Despite my best efforts, positive thinking, and water drinking it happened: I got sick. It was a quick little 48-hour head cold - the kind where you think your eyes are going to explode. (Fortunately, my eyes did not explode.)

- Walnut Flax No-Knead Bread

- Roasted Beet Risotto

- Poached Catfish

I think the longest paper I ever wrote in college was a 15-pager about the artist Yves Klein. He's the guy in that photo who looks like he's swan-diving from the ledge of the building, you know, this one. He hosted those evenings where women would paint their bodies blue and press themselves against canvas. (He called these anthropometries.) He also did fire paintings. He patented his own color: International Klein Blue, IKB for short. He painted large canvases with this color and only this color. He believed the color blue had no dimensions, it was...beyond.

I like color and I like believing it's "beyond". I like going to hardware stores and collecting stacks of paint samples - and I mean stacks. My preferred designer to collect is Martha Stewart (available at Lowe's,) a close second is Mythic Paint. Not only are their paints non-toxic, but their samples come in sheets. Sheets! Color is calming for me, it's lets me breathe, it's like an inhaler.

Did you know that when added to bread walnuts turn the dough sort of purple-ish? It's true. See:

We can't get enough of this No-Knead Bread, we go through a loaf of two a week. I look forward to eating oven-fresh bread slathered in butter, it's one of the greatest experiences - ever. George made this loaf on Saturday and it set the tone for Sunday. I almost remade the strudel from last time, but the walnuts made me think of beets. (Duh.) So bright, so pretty, so unreal. The color of beets tells me everything's going to be okay. The only acceptable option was going to be either a giant bowl of beets or beets added to something that would become bright pink - a.k.a rice.

With little trouble, a Risotto with Beet Greens and Roasted Beets recipe was located on the NY Times website and we were off and running. The other think I love about beets is that you can eat the whole thing! Roots! Greens! It's all delicious. Bonus: the greens look great in a sea of beet risotto.

Second bonus: living where we do we can get some great catfish locally. Triple bonus: I found an awesome incredibly easy recipe for poached fish. It takes 15 minutes, tops. I've used this recipe for sole, catfish, and tilapia.

Poached Catfish

from Real Simple

1 lb. catfish fillets

3/4 c. dry white wine (water is also acceptable)

2 T. capers

2 T. olive oil

2 T. chopped chives

salt & pepper to taste

Cut each fillet in half, you know, "spatula size". Heat wine in a large skillet, then add fish, drizzle with olive oil and capers. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 4 minutes, they'll become opaque and will flake easily. Sprinkle with chives.

As promised, we whipped up some stock a couple weeks ago. Big surprise, in order to make chicken stock one actually needs a whole chicken. My PSA for the week: read the entire recipe before you start. We'd already eaten the chicken; we opted for vegetable stock.

More and more we're finding uses for stock, like: soups, couscous (pearled, aka Israeli, couscous is currently my favorite), rice...okay so it's mostly just grains at this point, but you get the idea. I'm not opposed to those incredibly handy tetra packs of stock, but making it yourself requires just a little chopping and a bunch of waiting. This is the sort of thing I'd like to make at least a gallon of it to have on hand, and we aimed for a gallon, but in fact ended up with about half as much.

The idea of stock is pretty basic - boil vegetables and/or meats to extract flavor and nutrients, then use it to flavor other things. We began by roasting the vegetables, which is optional, but I figure if I'm going to bother making it, why not. So, roast up the veggies and garlic, transfer them to a large stock pot and add water, meat, bones, and herbs. Then cover, simmer, and wait. Some recipes call for a few hours, some call for half a day. Lastly, what's left of the vegetables and meats are strained out.

I'd intended to make soup from the stock, but by the end of the five or six hour simmering session I needed something more exciting to cook. George is in charge of cooking certain things around here: eggs, meats and risotto. These are things that require patience and dedication, these things some more naturally to him than to me. Asparagus Salmon Risotto is was, and it was delicious.

Mostly Vegetable Stock

adapted from Mark Bittman's Vegetable Stock, and Joy of Cooking's Chicken Stock

1/3 - 1/2 c. olive oil

3 large onions, quartered

5 carrots, quartered

4 celery stalks, halved

4 small-medium sized potatoes, washed, quartered

1 head garlic, peeled

bones & leftover meat from 1, 4lb. chicken

4 sprigs fresh thyme

12 sprigs fresh parsley

small handful fresh basil

2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

some peppercorns

1/2 c. dry white wine

7 c. water

salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and garlic in a large roasting pan, toss with olive oil and place in the oven. Let veggies roast about 45 minutes, turning vegetables over a couple times until everything is browned.

After roasting is finished scoop veggies into a large stock pot, add remaining ingredients, 4 cups water and place over high heat.

Place the roasting pan over a burner, add about 4 c. water (depending on height of pan), and turn heat to high. Bring to a boil, scraping all the bits stuck to the pan. Add this to the stock pot and being to a boil.

Cover and barely simmer for 5 - 6 hours.

Strain, pressing veggies to extract as much liquid as possible. Add salt, if necessary. Stock is now ready to be used, refrigerated (keeps for up to 4 or 5 days), or frozen.