A bonus photo from the birthday picnic: blanched asparagus with preserved lemon.

I've been fighting a cold all week, so exactly zero exciting cooking endeavors have been attempted. In fact, the only cooking I've been doing is toasting. Because when I am sick, I get hungry: hungry for toast. And malt-o-meal¹. And pretty much anything that's white and covered in butter, although gatorade and saltines make the grade too. Thank goodness for Greg, without him I wouldn't have eaten any protein or vegetables at all week.

Usually I get especially hungry right after I turn the corner towards recovery. Once, in college, over Christmas break, I had a horrible cold. After my fever broke, I woke up starving, and my mom made me a simple sandwich with soft multigrain bread, cold dark meat chicken, mayo, salt and pepper. It was divine, possibly the best thing I had ever eaten. I finished it and asked for another. And a third. About then, my Mom wondered: maybe I was feeling well enough to make my own sandwiches now, and also did I know we were out of chicken? I still think about that sandwich every time I get sick... What do you crave when you're sick? (Aside from someone else to make it and bring it to you on the couch.)

1. Why don't they sell Malt-o-Meal on the East Coast? It is only THE BEST hot cereal in the universe. I am even willing to pay extra baggage fees to smuggle it back from Cali.