marinating

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say I now love, or even like, to cook on a regular basis. I dread it more often than not, and I still have my fair share of ramen noodle nights. But there are times I just really want to cook for people, and that usually tends to coincide with wanting to try a new recipe or series of recipes. There generally isn't a whole lot of in between, though. I'm either dreading walking in to the kitchen, or can't keep myself out of it.

Being sick for so long has put me firmly in the "dreading it" camp for nearly the entire month. There was a brief moment of adventure when I decided to try and fry tofu for the first time ever, but that's pretty much it. 

Today, though, is one of those weird in-between days (and by "weird," I mostly mean "bad"). And let me just tell you, I do bad days 110%. I'm not one of those graceful people who excels at turning an unfortunate series of events in to some sort of Pollyana positive bender. I genuinely wish I were. I think those people are evolutionarily superior, honestly, because life is full of bad days. But I'm not. 

My own version of trying to turn a bad day around is actually to just totally marinate in the ick. Mentally kick that copy machine that isn't working. Throw an elbow right back at that aggressive person on the metro. Inhale some mini chocolate bars at the pity party for one at my desk. Just stinking own the sheer force of the wrong side of the bed on which you awoke. 

So, I'm cooking dinner for a friend and I tonight (which she graciously agreed to reschedule from last night when work took over my evening. Again.). And between my nagging exhaustion and the whole marinating in the bad day business, I cannot call to mind a single new thing I want to cook. Dinners with good friends are the perfect opportunity for experimenting, because typically they're pretty receptive to the whole "I'm just going to try this out, we might be ordering pizza" mantra. 

But today, I just can't. So instead, I'll be doing two totally uncreative things. One: I'm making ice cream from a starter kit (which was a Christmas gift from my sister, and which sounds completely sinfully delicious). Two: I'm making a form of pasta that's been made for me many times before by others (although I've never made it myself). It involves boiling pasta in water for a bit, then in wine. It works with both red and white wine, but tonight I'm going for white. 

I'm not using a recipe, just going to wing it, so if it's anything resembling a success, I'll post more details tomorrow, at which point I will hopefully be fully recovered from the bad day marinating process. 


For now, though, it's time for eating ice cream with teddy grahams, and watching the State of the Union with friends.