Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts and Feta

I talk to my dad every Sunday night by phone; he lives in Wisconsin. "How's it going?" he asked this week, and I told him that I had spent several minutes before his call trying desperately to think of something that was new since last week to report to him. I came up empty.

We encountered some gorgeous wisteria during our walk today,

New recipes are sometimes the only thing that differs in my life from week to week now. Two days ago I tried "Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts and Feta" (Smitten Kitchen) and the number one thing you need to know about me making this dish was I forgot to add the feta, and didn't realize until I spied the unused feta in the fridge the next morning. "It really needs something else," I complained at the time, and now I know what that was.

I also eschewed the chili flakes because of my spice-averse backup dancer, and then when my dish was missing "something," I doused it in hot sauce, which made it pretty good.

The dish was fine and everyone thought it was fine; feta would have made it good. But I am compelled to gripe about the recipe: why not tell us at what temperature to sauté the cauliflower (I did medium), and for how long (I did 5 minutes)? Then how long to cook it after you add the onion (another 5 minutes for me)? Isn't the point of a recipe to tell us how to make something?

Tonight, with the help of my backup dancer, I cooked grits for the first time ever, thanks to a contribution from a friend who got them in a box of foods but wasn't interested in them. The recipe was "Shrimp and Grits" (NYT Cooking) but it's probably more accurate to call it "Shrimp and Cheese and Butter with Grits." SIX OUNCES of cheese went into the grits, not to mention three tablespoons of butter! And surprise, surprise: they tasted pretty darn good.

On the left: THREE TABLESPOONS O'BUTTER and SIX OUNCES O'CHEESE

My backup dancer had the pleasure of stirring the cheese and butter into the grits

I eat mostly vegetarian now for the sake of the environment, but sometimes I treat us to meat.

You will recall my failed attempt at scones a couple weeks ago. Unwilling to surrender to something as unimposing as a scone, I tried again today, and halved the recipe as a hedge against disaster. I screwed up nothing, for once, and the results were good. 

I did NOT forget baking powder this time!

I popped them into the oven

They emerged from the oven in good shape