Chicken without Soup

Having a cold sucks.

After working from home, the cold had seemed to get better. Then I had a colossal lack of judgement and decided to go trick or treating in the cold rain with The Toddler. The next morning I woke up with a cough. The day after that I woke up with a cough and blocked sinuses. I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I elected to take a sick day.

Solid Gold

I did not have the energy to make soup. I went scavenging in the fridge and found some leftover oven-fried chicken. It wasn't soup, but it was chicken, so that counted for something. I reheated it and ate it on the sofa while watching some daytime talk show where they explained how to use the "exciting fall fashions" to hide "problem areas".

Minty Mouse

I drank so much mint tea, it wasn't even funny. My sweat had turned minty fresh. Even my coffee tasted minty fresh. The KitKat I stole from The Toddler's Hallowe'en stash was lovely, however.

I Need to Do Groceries: Stale Wafers

Even mushier when dunked in coffee.

I desperately wanted some dessert. I was working from home with a cold. I was going to have some coffee and a I really desperately wanted something sweet to go with it.


I looked in the pantry and found an open pack of Loacker chocolate wafers with exactly two wafers left in them. I had no idea how long they had been there, forget about how long they'd been open. I was desperate, so I had them.

They weren't just stale, they were hellastale. There was no crispness left in them whatsoever. They bent rather than snapped. But at least they were dessert. Plus, once you dunk them in coffee, it doesn't make much of a difference.

At least they reminded me that I should put them on the list for the next grocery run.

Fractal Food!

Spousal Unit asked me what he should make for supper one night that I wasn't going to be home. I told him that I had bought a romanesco broccoli and that he should make that. To which Spousal Unit replied, "What's a romanesco? How do I make that? What are you talking about?" So I had to explain to him that it was the Fractal Broccoli. Then he understood.

We only make one dish with the fractal: a pasta dish that includes saffron, raisins, loads of cheese and, of course, the fractal. It's sweet and savoury and it's a great excuse to drink wine. Because you have to drink wine with this kind of dish. You just have to. Don't argue.

Anyways, it turned out really well and we had leftovers for lunch the next day.

That Fractal's a Bit Old.

As a rule, I don't bring pasta leftovers to work, but the fractal pasta is different: because there's no tomato sauce, there's no bizarre acidic aftertaste and the pasta doesn't because a revolting mushy mess. Instead it just tastes a little stale. Hmmmm...stale.

Migraine Medicine

Drink Me!

I knew from the moment I got into the office that it was not going to be my day. I could feel the pressure around my temple and the heavy feeling around my eyes. I knew what was coming: a migraine.

I worked through it as much as I could, but then I couldn't do it anymore and went home.

The next day, I woke up and my migraine was slightly better, but not by much. So I worked from home and made myself some "migraine medicine": hot chocolate with coffee.

I swear this stuff keeps migraines at bay!

You make hot chocolate by combining cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and milk to make a paste, then you add boiling water a capful of (real) vanilla. Stir. Let cool so you don't burn your palate, and drink.

For migraine medicine, you add some instant coffee to the cocoa, sugar and cinnamon mix.

A few minutes after you drink it your migraine will miraculously go away.

Except when it doesn't and you end up in the dark, curled up in the fetal position.

Autumnal Eats: Lentil Stew and Apple Crumble

I made apple crumble.

Dessert That Tries Your Nerves

It wasn't even one of those spur-of-the-moment-temporary-insanity things either. I actually planned to make apple crumble. I went out and bought two different types of apples (Courtland for texture, MacIntosh for flavour), and made sure I had all the fixin' for the topping, and made the damned thing. In the process of peeling all the damned apples, I damaged a nerve in my wrist and my pinky finger now constantly feels tingly. It's not really as fun as it sounds.

Then I made lentil stew because it is easy and because sometimes all you have left in your pantry is cans of lentils, and all you have left in your fridge are some dying carrots and onions because you neglected to buy anything else while you were stocking up on apples for the damned crumble that damaged your wrist.

In the end, though, it was all worthwhile because you had seasonal apple crumble and lentil stew to bring to work and all your coworkers were like, "Oooh! How very autumnal of you!"

Or so you tell yourself as you try to ignore your tingly pinky.

Business Park Diner Quesadilla

When you don't have your car with you and you work in a business park, your options for lunch are limited. So it was either Business Park Bulgogi or the greasy spoon diner next door.

I decided to walk to the greasy spoon diner in the hopes of procuring a tasty BLT -- because why else would you visit a diner? -- but then I discovered that they had "quesadillas" on the menu.

Make yourself a danged quesadilla!

I've had the "quesadillas" before. They're a mass of cheese, red and green bell pepper, sautéed onions and grilled chicken in a tortilla. It's not bad and it was a fairer bet than the BLT, which I'd never had before.

This time, though, the quesadillas were heavy on the cheese and peppers, but rather light on the chicken. And the tortillas were these whole grain tortilla things that had been burnt on the grill.

At least they served it with piles of fries and sour cream. Salsa and guacamole would have been nice, but this diner doesn't really do "fresh".

Couscous!

This is different, isn't it?

Plastic makes it better. Kinda.

OK, not really because it's still an empty container. But the crumbs are different! See? They're couscous crumbs! Or rather individual couscou (one couscou, two couscous?). They were topped with stewed chickpeas that were made with lime and cinnamon, not that you could taste either because both flavours were obliterated by the tomato. Or maybe they were so harmonious that the flavours smoothly combined.

The last time I made this dish, the stewed chickpeas came out better, but the couscous was stale. I had just bought the friggin' couscous that day and it was already stale! That was the last time I bought boxed couscous. This couscous was happily hermetically sealed in a cellophane bag. Better living through plastics.