Worse Than Catfood

Just finished an episode of HOUSE where the patient was addicted to blogging. I hope I don't contract some terrible mystery ailment as a result of blogging!

Well. It happens to the best of us. A week or so ago it happened to my friend Adam. He had the best of intentions and somehow made a dinner that he deemed: Catfood.

Last night I made something not even cats would eat. I doubt even swine would deign to try it. And I was soooo looking forward to it!

Aaron and I love Indian Food and every now and then I buy a few things from the ethnic section of the grocery store and try to re-create some of that Indian food magic. We've had one or two good-ish homemade\storebought Indian dinner nights. Last night was NOT one of them.

It was the fucking red lentils. They obstinately REFUSED to soften up. I pre-bakes tofu to make it more paneer-like and it was not yummy like paneer (aaron ate some but I said:no way!). Basically I have this huge sickly yellow, aromatic, vomitous looking mess in my big wok on the stove right now that I will have to deal with when I finish blogging. I was too heartsick over it last night and it was raining too hard to want to bring it to the dumpster.

In a last ditch, plan-B effort to salvage some of the dinner I threw some indian pre-packaged bullshit in the microwave, threw some vaguely Indian sauce on some Uncle Ben's Basmati and served it up with some Garlic Naan. Only the Naan was palatable.

It felt like I wasted so much time and effort. Aaron still ate a bunch- even rescuing some potatoes and tofu from the abonination on the stove and adding them to his Uncle Ben's mix. I was really disheartened and I apologized and he said: "Don't apologize! Do you know how much it means to me that you cook dinner for us?" He was really supportive and sweet.

He also thanked me for making him breakfast (usually just toast) every morning and lunches to take with him to school. He's a pretty swell guy.

Sometimes I even feel like Donna Reed- except when I kiss him goodbye at the door in the morning I usually flash him something naughty to make him smile.

Ah well. I don't know what to do for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll cruise some recipe websites and see what I come up with. I have this recipe from my friend Jeff with pears and brussels sprouts, but what the hell goes with something like that- besides a lovely chicken breast???

Another recipe\dinner connundrum: St. Patrick's day is tomorrow and this will be my very first as a vegetarian. I happen to LOVE LOVE LOVE corned beef and cabbage boiled dinner. Not every Irish American cares for it, but I was always clamoring for the corned beef! When I lived in NY I always went to a restaurant on St. Pats so I could have it. I kind of don't want to skip over it and pretend the holiday isn't there just because of corned beef.

So what- I could boil the veggies, but what else? There are some began recipes involving seitan but I'm not the biggest fan and they seem rather complicated. Ugh. I'll give it some thought today and maybe run to the market for ingredients. Another option is to take the traditional veggies and serve them in some other way. Carrots, Potatoes, Cabbage, Turnip, Mustard (ok, not a veggie, but pretty traditional flavoring), vinegar, SALT,. Who knows? I kind of doubt I have heart enough for two stunning culinary failures this week.

Maybe the luck of the Irish will see me through!