Sometimes I Love Being an Adult
My first job post-college helped elect Annise Parker to her first term as Houston City Controller. During this period – the first time in my life where I didn’t have homework and I couldn’t get wasted and skip class – I forced myself to be semi-responsible. Thus, instead of going to happy hour every night, or going out to eat, I tried to cook dinner myself. If really only a means to waste time between getting home from work and getting to bed. But I’ll get more into those first cooking atrocities another time.
I remember how much I hated getting up for work. Not that being “Volunteer Coordinator” was all that awful, but I just thought – wow, do I really have to sit in front of a computer for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week (campaign – 7 days/week and 10 hours/day) for the next 45 years?!?! I hated being an “adult.”
Then, one of my coworkers brought in cheese and crackers for lunch. I stared at her in awe. I was so jealous. Here I was, eating my awful frozen veggie Cajun-seasoned stir fry enhanced with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray (thanks, Mariah!), and she had the brilliant idea to bring in cheese and crackers.
As a kid, no one would ever allow you to eat just cheese and crackers for lunch. But as an adult, and as an adult making an embarrassing $750/month, the absolute genius of a cheese and crackers lunch made me thankful for finally being able to make my own decisions, be it lunch or a host of any other adult situations.
That being said, I now make lots of dinners that don’t necessarily pass as full fledged meals.
Are those “gasps” I hear from my ES readers? Yes, I know, I’m sure you think that every meal I create deserves its own Hollywood Star, but sometimes I keep it low-key. Shocking, I know.
The other night for dinner I made my own little plate where I could mix-and-match the items to create bite-sized pita canapes.
Read on for my sample platter.
My platter included:
1 red tomato – diced, salt and peppered
1/2 of an avocado – mashed with lemon juice and S&P
1 slice of lox
diced chives
diced parsley
hummus*
cream cheese/horseradish/country Dijon mustard sauce (had on hand from this)
1 whole wheat pita
*I made my own hummus! I’ve been completely obsessed with chickpeas ever since I made the Chickpea and Artichoke Crosiniti for my first catering job, and then when 80P than made a wonderful fish dish with tahini sauce. As the next logical step, I had to make my own hummus. I basically followed Mark Bittman’s recipe on Epicurious.
Sample Sandwich:
Beautiful plate…an Idea: serve this all ethiopian style with a giant flatbread underneath. then you can pick away at it until you have a gooey, absorbed mess of bread to scarf down.
brilliant!
Nigella Lawson was on NPR this morning, extolling the virtues of avocados on toast for breakfast.
very interestng gansie. let try some of them for t-d too??!!
glad to hear you’re growing up!!! let’s see how wasted you get Wednesday nite before all the cooking thurday.
please. as if mariah cooked for herself.
secondly, do you have to make meals for two every time you make food? Is that a rule now that you are an adult and live with someone?
oh, mariah. always trying to get a dig in whenever possible. oh how i miss you.
and yes, most nights i do cook for 80P. unless he just orders himself a pizza.