Damn me. Exactly six months ago the timer went off on my OED and I was prompted to re-insert the CD so I could continue to use it. I remember now that at the time I realized that I was going to be in Amsterdam the next time it expired, so I should take the CD with me. Of course I forgot it. So now I have no dictionary other than a little one-volume Dutch-English/English-Dutch paperback while three hundred bucks worth of software sits uselessly on my hard drive. How come none of my supposed friends reminded me of this?

Have you ever been in a produce market and seen a specimen so beautiful that you simply had no choice but to buy it? Figuring out what you were going to do with it and when would come later.

I'm sitting here staring at what still looks like the most perfect cauliflower I've ever seen....from Albert Heijn, yet. Not that I don't get excellent cauliflower at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, and not that this thing could possibly taste any better, but still it's unbelievably beautiful. This vendor has kept more of the leaves around the head, which serves both to protect the head from the scuffing that so quickly causes those brown spots and also to display it coyly.

Thus, instead of Carol Doda at the Condor, you have a princess with a bit of décolletage. Check out Herrick's "On Julia's Clothes" for an elucidation of this principle.

I don't have any plans to be cooking for anyone for the next few days, so the only logical thing to do is cook it for my supper. But how? Following the rule that the finer the raw product, the more simply it should be cooked, I decide that what I'll do is carefully cut off a third of the flowerlets into this soup dish, throw a tablespoon of water into the bottom, draw a plastic bag over the dish, and microwave it for two minutes. I do so after yielding to temptation and eating a few of the flowerlets raw. Yum.

I guessed right. In two minutes, it's nearly ready but still has a little more crunch to it than I want in a hot vegetable. I drain out the remaining water, shower it generously with shavings of the aged gouda I picked up the other day, and stick it back in the microwave for thirty more seconds.

It is perfect. The cauliflower is cooked but not steamed senseless, and the cheese, even though it's aged long enough to be pretty hard, has melted well. How utterly simple and how delicious! Do try this at home, folks.

And since I'm talking about food: I've mentioned how much cheaper a lot of things are in Albert Heijn than back home in Safeway. Now, to be fair, I gotta point out that some things are just as bad and others are even worse. Like for example, citrus fruit in general is a lot more expensive here. This one's not too surprising since it's called "sunny California" for a reason, but still, that pair of limes I bought the other day was €0,99! And the other day I saw carefully sealed in plastic two heads of fresh garlic with perhaps four inches of white stem attached for €1,99. Oh puhleeeeeez. I was desperate for the lime, but fresh garlic will never cross these lips at that price.

Oh, and here's another Morcky Boy sighting, just a couple of blocks beyond Albert Heijn on Spuistraat: