Shannon Phillips

In the box: kale, collard greens, chard, spinach, fennel, pea shoots, carrots, cauliflower, endive.

Nanita, Marqueño, and my aunt Judy are all here for a visit, which has been very lucky as they’ve helped a lot with the house-hunting. We actually saw a place yesterday that we’re really interested in—a little Craftsman bungalow with lots of interior woodwork and built-ins, in a neighborhood we like (Jefferson, within walking distance of both the Fruitvale and Laurel shopping districts…at least it’s walking distance if you’re like me and don’t mind walking twenty or thirty minutes). Nicely laid out even though it’s small (1,000 square feet, three bedrooms, a lovely wood-paneled dining room). A small but perfectly adequate back yard. It has a yucky backyard pool that’s been boarded over and would basically have to come out, and it’s on a fairly busy street, but Sam and I don’t mind that and we both think the house itself is just a gem. It sold for $500,000 just two years ago; now they’re asking $150,000. The housing market, it is a crazy thing.

Oh, I was supposed to plan stuff for dinner. What with the whirlwind of house-hunting I haven’t been doing much cooking; we ate out the past two nights and I don’t think I’m cooking tonight either. But all these vegetables have to get eaten, so tomorrow I’ll plan on making that “winter pesto” with the kale and spinach, and some sort of salad with the pea shoots and endive. Probably I’ll saute the fennel and add it to the salad.

Chard and roasted cauliflower could make a nice light lunch. That leaves only carrots and collard greens to deal with: I could buy some pork chops and cook them up with the greens, and maybe roast the carrots too. Okay, done! My head is too full of bungalow to plan out any farther than that.