Clean Plate

After the dog run, I went to the farmers' market in search of more apple butter. Little did I know there'd be so many other kinds of fruit butters. I bought two: peach, which I've seen before, and strawberry, which I never have. Lucky me. They had others: blackberry peach, plum, etc., but I figured I should limit myself, at least a little bit.

For brunch I warmed up leftover Curried Black-Eyed Peas With Tomatoes and Mushrooms  from last night . It was even better and spicier the next day. This is a great winter meal.

It was time to try another exotic fruit. This is a pepino melon :

Once again, I waited too long. Here's the inside. You can see it's browning around the top and bottom:

I tasted some of the non-rotting flesh. It was bland. It tasted like an extremely watered-down cantaloupe, so I chucked it after one bite and opted instead for yogurt with the new fruit butters: peach on the left, strawberry on the right.

We had company coming for dinner--they wanted to make pizzas. Before they arrived, I put together this Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza suggested by commenter Jill Brickey . I made mine on bread-machine whole-wheat crust and used white asparagus. Here is pizza slice No. 1. My crust was a bit dense--I had my doubts about the yeast I used--but the toppings were amazing. Yes, I'd like some starch with my starch, please.

Pizza slice No. 2 came from a more traditional pizza: marinara, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, garlic, parmesan, and basil leaves on a delicious cornmeal crust my guests brought from Whole Foods. Yum. Perfect texture.

Another guest brought an exquisite chocolate mousse cake from Financier Bakery in Manhattan. Yes, I had some. I didn't want to be rude. Yeah, that's why. He couldn't have chosen a better cake for a chocolate fiend if he had tried. It was so rich, you could really only eat a little sliver.

No, it wasn't a very healthy eating day, but it was the first social occasion of the new year. Considering it was pizza and chocolate cake, I think I did all right. I'll have to mainline some greens tomorrow.