What I Fed Mark Yesterday

Breakfast

• Onion bagel (from the Bagel Hole, Park Slope, Brooklyn) that was going stale in the fridge, but perked right up when toasted and slathered with butter
• 3 eggs, whipped up with a fork, poured into melted butter in a cast iron pan. Stirred constantly until softly scrambled, then covered with a scattering of scallions from the farmers' market (Inwood)
• Apple cider (sold by Breezy Hill Orchard, at the farmers' market)

Lunch (brown bagged for work)

• Tuna salad, made from canned tuna in water (Bumble bee), with chopped homemade dill pickle, celery, red onion, mayo, and black pepper. On Tuscan bread (Trader Joe's, Brooklyn) with butter lettuce (also TJ's) and tomato slices (my garden)
• Half a linzer torte leftover from last weekend's visit to the Pastry Garden (Poughkeepsie)

Dinner (midnight, because he was on the late shift)

• Tomatoes (my garden) pitted Provencal olives (Sahadi's, Brooklyn), home pickled jalepeno, red onions and a drizzle of olive oil
• Corn on the cob (farmers' market), which was husked, buttered while raw, wrapped in saran wrap, and microwaved for 2 minutes
• Cheesy Cauliflower and Swiss Chard Casserole
• And Chardonnay

Recipe for Cheesy Cauliflower and Swiss Chard Casserole

1. Get a big bunch of swiss chard and a cauliflower or maybe a couple of small cauliflowers (maybe the cute ones from the farmers' market--the purple ones, or the yellow ones, or the gaudi-esque green ones)
2. Wash both vegetables well. Trim the chard and cut apart the stems from the leaves so that it will fit into a pot. Core the cauliflower(s) then break them into chunks.
3. Steam the vegetables in separate pots, until leaves of chard are wilted, and stems (and cauliflower) are starting to get tender. Let them cool, then cut them up into mouth-manageable pieces.
4. Mix the veggies together in a large baking dish (like a lasagne pan)
5. Preheat the over to 375 degrees
6. Make the cheese sauce. Use 2 cups of heavy cream, 4 ounces of cream cheese, 8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese, a tablespoon and a half of dijon mustard, and fresh ground black pepper.
7. Heat the cream until it just starts to simmer. Add the mustard and the cream cheese, and stir until melted and thoroughly mixed. Add 3/4 of the cheddar cheese and the black pepper. Mix the gently bubbling sauce until it is completely smooth.
8. Pour the sauce over the vegetables
9. Put the pan into the oven, and bake for at least half an hour, maybe 45 minutes would be better. You can probably cover it with silver foil for the first 15 minutes so it doesn't dry out. It should be brown and bubbly when you take it out.
10. This is a very forgiving dish. It tastes good hot out of the oven, but is still fine at room temperature, if, say, Mark is much MUCH later coming home than he said he was going to be. Great leftovers, too.