Left to My Own Devices

I have been on my own this week. When times such as these roll around I generally begin with a plan....

I wake up after sleeping in late and glide down to the kitchen. I treat myself to lovely breakfasts of fresh fruit topped waffles, omelets, or homebaked muffins and steaming cups of tea. After whiling away the morning with a good book I have a lunch of fresh vegetable salad or a bowl of soup and fresh baked bread. I play on the computer, do some work, wander around, etc. until I sit down to a nutritious and organic dinner. Salmon and couscous? Sweet Potato and black bean chili? Eight Vegetable Stir Fry? I will close the evening watching some deep, philosophical film and have sorbet or something before I drift into sleep.

That is the initial thought. However, when it comes to crunch time I am inevitably hit with the need, to, well...eat like a child. Bring on the tunafish sandwich on white, the hot dogs and baked beans, the bologna, the fish sticks and mac-n-cheese! Load on the oreos, the Honey Nut Cheerios, the PopTarts, the soda. On Nachos, on popcorn, on pizza and...so on.

This time I tried to be better, honest. I can't say that I have succeeded completely, but I haven't ordered pizza once. I have had convenience food, but I find a bit of comfort in the fact that they are Amy's Kitchen Organic frozen meals. I am a fan and at least I have had some vegetables. My favorites are the Veggie Loaf Whole Meal, Broccoli Pot Pie and the Indian Mattar Paneer. I have been supplementing by digging into my stash of watermelon (sprinkled with some fleur de sel, divine!), oranges, strawberries and grapes.

And I actually cooked for myself. I made linguine with red sauce and had it with a glass of wine (a Carmenere/Merlot to be exact) and a cup of cherries. I have included photographic evidence. Some may argue that spaghetti and meat sauce is still a kid's dish, but I would argue that there is little of the Spaghetti-O about this. I tweaked a recipe from Southern Living slightly and I think it is a lot better than bottled.



Recipe:

1/2 pound mild Italian sausage
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce (I used Muir Glen)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
3 cups water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
Some Italian herb blend--a good couple of shakes
1 to 1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
Cooked Linguine
Shredded Parmesan

1. I buy bulk sausage when I can, but you can just cut sausages open and get the filling out. Cook the ground beef and sausage in a large skillet (or Dutch oven) over medium heat for about six minutes. Stir it to break up the meat into crumbles. Add onion and garlic and cook for four more minutes or until the meat is no longer pink and the onion has softened some. Drain and set aside. Wipe the skillet clean.

2. Combine the tomato sauce and the next 8 ingredients in your skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. A splatter guard is a wonderful device for times like this. I keep mine just slightly off so that a bit of sauce is exposed. I think it lets some moisture evaporate while protecting most of my cooking surface, but I could be wrong. Add the sausage mixture and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour and 30 minutes or until it thickens. Serve over the pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

It was satisfying and filled the house with the homey scent of cooking. All in all it was a success. I prefer cooking for others, but it was nice to treat myself.

Tonight I was back to the usual. I had fried egg and Ore-Ida Crispy Crowns with Heinz Ketchup and green peas....I guess there is no keeping the kid down. I hope Adam comes home soon so I will be inspired to eat like an adult again. If only for a meal or two.

TV Woes: A Vent

I understand why commercials exist. I even enjoy a few of them and will go out of my way to watch the ones that amuse me. I don't mind a heads-up about what is coming up later, either.

What I do not understand is how stations think that it is in any way acceptable for commercials and promotions to actually disrupt their programming.

I was irritated when a local network affiliate blocked the subtitles in an episode of "Heroes" with the station number. However, I chalked it up to an idiotic mistake and luckily it didn't last the entire episode. But honestly, how difficult is it to pay attention to stuff like that?

Most instances aren't mistakes. It is obvious that the promotions are deliberately inserted into the program.

I dislike it when I am watching one show and an ad for another show runs through it. The animations are distracting and the shows they pimp are usually weak anyway. The worst, in my opinion, was the old promo for the first season of the "Anna Nicole Show". In addition to distracting me visually, I was subjected to a sound effect. The dog yipping would block out dialogue in the show I was trying to watch. I stopped watching E! for some time because of it. I may have hurt the mute button on the remote as well.

By now I am resigned to the practice of cutting off or "scrunching" credits in part of the screen while promotions play. Today took it to another level. I got sucked into watching "Rocky" on Spike TV. Sure, I have seen it many times before, but it has been a while and I was enjoying it. I could not believe it when the last few minutes of the movie were shoved to the bottom of the screen while the "Chick Chick Boom" spot played. They couldn't even wait for the credits.

I guess I should be thankful that they let us hear who won the fight.

Maybe they believe that the target audience for Spike TV doesn't care about the emotional aspects of the film, but I think that is insulting. Why wouldn't they (we?) care about Rocky and his loved ones? Those final moments are really important to the character and to the film as a whole. Sure, the big fight is the climax of the movie, but it just isn't a satisfactory ending on its own.

So, I say that the practice is weak. It just seems counterproductive. How is it beneficial to the station that a self-promotion would drive me away? I was happily watching their product. And now I'm not.

Instead, I am here.

Deep breath.

Out.

Surprise Carnivals

Our surprise today actually began with something unusual...I decided to hold off on purchasing yet another cookbook. I have been trying to be better about managing my collection so I thought to check the library rather than just buying them immediately. It turns out that the new branch of our county library carries them so I added a stop to our list of errands.

Adam was convinced that I had set him up when we arrived at the Klondike branch. The parking lot was pretty packed, cars were parked alongside the road and there were a lot more people milling around than one would expect. Apparently today was the Grand Opening of the Branch.

There were extra attractions like a man with a parrot and free Klondike bars for the occasion. I think what I liked the most was actually the experience of being in a library that was packed with people excited about checking out books. I guess I have a soft spot for books and readers to begin with, but the whole scene just made me...happy. You know that kind of silly grin, full heart kind of feeling. Usually mobs of kids put me on edge, but give those kids an armload of books and I am in love. Maybe it is because I remember how much I loved the library when I was a kid. Whatever the reason, I left with my selections and a good mood.

The next stop was the drugstore. Waiting for a prescription is a dangerous time. The only thing to do is to wander the aisles. I resisted the toothbrush that plays music (courtesy of Hanna Montana), the hair magnets, and any number of trashy magazines, only to succumb to the impulse buy when I spied the New! Limited Edition! bag of Carnival Skittles. I have tried them all and they are pretty good, at least for Skittles. The odd thing is that I have never been all that mad for Skittles. I don't even really enjoy carnivals all that much. Go figure.

The cotton candy tastes pretty accurate...though one of the best parts about the real thing is the texture. I remember the first time I had cotton candy was at a circus. I watched a woman eating this fantastic looking pink cloud and I guess I must have been staring because I caught her attention. She gave me a piece and it was pretty amazing. Pulling off big airy pieces and letting it melt on your tongue, or biting off a hunk and getting both the pillowy and granular edges of the sugar at once, or compressing pieces into harder lumps were all part of "the ritual." I also liked to put my tongue on it to enjoy the contrast in colors, but that particular practice usually got a look, so it was best done on the sly.

The bubble gum tastes like bubble gum and the red licorice tastes like Twizzlers. That is fine by me because I still like the stuff. Adam doesn't like it so when I get some for the movies I am a bit more self-conscious about it. That attention made me realize that it may be a fine thing to gnaw on, but the smell really is awful. I may have to swear off Twizzlers.

As you might expect, the candy apple isn't like the real thing, unless apples have started to taste like Jolly Ranchers. It isn't bad, but it doesn't really evoke any particular memories. The final one, lime slushy, didn't do it for me at all. It tastes okay, but it seems like an afterthought. Even the name is a stretch. I think it may be a standard formula that they stuck in there and renamed. Or maybe I just never had a slushy at the carnival. Sno-Cones galore, but no slushy. (And I was a blue raspberry girl all the way, anyway).

I guess I have my answer. It seems appropriate that I grabbed a little Carnival on a sunny summery day. The trip down memory lane was fun and if it was a little plastic and artificial, so be it. The sugar buzz will let me power through any regret....just as it always has.