Big day today....

...I am going to attempt to cook. Accent on the attempt part. Because those who know me, know this sort of thing happens once every 50 years. And I'm only 40.

Just to give you some context, I have never watched any of those cooking channels on The Food Channel or that Top Chef show that people talk about all the time. I don't even know if The Food Channel is part of my cable package. I never saw the movie Julie & Julia and have no interest, even though I love Meryl Streep. And when they announced that Gourmet magazine was about to become extinct and all my friends started freaking out, I was relieved because the girl who used to live here apparently had a subscription and it keeps coming here which means I recycle it without even cracking it open. But I secretly wish I had some interest in that stuff. Just like I secretly wish that I was one of those people who loved The Container Store because I really had an interest in making the best use of the minimal amount of space that constitutes a NYC apartment. But I just don't (a) because I have become quite fond of the prepared food sections of Whole Foods and Lifetyme Natural Market (b) I like to think that disorganization is the hallmark of a very creative mind.

But what spurred on this whole cooking thing was that yesterday I spent the day writing with my friend Ophira Edut, who is one half of The AstroTwins , (her twin sister Tali--who just got married at Burning Man -- congrats, Tali--is the other half). Ophira is amazingly cool on a lot of different levels...not the least of which is that if you tell her the astrological sign of a guy you're interested in, she can tell you EXACTLY what he's like....and you can read all about that in their book The AstroTwins' Love Zodiac But even better than that is the fact that Ophira cooks. Not only that, but apparently, she enjoys cooking which is about as foreign an idea to me as the notion that one day I'll (a) perfect my French accent to the point where the waiters at Cafe de Flore don't grimace when I ask for my cafe creme or (b) I'll organize my apartment and find a place for my shoes other than the middle of my bedroom floor. So yesterday, as I sat there plugging away on Lucy #3, Ophria made lentil soup. And it was so good -- and so perfect for what was trying to be a beautiful autumn day but falling short because it was still on the warm side -- that I became very inspired. Inspired to the point where I asked her for the recipe, which, much to my surprise and dismay, was so easy that a 5 year old could make it as long as he or she had proper supervision during the chopping part.

I say dismay, because even though I have what I believe is the tiniest kitchen on the island of Manhattan (see above picture for evidence) the recipe is so easy with so few steps that I can make it here.

So because it's technically autumn, and because I'm still sick with with what I'm sure is some new strain of flu -- like, say, monkey flu -- and because I need to stop using that PMS excuse and stop eating sugar and start eating vegetables and protein again, I. Am. Going. To. Cook. Soup. (Is that even proper grammar -- does one "cook soup" or "make soup"?

Not only that, but I'm going to also make some sort of eggplant thingy while I'm at it. Or at least buy the ingredients for it which will probably then spoil in the fridge because I'll lose steam and interest during this marathon cooking session and walk to Whole Foods and get my usual quinoa/beet/tofu salad combination like I do every day.

I will, of course, blog about this all later.