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:
on November 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
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.
on November 19th, 2007 at 9:51 am
brilliant!
on November 19th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Nigella Lawson was on NPR this morning, extolling the virtues of avocados on toast for breakfast.
on November 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
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.
on November 20th, 2007 at 4:25 am
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?
on November 20th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
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.