I lied. We have been cooking, and also eating.

For one thing, I seem to have been suddenly buried by the shrimpocalypse. We bought a bag of frozen shrimp for John's mom's visit, and although we did eat a number of them together one night, I've been cramming them down by myself on an alarming number of occasions. Up to about a year ago, I hated shrimp viciously, but now, lo! Shrimp! I want to eat it immediately and often!

Seared shrimp with garlic

olive oil/butter
garlic
frozen shrimp, defrosted in hot water and peeled (or not, whichever)
salt, pepper

Warm some oil/melt some butter on medium in a saute pan. Crush and peel four or five cloves of garlic; drop them into the oil and cook, turning occasionally, until softened. While this is going on you can peel the shrimp.

When the garlic has softened and started to turn golden brown, set your shrimp into the pan. I eat maybe six or eight shrimp at a time. Turn the heat up a touch, then sear quickly, turning once. Shrimp cook very fast! Give them about two minutes per side. As soon as they are pink all over, turn off the heat and tip them onto a plate.

Eat with a whole pile of delicious salad with chive vinaigrette.

Speaking of salad: we got our first CSA box and immediately started filling our maws with piles of vegetables. So many vegetables: romaine and redleaf and mesclun mix and asparagus and bok choy and apples and spinach and a pot of basil and a big bag of chives. You know what makes a piece of cheap neighborhood pizza palatable? Covering it with a big whack of mesclun mix before eating it. Yes.

Then the vegetables weren't enough and we went to the farmer's market for pints of strawberries. On the way home a random dude on the street was joking with me, all "hey, strawberries! Can I have one?" He was pretty surprised when I instantly gave him one. Yay strawberries!

At home the strawberries turned into salad with spinach and basil. I macerated the berries in lemon juice first. That was a good idea, but I should've also drained them. Too much lemon in the finished product. Basil and strawberries do in fact work well together, though. Tiny chiffonaded basil is clearly best; that way the berries can be dominant.

Strawberry basil spinach salad

strawberries
half a lemon
fresh basil
spinach

Cut strawberries into pleasing halves or quarters. Halve a lemon, squeeze it, and pour the juice over the berries. Let them sit and macerate for a half hour or so before draining.

Wash, dry, destem, and chop a bunch of spinach. Take a few leaves of basil, roll them together, and slice finely to chiffonade them.

Fill bowls with spinach, basil, and berries. Eat it all with a fork.

This stuff is pungent and sweet and subtle. Salad explosion!