Bad days at work inspire cooking.....

Continuing with the same bad week above, by Wednesday I was tired cranky and in no mood for anything.   I had networking drinks with an infamous Pixie that is the inspiration behind this string of blogs, and vented a little about my day, but by the time our meeting was over, my blackberry was overrunith with more things to make me MAD.   I end up texting a colleague, saying I was going home to either walk my legs off, or drink myself into a stupor.   He acually managed to talk me into shopping and cooking lunch for he and my other colleagues....   Selfish and manipulative, absolutely.  (He'll never read this anyway - but I would tell him to his face)  However, it wasn't bad advice.  I did put my running shoes on, and walk myself to the grocery store, and came home and cooked lunch for 12.   I made my sausage bean dish that I have previuosly blogged about, and it was a hit.  I made a melted ice cream cake as well, but I admit cheated with canned frosting. It was easy,yummy, and remains one of my favorite cakes.

I did the same thing again one day last week, and made a pasta dish I have invented for my colleagues again.   I roast zucchini, yellow squash, and cherry tomatoes on a roasting pan coated with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, I sautee fresh spinach in garlic and oil.  When it is all done, I toss the whole thing with Orichette and season more with salt, pepper and parmesan. 

The concept is a good one, I get an audience to cook for and feed myself about 3 meals out of it as well.

How food affects my life even when I don't cook...

Well, Spud went off to sleepaway camp 2 weeks ago, and my first night without him home, I had to go to a networking event that brought me home about 10PM.  It was mt first day back from vacation and I had a bad day at work.  The network event served food, but not much, and if you didn't storm the table, you were out of luck.  I was raised to always wait until everyone had food and not be the first to serve yourself,  so needless to say I was out of luck.  On my way home, sadness set in that no one knew where I was or cared, - classic self pity.  When I got home I decided to make a lean cusine - my favorite one, if one can actually have a favorite diet frozen food, the chicken Marsala.  I poured myself half a glass of wine and walked upstairs to sit in sanctuary of my terrace.  As I got to the top of my steps, the lean cuisine was balanced on my wine glass and at the top of the stairs slid off, upside down on the floor.  That was all I could handle, and it ensued to a hysterical meltown of epic proportions....  It wasn't funny at all at he time, but it will be a story I will tell for years to come.   And given the power of facebook and the cell phone, a very good friend checked on me and made sure i was still breathing, and for that I will always be grateful for those that care the most. 

The story continues in less tragedy the following night, as I worked late yet again...  Here I pride myself on being into really great food and a great cook, but I have to admit, between being a mom that will indulge an 11 year old once in a while, and that I have my own secrets of poor taste-  on occasion I keep Chef Boy-r-dee in the house ( for Spud :) - but I admit it is a yearly guilty pleasure of my own.  Not to mention - its easy, thoughtless, and cooks in the microwave in 2 minutes.   So at least I got to eat that night, - and it went pretty well with a cheap Merlot...  I chalk it up to the things that just work in real life...