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Why plating is important

  • Posted on July 24, 2011 at 9:22 pm

Y’know what plating is, yeah? It’s making the food look pretty on the plate. Not so pretty that you refuse to eat it for fear of disturbing the magnificent work of art (like that would ever happen anyway) but pretty.

I read this Bean and Corn Salad recipe on Home-Ec101.com and a lightbulb went off in my head.

There’s corn in the cabinet. There’s beans. No cooking involved (during a heatwave when cooking is downright unthinkable) (and during a week when my only day off was spent buried in paperwork).

But following the recipe as written was impossible. I had corn and beans and that was it. Or…was it?

After rereading the recipe, it occurred that while I don’t have the dressing ingredients Bobbie used, I DO have a bottle of zesty italian dressing. Time to experiment a bit!

You would think that I’d make sure to grab the can of black beans, right? You would be wrong. Reached in and grabbed the first can of beans in the cabinet. Didn’t realize what a mistake it was until everything was in the bowl:

image

The good news is that it’s MUCH more tasty than it looks. The bad (?) news is that I’m the only one that’ll eat it.

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Interlude: Humiliations Galore

  • Posted on April 30, 2009 at 5:07 pm
This entry is part 4 of 10 in the series atypicalrelationship

His parents went to Greensboro for dinner and a hotel room to celebrate a special family occasion.

Which means that we had one of the very few chances for us to have some quiet alone time.

After a full day that involved trying to pull the toilet in my bathroom to unclog it (can’t do it – one of the bolts is rusted on) (calling him to find out if he can help me but he didn’t answer the call til 3 hours later), cleaning, shopping for / trying to find pants for work and then going to work (at a grocery store. during thanksgiving shopping week. you do the math), flipping out on Miss “I’m not STUPID I made sure all the leaves were way way far away before I set the stuff on fire in the driveway” (but without making sure that the waterhose actually FUNCTIONS) during my dinner break I was exhausted.

I dropped the go-kart off at the house (after work. At 1130pm) and rode with him back to his house, where I learned the HARD way that hot water lasts about five minutes. So much for that hawt shower scene he had planned….

So I dried my shudderingly shivering body off and listened to him talk about how the heating element needs to be fixed (dude? I have a 50 gallon hot water heater set to 120 degrees – I can shower while the dishwasher runs and STILL finish my shower pink and pleasantly toasty). Then we made our way to the bedroom where his plan included shaving. With a set of loud 20 yr old clippers. I lost count of how many times he nicked me with that thing. The vibration was somewhat pleasant though.

Did I mention his bedroom used to be the side porch? It was just a smidge freezing in there. And there’s just enough room for a twin bed, a computer desk, and a small dresser. Claustrophobia anyone?

THEN he realized that I would need another shower since hair was everywhere. The good news? The hot water heater had regenned. The bad news? again – not nearly long enough. Cold. Coldcoldcoldcoldcold.

Y’all? it’s 1am by now and I’m fried. And rocking in his bed trying to get warm and calm the exhaustion-related panic attack that’s right around the corner. And all I could think of was my lovely bottle of meds tucked away into my medicine cabinet. At my house.

Unfortunately, I failed miserably. I spent the next 45 minutes in his mama’s bathroom sick as a dog – complete with vomiting.

He did reasonably well by me, but couldn’t quite grasp the WHY involved in my sickness.

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Round 1 goes to Daniel.

  • Posted on January 18, 2008 at 3:15 pm

This morning I made the Sneaky Chef’s Extra Sneaky Chocolate Breakfast Ice Cream. The texture was perfect, the recipe as written was downright awful. With only 1/2 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to color an entire 1/4 avocado and a frozen banana, the result looked as if it belonged in a diaper, not an ice cream bowl.

Obviously, this would need a bit of work before he saw it, much less tasted it.

I added a tablespoon of cocoa powder, another pinch of sugar and FINALLY got it “brown” enough to be chocolate ice cream. Then I asked Daniel to taste it and tell me if it was “chocolate enough”. For 20 minutes we went back and forth, adding another teaspoon here and a tablespoon there. The good news is he kept helping me taste it and try to “fix” it so he could have ice cream for breakfast. The bad news is he never said “it tastes good, can I have it in a bowl/cone/whatever”.

Side note: those “soft bite” baby spoons make GREAT “tasting” spoons. He already knows it’s a “baby bite” of something, not a “big boy bite” and is more likely to be cooperative.)

Finally, frustratedly, I gave up and made him a jelly biscuit. The “ice cream” is in the freezer; I’m not sure what to do with it at this point. Maybe add in some vanilla?

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