Single, in the kitchen
Two nights ago, I made a tuna salad for dinner. The tuna was from my friend who’s dad caught and canned it himself. That was delicious, although it was the grossest looking thing in my pantry.
I ate my tuna, cucumber, and olive salad, right out of the serving bowl, while reading a cookbook. It occurred to me that I was a caricature of myself, and was starring in an episode of the most boring television show: Single Girl Eats. To finish off the meal, I ate chocolate chips out of a ramekin.
I knew I could do better. So last night, I took some veggie broth from a soup my mom gave me, added pureed pumpkin, and made a gorgeous bowl of soup. It was bright orange, it was spiced right, and I put it in a square bowl.
Stylin’. I was happy I’d gone to the effort of making beautiful food, even when no one else was around.
After I was finished, I froze the leftovers (because wasting food is exactly like throwing $5 bills in the trash and I’d like to avoid that) and started making a dessert. Not just any dessert, butterscotch pudding (would you look at that, I forgot both the butter and the scotch).
Last week, when I asked the boy I’m completely smitten with about his favorite dessert, he said, “that butterscotch pudding we had at Irving St. Kitchen” and I know from experience that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so making this pudding was at the top of my Thursday to-do list.
It was a labor of love, but six egg yolks and two saucepans later, I had three jars of pudding. Immediately, they went into the freezer, because I don’t know why, he’s coming on Saturday, you don’t need to freeze pudding from Thursday to Saturday you crazy person you, and a little leftover.
There wasn’t enough pudding left in the big saucepan for another serving, she typed, defensively, so I sat down at the dining room table with a saucepan, a big spoon, and a glass of red wine.
And that’s how my roommate found me. I looked up from my pan of pudding guiltily, but I didn’t stop. She said she didn’t judge me, because it smelled delicious.
Good thing I tried specifically to NOT cook like a pathetic single girl!
