Rain and other news

It’s raining in Whoville today and I’m actually HAPPY about it. I KNOW, I lover of all that is sunshine and warmth. BUT. When I was driving home yesterday the sun was shinning, the sky was blue and my car had heated sufficiently sitting in the sun all day that I had my window open.

As I drove it dawned on me; transformation was imminent. While the grass is starting to green up and the forsythia is blooming, the landscape remains fairly gray. But you can sense that blossoms and leaves are just around the corner. The bushes and trees are fairly VIBRATING. It seems that every year, when spring is on the BRINK of arrival, a gentle rain will transform the scenery from gray to green overnight. I anticipate my drive tomorrow to be wholly different from my drive yesterday.

In other news, dinner last night teetered on the brink of disaster. You may remember that I cleaned out my “potential recipe” file a few weeks ago. I am big on tearing things out of magazines and newspapers. Not that I necessarily plan to use the recipes as intended so much as I find the ingredients intriguing or I think I see the potential for a twist on a dish I already make.

Anyway, I have been diligently looking through the file the last few weeks and pulling things out that I might want to use. Last night I had two pages pulled. Both had potential. I had some of the ingredients for each recipe, but was missing important components of each as well.

I should mention here that I am a hoarder stockpiler well prepared. My basement contains a second refrigerator, a deep freeze and a second pantry. When something runs out upstairs one simply needs to just visit the basement, pull out a replacement and then write said replacement item on the grocery list. The item will be purchased and put back in reserve. I almost always have enough oddities on hand to throw pretty much any meal together.

However, this was not the case last night. I had Italian sausage, but not chorizo. I had Great Northern beans but not plum tomatoes. I had sun dried tomatoes but not marinated artichoke hearts. I am still thinking “Yes, yes I do believe I can make something come together.” So I start browning the sausage in a little EVOO. I throw some garlic and onion in with the sausage. I drain the sun dried tomatoes and chop them up. I drain and rinse the beans. (Yes, out of a CAN. Don’t judge me; I had a shitty day yesterday damn it!)

Now I’m thinking “Well crap, one of these recipes calls for orzo and the other appears to have some sort of vinaigrette. Wait, main dish vs. salad? Really quite different concepts…..Fuck.” [Another aside; I talk to myself. Out loud. All the time. So when I say “thinking”? It’s really more talking to myself like a crazy person muttering under my breath.] I HAVE orzo, but I’m thinking with the beans it would be overkill. I'm starting to think a contingency plan might be in order, so I send the Saint to the store to buy some good bread. In the same vein, I pour another glass of wine .

I start whisking a little red wine vinegar with some oil. I throw the beans and the tomatoes in with the sausage. I throw in some salt and pepper and the oil and vinegar. (Stop, I KNOW, it’s going downhill fast.) THEN I realize that the sun dried tomatoes were not the usual brand, but some fancy Italian shit. Packed in oil with ANCHOVIES. (My Italian is not extensive enough to have picked up this piece of info off the label on the jar). I had counted on the damn sun dried tomatoes to add a little “sweet” to the mix. I was wrong. So now in addition to being odd it’s totally over salted.

Sigh. In their defense, the Saint and Precious Youngest polished off the dinner. It wasn’t BAD per se, just too salty and sort of blah. So the next time you decide to combine recipes for lack of ingredients? Make sure there’s plenty of bread on hand. And wine.