Smelling our way to supper

W brings home a few bags of packaged salad. I choose one, open it, and dump it into a big bowl. As I inhale deeply, supper comes to me.

W shaves 2/3 of a ripe pear into the bowl and I toss in:

• a big handful of pine nuts
• 2 sliced fresh mushrooms

and raid the cupboard to whip up a dressing:

• 2 tbsp. blueberry maple syrup
• 2 tbsp. champagne vinegar
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• flower pepper (Trader Joes)
• S. African smoke seasoning (TJ)
• seasoning salt (Lawrey's) 

It sits on the counter until we're ready to eat, the flavors mixing and combining.

We're hungry so don't have a lot of time to prep a main course. We have leftover rice, which starts my nose twitching. I heat 2 tbsp. of oil and stir-fry:

• 2 c. cooked rice
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 diced carrot
• a sprinkle of dried onion
• 1 teaspoon of finely chopped garlic

When it's almost done, I add:

• 1 tbsp. of reduced sodium soy sauce. 

I'm getting better at tossing things around the frying pan without dropping them all over the stove. The chef at NU told me practice makes perfect and boldness in the flick of the wrist is a good thing. She was right!

Before the rice goes to the table, I stir in 1 tsp. sesame oil.

The salad and rice are quite yummy, especially with a few tiny pieces of smoked salmon on the side.

Rating: 4/5
Taste: savory, sweet, and satisfying. A handful of fresh blueberries would have rocked the salad. The fried rice - very good but it occurs to me post-meal that I could have added 2 tsp. smoked black sesame seeds for color and texture.
Time to fix: 10-15 minutes
Calories: 700?
Tea: Jasmine green