June 10th. Roasted Tomatoes. Brunch Salad f Trader Joe's on bike. Portobello mushrooms. Slightly creamed spinach. Scrambled eggs.

Salad reprised for  birthday/bookswap/brunch at Lois's.  Pretty amazing (to me, at least) that all ingredients for the salad--organic greens-black beans, corn, red peppers, tomatoes, queso fresco, lime juice, etc. came from yesterday's run through the 99¢ store.  While making salad, I roasted cherry and grape tomatoes--I'd bought three boxes.  I wrote these simple instructions long ago,  but here's how I made them this morning

Most recent batch of happily shriveled roasted tomatoes and garlic

Pre-heat oven to 425.  Rinse tomatos, and place them in a baking pan, ideally in a single layer.  Add a few peeled garlic cloves-- and a few tablespoons oil-stirring the tomatoes to both coat them and the bottom of the pan. I added black pepper, smoked paprika, and coriander--all optional.  Just as the aromas of roasting tomatoes and garlic suffused the house, the dish was done--maybe it took a half hour.  

Biked to the brunch, where I happily shared my salad, then biked on to Trader Joe's where I replenished a few staples before returning home.  More surprising to me than all this biking is the realization that I am scarcely driving my car these days.  Perhaps this is my inverse way of gearing up for my next drive across country.  Hard to know.

Sunday night supper--scrambled eggs with spinach, portobello mushrooms and tomatoes

Continued to work my way through the 99¢ store purchases for dinner.   The tomatoes I roasted this morning were ready to go.  In addition I made
Portobello Mushrooms in a Japanese style Sauce:
2 portobello mushrooms, cut in half inch slices
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1 clover crushed or minced garlic

Wash mushrooms.  Arrange slices in a baking pan.  Whisk the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and garlic.  Brush or pour  the mixture over the mushrooms.

Place mushroom in pre-heated broiler.  Cook for five-ten minutes, until soft.  If there is extra sauce, you can spoon it over mushrooms while serving.  As a variation, you can leave the mushroom caps whole, brush them with the sauce--and cook until soft (that will take longer).

I'm always thinking I want to make creamed spinach, but rarely do.  Here's my  version  almost creamed spinach I made:

ALMOST CREAMED SPINACH
1 pound baby spinach
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
2-4 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
heavy cream (up to 1/3 cup)

Rinse the spinach.   The clinging water should be enough to cook it in--put in large pan--cover cook for a minute or two until soft. Drain in a fine mesh strainer, pressing out as much moisture as possible, then chop finely and set aside.
Melt butter in frying pan.  Add shallots and garlic and cook for about two minutes, until soft--garlic shouldn't brown.  Add spinach and cook a bit longer.  Then add salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream--and cook for another few minutes.  If you're using the full complement of cream, it should reduce significantly.  Serve hot.

I pushed the spinach to the side and scrambled two eggs in the pan, hence the spinachy scrambled eggs pictured above.