Last night’s dinner was a bowl of beige and brown things: rice and quinoa “pilaf” or whatever, roasted eggplants, mushrooms, and onions.
In the beginning I promised you all that I would never apologize for an absence, because people are busy and don’t even notice when newsletters they subscribe to but then mostly ignore are on pause for a little while.
But unsurprisingly, that’s not the case with Laura’s Dinner and its massive, devoted fanbase, who have been poking me for months to get back on the ol horse.
It’s difficult to enumerate how much my life has changed since my last LD post in May 2024, because the reasons are not only big life events (bought a condo, left NY, got married, became an aunt!) but also slippery, amorphous shifts in feelings, attitudes, relationships (I no longer believe that socks are relevant to my life, etc). Laura’s Dinner has been quiet, but Laura’s Life has not been.
Anyway, the reason we’re all here: my basmati-quinoa blend. I discovered last night that while I strongly dislike quinoa on its own, it provides a fun textural contrast when mixed with rice. I just boiled/steamed them together, who cares. I also added a small handful of this fried garlic and that was a good decision.
I seasoned the eggplant, mushrooms, and onions with cumin, garlic and onion powders, a fun fennel blend I got a while ago from Burlap and Barrel, s + p, and lots of olive oil. Roasted for like 25 minutes at 425ºF and broiled for a few seconds at the end.
Of course I made a green sauce consisting of yogurt, vegan feta, parsley, cilantro, scallions, vinegar, and salt. John and I topped our bowls with the sauce, cucumbers, some barely-pickled onions that I had just thrown in to my Perpetual Pickle Jar, more feta, and crispy shallots.
I probably could have skipped the yogurt altogether and this would be 100% vegan, which I always like to point out because I think being accidentally (or intentionally) vegan in today’s world is an encouragable accomplishment, either that or I have a low bar for accomplishments.
We now have a big TV in our living room that we enjoy watching movies and Modern Family on, but John and I are still trying to uphold our unique tradition of having dinner at the table and actually talking to each other. I just tried to remember what we talked about last night, and it turned out to be nothing because instead of emotionally connecting with each other through meaningful conversation, we listened to a podcast recapping our favorite TV show, Severance. Oh well.
I’m very excited to share this tangible thing because it’s in the hall of fame of best gifts I’ve ever been given: my deeply fashionable HiTurbo microfiber towel dress.
Since I live in Florida now, I swim laps multiple times a week, in between my other Florida activities of Gator wrestling and writing my blog about how to plan every 30 seconds of your family trip to Disney World.
My mom gave me my HiTurbo in November for my birthday, and it’s warm, sexy, and absorbent. I haven’t used a beach towel since, and my confidence is higher than ever because I look so beautiful. Thanks Mom!
Glad you’re back!!