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From Brussels With ….

by Marian Allen

That was the month she pretended to be Mark Watney.

You know, from THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir. It’s not much of a spoiler to say he had to try to live on potatoes for a long time. After a while, he didn’t look so good (in the movie, which was saying something, since he was played by her favorite Matt Damon), so she decided she would do, as her grandfather used to say, the same thing only different while she was reading the book.

She loved all kinds of squash and she loved cole crops: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. So she decided she’d spend the summer eating just those. She’d been toying with the idea of vegetarianism, and this seemed like as good a way as any to go, as it were, cold turkey from meat.

The first week was fun. It was summer, and the farmers markets were full of possibilities, and the grocery’s produce was fresh and local and had what the markets didn’t.

She allowed herself the herbs and spices and cooking oils she had on hand, which helped switch things up.

Cabbage slaw and summer squash sliced into rounds and cooked in a little butter. Cauliflower roasted with mustard, mayonnaise, and cheddar cheese with zucchini fritters (okay, a little flour, an egg, it was her game; she could cheat if she wanted to). Acorn squash sliced into rounds, brushed with coconut oil and sprinkled with cumin seeds and baked in the toaster oven along with a broccoli and raisin salad (Raisins? What raisins? I don’t see any raisins here on Mars. I don’t see any walnuts, either. Or any salad dressing).

The second week started well but flagged. There were plenty of recipes, in her head, in her cookbooks, and online, but it had started to feel like work. It hurt her to pass up cucumbers, radishes, green onions, and tender spring lettuces. But she was committed.

By the third week, she was skimming the book and had to go back and reread whole chunks, because skimming was cheating. You could cheat with food, but not with reading. Reading was sacred.

Then she was finished. She closed the book, went back and reread the last page, and closed the book again. She was free. She could eat anything she could find, buy, or grow.

She loved the book, she loved the movie, she loved cole crops, and she loved squash, but she thought maybe she wouldn’t do this whole thing again, although it had given her a new appreciation of what had seemed a minor problem for the stranded astronaut.

Then she had butternut squash and Brussels sprouts cooked in a pan on the grill.

MY PROMPT FOR TODAY: The butternut squash and Brussels sprouts I cooked on the grill. Again, yes, that is a Christmas plate. I use them all year. They’re cheery.

MA