The theme of this week may well be "foods Jeff thought he didn't like until I found a recipe that made him change his mind. Before moving I ripped up all my stored Gourmet magazines and tore out only recipes I had tried and liked and recipes I was really, really going to try already. And from the latter stack came Moroccan-spiced chicken paillards and couscous with olives and lemon. Definitely make these two together, as the chicken sauce goes well with the couscous. And unless you are the world's slowest cook, there is no way the chicken will take 35 minutes. I did think this required a ridiculous amount of pots and pans for a Wednesday night, but it was nice to finally feel that my cast iron grill pan had a good use- the charmarks it left on the chicken made Jeff actually exclaim, "wow!" when he saw the meal. And then, the olives complemented the couscous so nicely that he proclaimed he actually liked couscous. Go figure.

I've also been doing a ton of food related reading. Barry Glassner's Everything you think you know about food is wrong or whatever, which stuck with me about as well as the title did- basically he thinks you should eat whatever? Marion Nestle's What to Eat, which I thoroughly enjoyed even if none of it was really news. And The United States of Arugula, which was gossipy and fun, although it contained WAY more information about Craig Claiborne than I ever wanted to know.

My next big project is a kitchen garden- I am planning on getting some raised beds, and maybe even composting. Any tips, books, or websites on the subject y'all could suggest?