Haste Makes Waste

Dinner last night was a disaster but, frankly, one that didn’t bother me. I got in late from a post-work mountain bike session and found myself with a sink full of dirty breakfast dishes and a very, very ravenous appetite. Instead of washing the dishes and composing my workspace, I decided to jump right into dinner without getting myself relaxed and prepared. Big mistake.

Dinner was supposed to be stuffed peppers along with a cold cucumber soup. I was going to stuff the peppers with black beans and brown rice, amongst other things. When I arrived home I realized that my experiment of leaving the rice and beans in a crock pot over the course of the day was a failed one and found the end product to be a gluey mixture of seemingly dubious origins (I plan to try this next time). To my prehistoric slurry I added some sautéed garlic, shallots, and a few pinches of spices. I realized after stuffing my green peppers with the mixture and sticking them in the oven that I had neglected to add egg, which I had planned to employ as a “binder” of sorts. Although my desiccated rice and bean mixture really didn’t need a binder at this point, I decided to beat up an egg and drizzle it over the top of the pepper regardless. Naturally it coursed right off the top of the pepper and pooled up on the baking pan, and later found it firmed up into a sprawling baked egg (which, though not planned for, was tasty in and of itself).

In the meantime I had started a batch of sweet potato fries as, at this point, I realized how famished I really was and needed something to address my rapidly plummeting blood sugar. Ultimately, it would be only the fries that turned out the way I had expected.

I then moved onto the cucumber soup while everything else was in the oven. I had never made a cold soup before and frankly this probably wasn’t the best evening to start. But I did, and ultimately ended up blending together cucumber, spinach, cilantro, yogurt, a tad bit of roasted red pepper, lemon juice, and a drizzle of olive oil. This slurry (as you can see I had given birth to several slurries on this particular evening) was actually pretty tasty but was far more watery than I had hoped for. I ultimately determined that I should have used the thicker Greek yogurt I had on hand as opposed to the European yogurt that had ultimately found its way into the soup.

Anyhow, the peppers finally did come out of the oven and some sort of dinner began to coalesce out of the various constituents. In my ravenous state everything seemed to be acceptable, although reflecting on the experience casts some doubt on the soundness of my judgment at the time. Once I had finished plowing through the mish-mash on my plate I realized what a mess I had made of things and promised myself that next time I was in need of immediate calories I’d abandon more elaborate dinner plans in favor of something simpler. Experimenting with new ideas, dishes, or techniques is definitely something best approached with ample time, patience, and clean kitchen.