TND – Admitting Defeat | Monday Night Dinner

TND – Admitting Defeat

February 26, 2014

I have never been as defeated and dispirited by winter as I have been this year. We had a brief respite this past weekend when it was sunny, in the high 40s, and I daringly left the house in less than four layers of clothing. By Monday it had dropped back to the low 30s (feels like 18!), and by Tuesday we were back to 16 (feels like 3!). Granted this is still an improvement over 8 (feels like -5!) – at least we’re in double digits and nothing is in the negative numbers – but it’s still incredibly cold.

I’m trying to decide if the weekend’s brief lull has made me more or less depressed about another 3-4 weeks of snow and ice (at least according to Punxsutawney Phil). I’m leaning towards more depressed. Basically at this point I’m bribing myself through every week until the weather warms up because crying seems pointless, and seasonal alcoholism seems like a bad idea (although tempting).

Also, for the second time in six weeks our server at work has crashed hard. Practically speaking this translates to not being able to access any files or use the printers for two days. They keep taking the system down to test emergency preparedness. At this point the response from my office is, ‘we know it doesn’t work in emergencies, stop testing it’. Fun times.

In order to distract myself here’s a round of what’s making me happy this week.

First and foremost, the Oscars are this weekend. Mostly this is just an excuse to have a party and sit around and mock the beautiful people. There will be unfortunate gowns, inane color commentary from the red carpet, the wrong movies will win, someone will forget to thank their spouse, and we will all eat more food than should be safely consumed in one sitting. Also, I got to make desserts this year which is making me disproportionately excited as I contemplate how much butter, sugar and eggs I need to purchase (current count is somewhere around 6 sticks of butter, 16 eggs, 1.5 lb of chocolate, and many cups of sugar in a variety of forms – white, brown, powdered . . . . there are 14 people coming to the Oscars this year, and I’m also kind of baking with the thought of leftovers for my office because they look forward to Oscars leftovers in a way that I find mildly alarming and we’re all suffering through this winter).

Secondly, I have recently discovered two blogs which delight and entertain me.

There’s Cooking with KoolAid which details one woman’s epic quest to cook her way through the entire canon of “KoolAid Comes of Age”. Many are the things you did not know you could add KoolAid to, and one might convincingly argue that it should have stayed that way. But, in the spirit of adventure, and nostalgia, she perseveres so that we don’t have to. I applaud her fortitude.

And then there’s The Mid-Century Menu in which authentic recipes from 1950s & 1960s cookbooks are faithfully recreated and then – impressively – eaten. It’s like someone took our Regrettable Foods Party and made it a lifestyle choice, only without the caveat that it had to sound edible. I am amused, horrified, and impressed in turns. Also, very glad that someone else is doing this so that I can vicariously experience it without actually having to partake myself.

Moroccan Roast Chicken
Carottes Râpées
Roasted Potatoes with Arugula-Pistachio Pesto
Kale Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
Orange Wedges

Moroccan Roast Chicken
I skip the caraway seeds these days – mostly because nobody really likes the flavor they give, but also because if I do I can avoid pulling out my blender to make the marinade, which in turn means I don’t then have to wash it.

Recipe previously given: Paean to Summer Vegetables

Carottes Râpées
So many carrots this week, y’all (also compounded by the fact that I made myself roasted carrot soup to take for lunch this week – I shall have excellent eye sight by the end of this week).

Recipe previously given: Stuck a Feather in His Cap