I hate trying to come up with titles for these posts

I had my first Experience with the MTA today! A normally 25- to 30-minute ride back from the Museum of Modern Art turned into a nearly hour-and-a-half crawl through the underside of New York while an obnoxiously well-dressed man ranted in English and Portuguese (at least, I think it was Portuguese) to his absurdly tolerant girlfriend. Add to that the fact that I got up at 6:30 to have a morning yoga class and subsequently spent six hours in the library studying. By the time I got home, all I wanted was something warm to cram into my mouth with gusto.

Enter Mark Bittman once again, this time with a pearl couscous and vegetable gratin. I don't have couscous, so I used barley instead; I omitted the pesto he has us home cooks mix in with the milk and egg to pour over the grain/vegetable blend. Instead, I just stirred up a mix of mushrooms, caramelized onions, string beans, and roasted tomato, poured the beaten egg and milk over it, and topped the dish with goat cheese. Twenty minutes later... dinner!



It wouldn't have been so quick if I hadn't roasted the tomato yesterday out of fear that it would mold before I had a chance to get to it. It's perversely appealing to gloat as 45 minutes in the oven turns this nice, plump tomato into a shriveled old crone tomato.



Delicious shriveled old crone tomato, that is.