice to see Will Monday for lunch. It is hard to believe that we hadn’t seen him since the end of May. Time really has been flying this summer.

• While it has been hot and humid this week at least we were no longer in the 100’s and that was something to be thankful for. We also got a little rain over the weekend which we desperately needed.

• My fur children are mostly back to normal which is very nice. The boys are running and playing together every day. Luca Belle has resumed her position as alpha cat and has the boys under her thumb toe like normal. ;-)

• Both Dan and I enjoyed the chermoula potato salad yesterday. It is great when I come up with new ideas for old recipes.

Signing Out:

It was another day which wasn’t terribly productive. Tomorrow I need to keep my mom company while my father goes to the oral surgeon so I don’t expect to get a lot done at home. Hopefully I am wrong about that and tomorrow will be a productive day.

Talk eith you again soon. I hope you enjoy what is left of your evening.  I am going to finish watch an episode of "Criminal Minds" which we recorded but haven't had time to watch yet.