Eating Candles...

I realized this weekend that, when it comes to cooking, I'm kinda like the moosetracks ice cream and my fella E is kinda like the vanilla. I like to make these wildly elaborate dishes that are jam-packed with 1500 different ingredients and that have me sweating over the stove oftentimes for much longer than I'd like to be (or thought I would be), but typically resulting in something decent-tasting. E on the other hand is a very minimalist cook--he whips into and out of the kitchen in bare-minimum time and his recipes and inventions are always very simple (and I don't mean that derogatorily), relying upon very basic ingredients and in doing so, unexpectedly bringing out the rich flavorings of the food itself without masking it or confusing it through excessive ingredients. Never am I more happy with tofu than when I eat one of his tofu marinades.

And for these reasons, I'm glad we alternate cooking every weekend. His cooking reminds me that simple is good and that occasionally I should try this out for myself and venture into the land of minimalism.

This weekend, he whipped up some new homemade tofu-steaks marinated in a white-wine base and speckled with button shrooms with a side of green beans and white asparagus. As always, the simplicity of the marinade just made the flavors pop, and the fact that he incorporated white wine in with some of the vegetables as well pulled the whole dinner together.

I'd never tried white asparagus before, so that was also a fun adventure. Ultimately, it tastes exactly like asparagus, but it has a stranger, more watery consistency. And it makes you feel like you're eating candles! Yes yes. (I mean, check out the picture above--does it not look like I'm about to chow down on some long-ass pieces of white wax?)

E wasn't impressed with the dinner, but I liked it quite a bit and ended up chowing on the leftovers the next day for lunch.

And despite the fact that it was E's weekend to cook, I also cooked a lot on Sunday (whipping up food for the week, since, as usual, I'll be hardpressed for time), so expect lots of post this week. Woot woot!