Hand to mouth cuisine: cooking when you're broke

I admit, this was not the most "responsible" month of my life.

I may have overindulged in my spending a bit, but I blame that entirely on the unheard of phenomenon of winter turning into spring, and the related euphoria of being able to buy clothes that dont make me look like a sherpa. Plus, living in the most expensive city in the world and maintaining a fabulous social calendar does not come cheaply. And let's not forget, I have a dog with very expensive tastes.

In any case, I find myself on an... unexpected diet. This diet consists of dining with only very generous friends, and trying to use all the contents of my cabinets and fridge before I go shopping. This experiment is pretty cool actually, it leads to some radical juxtapositions and some very creative cooking.

For example, last night I got to eat at the fantastic East Village restaurant Prune, living it up with an appetizer of roasted marrow bone with grey sea salt and parsley salad (shown).

This morning, though, I had to pack lunch and snacks using only boca burgers, carrots, eggs, and excessively healthy cereal. What's a talented chef to do? Start digging in the cabinets.

- Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients to make buttermilk biscuits (since when do I have buttermilk in the fridge? Oh. Maybe that wasn't buttermilk...). A very sophisticated omelet with the very last of a rind of gruyere and biscuits straight from the oven? Not a bad start to this experiment.

-snack #1: overly healthy cereal with pilfered milk at the office. Not everything can be tasty, ok?

-lunch: boca burger in a pita I found in a package waaaay in the back of my freezer. It may have been left there by the previous tenant, like the subscription to Sports Illustrated.

-lunch #2 : shredded said carrot and mixed it with a can of garbanzo beans, tossed with sesame oil and a forgotten container of sesame seeds. Ate this with what may have been crackers found in my desk, or may have just been cardboard reproductions of crackers.

-snack #2: Pretended I was friends with someone I don't know in order to snag a slice of birthday pizza.  Delicious.

Late afternoon sweets: Thank goodness I work at an office with a designated candy table. Jujubees, I love you.

I have almost no fresh food in the house to make dinner with. But never fear! Oriechette with garlic and lemon zest, a little bit of parsley, and whatever cheese I have left sounds pretty darn good to me. I might even have the ingredients to make dessert. Now if someone could only buy me a drink, this could be a classy night.