There is some TD drama, but I'm pushing that aside until tomorrow  (when maybe, possibly, I can get home before dark). Meantime, I cooked twice in the last 2 days!

Granted, not the best photo ever, but it is Cooking Light's Pumpkin-Black Bean Soup. You see, I had a can of pumpkin puree, left over from Thanksgiving/Christmas-time, and dried black beans I bought last time I was at Berkeley Bowl, so there you have it. Not as weird as you might think, and not as pumpkin-y. Of course, you know I modified the recipe to use what I had on hand: I ended up using about a cup of tomato liquid (from the canned tomatoes) because I didn't have enough broth base (and that was veggie anyway), so it ended up tasting rather like chili. Not that that's a bad thing; I love chili! I also used feta instead of queso fresco, and no green onions, because, you guessed it, I didn't have any! No sherry either (which might have given it a boost). All in all perfectly acceptable. I might be willing to try it again as written.

Tonight I made Pastitsio, another odd combination of ingredients. This is not a recipe I would recommend if you plan on, I don't know, live past your 60s. There is a whole lot of butter in there. And eggs. And milk. And oil. It is not for the faint-hearted, either. There is a roux (or a roux-like thing - I know enough to be a danger to myself) that is not to be screwed around with. Mess up the roux and you end up eating what tastes like flour. (I did not mess up the roux, I am happy to say. I do think, however, that by 1/2 cup flour they actually meant A QUARTER CUP. Something. My sauce ended up as thick as frosting, which I think is not quite the point, and I had to thin it with water so that it would actually retain some liquid properties.  However, I did not scramble the eggs.) You end up with this faintly cinnamon-y smelling casserole that reminded me somewhat of one of my family's stock dinners, Italian Beef and Noodles. (Except that was more cheddar cheese based. And with egg noodles. And beef. Never mind, it is nothing like that.) It was kind of odd. But the topping (the sauce)? OMG heaven. It is light and creamy, like souffle kind of, which makes sense given that it is largely butter and egg yokes. I have about 5 more servings, and I wonder if I will be able to eat it without having a heart attack.

And speaking of yokes:

Look at how they stand up on their own! No trickery involved - those are fresh yokes, straight from the shell. And the color was divine (a bit darker than this photo, but very brilliant). The whites were too, but did not photograph well. To the organic nay-sayers, I have never ever seen such perfect conventional eggs. 

Finally, before you continue, it would be best to swallow and put down any liquids. As we learned last week, Mary is fond of going inside things. She is especially fond of burrowing into laundary fresh out of the dryer. Which, of course, led to this: