character-building

(after a brief fascination with fish, I decided it was so not my thing)

I'm a master at avoiding things I don't want to do.  I'll walk the 2 miles to work instead of taking the 5 minute bus ride, because really, who wants to go to work? I'll walk a mile extra to avoid switching metro lines (DC residents might be the only people not wearing a puzzled expression at this one), I will take the train or drive to prevent Miami airport-esque breakdowns.  


One thing I've been wholly unable to avoid during this Lent adventure is touching raw meat.  I've never been interested in vegetarianism (I already don't get enough protein), but raw meat freaks me out in a very visceral way.  I just really, seriously do not like touching it. If I can get it from container to skillet without actual meat contact, I do a bit of a victory dance. 


Add that to my general disdain for seafood, and it's just plain torture.  So when Allie and I settled on fish tacos for our last Friday night dinner, I was clearly not thinking rationally.  This would involve me...gulp...touching RAW FISH.  


Seeing me barely touching the edge of the flounder fillets and wrinkling my nose as I seasoned them, Allie laughed and said "I'd offer to do this for you, but I think it's character building" and offered me a fork.  


The tacos turned out so-so, but I don't exactly blame my light touch with the flounder.  My heart just wasn't in cooking Friday dinner, and the lack of enthusiasm led to a passable, but not remarkable, taco bar.  I didn't even take any pictures of it (or of the lemon pound cake I made, and consumed mostly by myself, which isn't at all embarrassing to admit).  


But as unexcited as I've been about cooking some days during Lent, it's been a character-building experience (in the least formal sense of the phrase).  I can avoid touching gross raw meat now and then.  I can get around legitimate cooking once and a while.  But most of the time, I just have to man up and put on the apron.  I think we can classify that as progress from my days of Kraft mac n cheese and peas for dinner.


Now excuse me while I go reserve a cab to avoid the miserable weather tonight...