Basil Update

I said I'd track the progress of my Aerogarden, so here's a round up of the past 3 weeks.

Look at the little guys go! This was around Day 10 or so...

Very tiny, but making their way up to the grow-lights.

In a few weeks, I won't be able to trim them back fast enough.

We're not there yet, tho.

This is around Day 16

Burgeoning tastiness :)

This is about 3 1/2 weeks in 

Finally, I had to prune last night because the one on the right was going to hit the grow-lights. Soon I will have to raise the hood to allow for growth.

Nice little collection of cuttings on the left. (Yes, that is a shot glass from college. You know you have at least one somewhere too.)

Tonight's dinner will definitely be including fresh basil :)

But first, a trip to the DMV.

Ugh.

Mac and Cheese Fake Out

 The "fake out" part being that I'm not actually going to tell you how I made the mac and cheese.

At least not specifics.

Last night I made what was possibly the least figure-friendly mac and cheese of my life. My arteries will never be the same. 

That is just the cheddar cheese. Helpfully grated by the hubs.

I wasn't even following a recipe. I just threw together a roux, added milk, cream, cheese (cheddar, gruyere, and a dollop of ricotta, just cuz) pancetta, bread crumbs and elbow macaroni, and hoped for the best.

And Oh My God was that stuff good.

But I'm not blogging about that, because I was doing it all very slapdash, and I'm trying to post more polished recipes. You know, where you measure stuff?

The one hint I will pass along is that, if your cheese sauce of cream, cheddar, and gruyere is tasting a bit too heavy, salty, or bitter, add the zest of half a lemon.

Once again, the real live lemon that does not come in a plastic container comes to the rescue.

On to the important stuff! The eagerly awaited Aerogarden update... photo taken on Day 5 and the sprouts are juuuuuust starting to be visible inside their pod. 

Right on schedule.

Probably another week before I need to remove the dome.

The excitement is KILLING you! 

And now you want mac 'n cheese/cheese.

Resist the Kraft.

Resist.

You Too Can Grow Fresh Herbs And Flowers!

I haven't had much in the way of cooking to post about this week. And when we ate out, it wasn't really anyplace to blog about (tho last night did include bacon cheeseburgers with the winner of this season's Shear Genius. Ultimate of random, I know, but the hubs has been friends w/ her boyfriend for about a decade, and they were in town celebrating her success so, they squeezed us in for burgers in the Meatpacking District.)

Anyhoo, a couple Christmases ago my in-laws gave me an Aerogarden. Some of you may roll your eyes, but when you like to cook and you live in a NYC apartment with no sunlight, it is impossible to grow fresh herbs, and so this is actually very convenient.
I took a break over the winter, not growing anything, but with Summer approaching, I thought it was time to get the fresh basil going.
So today I installed new grow lights and set 'er up.

Perched precariously in my kitchen window.

Looks as though I should probably dust the top a bit better...

There are only two domes because I am only growing basil this time around. And once it gets going, it takes up A LOT of space. So, two domes, spread out.
I will update you when the adorable little shoots come popping up. And you can see my lack of gardening skill as it grows.

Try to keep calm in the interim. I know the excitement is going to be hard to bear.

Side note: There has been an enormous crane noisily hauling pallets of "material" onto my roof all day. Now, our roof is finished quite nicely (at least it was last Summer) with a view of the river, so I do not know what all is being hauled up there or why. I am slightly concerned as to what is being planned up there.
What this does tell me is that it will still be quite some time before the roof opens up again.
Damn.