One of my New Years Resolutions is to be more diligent about saving money, about cutting out unnecessary costs. The week started as me just "trying to cut down on spending" but quickly turned into a self-challenge (because I'm competitive like that): Don't spend a penny. Not a single cent.
So I've really taken this challenge to heart. Unfortunately, one of the necessities I probably should have forked over some dough for was food. Luckily I haven't really been all that hungry because it's been slim pickins around my place. I had pretzels and M&Ms one night and pita chips and cheese another. I did have some New Year's Day leftovers my mom sent home with me so that provided for a decent lunch on Monday. However, tonight's four mile run (holla!) kicked hunger into high gear.
So therein lies tonight's debacle. Spend money on food? Or stick it out and eat at home? If you've been tuned in since August you know I have limited food supplies in my kitchen to work with. I did, however, find some pasta and noodles (yup! same ones as before) hiding behind my Kcups and holiday booze. I figured pasta and noodles didn't sound too appetizing (or extremely filling) but I just couldn't bring myself to lose my bet and spend money for a meal out. So half-hearted spaghetti it was!
I boiled a pot of water, dumped in some noodles, and sprinkled some salt (to alleviate sticking - I told you, not a total idiot!). I put a smaller pot on the left burner and reach for my Tomato and Basil sauce jar to open. Not happening. I get out my sticky, no slip pad thing and try again. Still not happening. I dig in my pantry to see if by chance I have another jar. I do! My luck has turned. By this point my left-burner pot is hissing angrily at me for being abandoned. I try my hand at jar number two. Not happening. I try sticky, no slip pad thing and still not happening. Now slightly frustrated. I run to my room and dig some old, gripped, hunting gloves out of my 'winter drawer' and put those on. These always do the trick. And, of course, they perform like always. Jar opened. Last minute I decide I should check the expiration date and, you guessed it, expired in 2011. Seriously? Seriously. I'm not sure what happens when you eat expired spaghetti sauce, but I'm not chancing it. Back to jar number one which has an expiration date of February 2012. By now I have the gripped gloves so should be a piece of cake. Nope, not happening. Move to sitting on the floor, jar between my legs, twisting with both my hands. Still not happening. This goes on for entirely too long and I literally just lose it. I'm talking tears, a few choice words, and some wallowing about "how this would be the perfect time to have a man around." I finally succumb to the fact that my dinner is going to be pretzels and noodles and struggle with whether it would make me feel better to throw this sucker against the wall, when I look down and realize I'm an idiot. Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey. I was definitely turning to the right. ID-I-OT.
By this time my noodle water is over-flowing the pot (I have a bad, impatient habit of jacking the heat up too high) so I resolve that issue and pour my sauce in the hissing, angry pot and stomp off into my bathroom to wash my face because my eyes are stinging from my raining mascara. I come out to find my sauce burping up all over my stove and counter and floor and ceiling (see? jacking it up too high, again). Seriously not cool. I turn it down, strain my noodles, say to hell with whether the sauce is done, and slather my vermicelli with it.
The final product was edible which is great, because the rest is totally going in a brown paper sack for my lunch tomorrow:
The cheese biscuit was the last remains of Mom's New Year's leftovers.
So there ya have it. Just call me Martha freakin' Stuart, folks. Ha!
Do I dare tell you that the salt in the water has nothing to do with sticking? It just seasons the pasta. OK. There I said it! Funny story!
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate, my friend
ReplyDelete^^^ To the first post, you said it before I could, salt doesn't eliminate sticking. But if you would like to master that art, use oil, olive oil is heart healthy and actually good for you while keeping your pasta from clumping. Let's have a mom-daughter day of cooking and stock your freezer so dinners won't be such an emotional experience in the future. Where in the world were you when I was in the kitchen cooking like 98% of our meals?
ReplyDeleteShe was in the same place my daughter was.....in another room!!
ReplyDelete