The Patchwork Butterfly

OK, second half of the weekend not as delightful as the first part. It was still better than having to work, but just not as fabulous as yesterday. But today was one of those days when I feel like the universe is trying to send me a message. Strangley enough, the message seemed to be "don't make papardelle with roasted vegetables and goat cheese for dinner." Awfully specific of the universe, isn't it?

Yesterday Mark and I went grocery shopping and the eggplant at our usual store was foul. Very squishy. So, we meant to hit another store later in the day and forgot. So, this morning I ran to the store and found a gorgeous eggplant. So, I think I'm ready to roll. I go home, start to gather the ingredients for the veggie marinade and... I have maybe a quarter cup of balsalmic vinegar. SO not enough for what I'm making. And I swear I had another bottle. So, I start rummaging in my pantry looking for the second bottle and I get nada... except for the bottle of water that fell over and was slowly leaking onto a piece of cardboard for God knows how long, because the cardboard now looks like a petri dish from all the stuff growing on it. And I though the eggplant was foul! So after a shower (yes, I had to shower just from TOUCHING the cardboard. I should have taken a picture, but I couldn't get that nastiness out of my apartment soon enough) I head for the grocery store AGAIN and get the balsamic. I get home, start working on the marinade and... not enough dijon mustard. I am NOT going back to the store, so I make due with what I have. And make a note to myself about having a serious talk with Mark about remembering to put things on the grocery list when he uses most of it. Veggies are FINALLY in the oven, I set them for their usual baking time, come back and they're burned!!!!! I pull them out of the oven and walk away, knowing right now I am probably not in the best frame of mind to handle the situation. Now, usually on Sundays we go over to my parents' house for dinner, but my mom has been out of town for a conference and only got back today, so we had agreed ahead of time that Mark and I would not come over so that she could have time to relax before work tomorrow. This is the only reason I am even attempting to cook today. So, shortly after pulling my very dark roasted veggies out of the oven, my mom calls and says after being cooped up on a plane, she feels like doing some cooking, so come on over and she'll cook dinner (and she didn't even know about the well-done veggies). So, I surrendered to the universe. No papardelle with roasted veggies and goat cheese today.

But I did go back to the kitchen later after the veggies cooled and they're actually not too bad. They taste a lot better than they look. So, we're having them tomorrow. If the world ends because of my consumption of this forbidden dish, I apologize in advance.

# posted by Jenni @ 11/05/2006 10:19:00 PM