Monday, November 30, 2015

i'm so sick of that same old love

As expected, this morning was kind of fucked since I stayed up way too late last night. I ended up waking up at seven unable to sleep, so I messed around on my laptop and kind of half-assed made an attempt at writing for a couple of hours, and then I dozed for another hour (truly, lazing about in bed is the best thing, although maybe it's not good for productivity). But eventually I dragged myself out of bed and into some clothes, and I walked to the marina and had brunch at my favorite cafe. I also talked to Tony for a little bit (back in the kitchen, since he didn't have time to hang out in the front), which was lovely. Then I walked down Union Street and bought a couple of pairs of workout tights, since they were on massive sale.

At that point I should have gone to the gym, or gone to a cafe to write (I had schlepped my backpack with both my laptop and my kettlebell chalk), but I simply wasn't feeling it, so I walked home and decided to count the fact that I'd carried my backpack for 2.5 miles as good enough (spoiler: it's not enough, but whatever). I messed around online some more, and then I called my parents, who seemed to be good (well, except for the weather, and a brief discussion about how humanity is totally fucked in terms of antibiotics going forward, and my dad's hammered finger (which sounds horrendous)).

But once I was off the phone, I decided to get off my ass and get something done. Luckily, I had changed the kitchen lightbulb earlier in the day (it burned out a few days ago, oddly, since I changed it a few months ago, so I ordered a better version of the lightbulb from Amazon to see if a higher quality bulb would last longer), so I was able to actually do the stuff in the kitchen that I've been wanting/needing to do.

That involved both cooking and cleaning. I had bought groceries on Tuesday to make something new, but I had gotten sidetracked and didn't have a kitchen light, so I didn't get around to cooking until tonight. I made pasta all' amatriciana from a Mario Batali recipe, and it turned out to be awesome (way more pleasurable than the questionable gluten free baked dish I made from his cookbook a few weeks ago). It took quite a bit of time, though - not a lot of active time, but I first had to make his basic tomato sauce, which takes well over an hour to simmer down (and even then, I have to immersion blend it to break up the whole tomatoes). Then I used some of that sauce in the amatriciana - but the main point of amatriciana is the 12oz of bacon and the onion and the garlic and the red pepper flakes, all of which were cooked together before adding the sauce.

While all of that was cooking, I cleaned out the fridge, took out the recycling and compost and trash (the compost had some v. impressive mold), and generally tidied up, which made me feel better about leaving my apartment this coming week. Then, I finished up the pasta dish by making some gluten free spaghetti, mixing in the sauce, and topping it with grated pecorino romano. I also opened a mini bottle of champagne because that's how I roll. You can see the finished product (before I devoured it) on my instagram, if you're so curious; the recipe is here (although I have the whole cookbook).

That all made me feel v. self-satisfied, and I have leftovers for tomorrow (too many leftovers! but maybe I'll eat it twice!). I also had four cups of the basic tomato sauce left, which I threw into two bags in the freezer, so I can use them to make other sauces without having to go through the initial basic sauce construction step. Side note: the web recipe says to crush the tomatoes by hand before putting into the sauce, which explains why they never cook down and I have to immersion blend. So I'm not sure why he doesn't just call for crushed tomatoes to begin with, but whatever.

So after all my kitchen adventures, I was still feeling productive, so I answered email and made a Christmas list and did a variety of other necessary tasks. And now I desperately need to sleep and regain some of what I lost last night - goodnight!

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