Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

Reading this article by Marcelle Richards of Gastroapocalypse Test Kitchen, on working up a recipe for parsnip-pink-peppercorn cake, inspired by carrot cake, made me realize that I haven’t been working on recipes much recently. I’ve been making little tweaks, but not putting a couple of patterns together to come up with something new. Maybe the last time was the turkey meatballs, that were a merger of matzoh balls & meat balls, and then I put them in the broth for Ovens of Brittany Turkey Almond Soup.

I am feeling kind of tired and uninspired. Work has been just way too busy, and I don’t feel like doing much when I get home. The joy of the just-finished dinner series has been more in creating menus, putting dishes together, than in developing recipes for the individual dishes.

Tonight’s a case in point. I’m home alone, with Mark & Ethan off to Badger hockey, Al at O’Hare waiting for a flight to SF, John in Milwaukee, and the new foster kid at a friend’s. For early dinner with Mark & Ethan before the game, I made chicken bbq sandwiches, with meat I cooked in barbecue sauce yesterday, shredded and with a bit of added ketchup, honey, and salt. I made salad with John’s dressing – but that’s just the Good Seasons mix, made with sesame oil, soy sauce, cidar vinegar, and brown sugar for an Asian flavor. I made some chex mix, to use up that giant Costco bag of nut & rice crackers munch mix and some rice chips that fell off the top of the fridge so they were busted up just right, according to mom’s rules – no seasoned salt, fresh garlic and real butter, and I do put in the Worcestershire sauce even though she didn’t like it. I threw in some Wasabi peas, but I already tried that in a prior batch of chex mix – we liked it – so not that innovative. Old standbys, all.

I could get my tax stuff together. I could make enchilada sauce or do some other cooking and photograph it. I could read and make notes for the literary awards committee I’m on. But I think I’m going to take a shower, and watch TV, and maybe have a scotch. I have this movie called A Slipping Down Life about a musician and his wigged out fans, and I think there’re a couple of Robyn Hitchcock songs in it.