cooking for one isn't always fun

There are days when I find the most un-rewarding part of being single is the fact that I have to cook alone. Mostly it’s not a big deal, but on some occasions I find it rather annoying. You use just as many dishes, it takes just as long, and in the end, you eat alone, and then have to tackle the mess yourself. It’s a little anti-climactic. At least for me. I tend to forget about the mess, enjoy the meal, and then lose all motivation whatsoever. I go from delicious to disgruntled in a matter of seconds when hours later I wander back into the kitchen to find my dinner mess still there. (you know in Arrested Development when George Michal is sad, and he slumps home to the snoopy music? That is me, every single time.)  Its fine,  I’ll do the dishes… but sometimes it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work to plan a menu, to cook, to do the dishes… and sure, I enjoy it… but there are days when I’d much rather just eat avocado on toast for every meal, and call it good.  Cooking can be a hassle, and there are days when I feel like “If I’m going to go through all the dishes, and all the time, and all the cleanup, I might as well be sharing it with someone.” . I love playing hostess and I think that good meals are meant to be shared. But I also think that I was meant to have a sous chef… or at least someone to help with the dishes

We are still in the midst of the Oregon summer heat wave, so the thought of coming home and turning on the stove or the oven isn’t exactly appealing. But tonight I suddenly found myself with a little extra free time, I was hungry, and in the mood for something wonderful. I had eaten a snack of roasted green beans with a side of ice cream (its true kids, when you grow up you can eat ice cream for dinner… and you probably will) but I was in the mood for something a little more substantial. I ate out for lunch, so grabbing take-out wasn’t really an option. I could have just made some popcorn, or perhaps succumbed to the package of Top Raman sitting on the bottom shelf (it’s for emergencies… like lack of cooking inspiration Tuesdays or something) but considering that it’s Julia Child’s 100^th birthday, it seemed sacrilegious to dine on popcorn or Raman.

Instead I opted for quesadillas. Not exactly inspired by French cuisine, but at least I did turn on both the stove and the oven.

My first hurdle was that I was out of  cheese. Well not really, I have a block of cheddar cheese sitting in the staff fridge at work. So. Not. Helpful. I scrounged around and found some sliced Swiss cheese, and decided to continue on with my cooking endeavor. I put  some refried beans on the stove, and went out to the garden to harvest some tomatillos. I’ve pretty much been living on salsa verde for the past few weeks. Super easy, super delicious, no real cooking required. (AKA perfect in this heat wave) I was still feeling a little lazy though, and not wanting to soil the freshly cleaned food processor, I opted to make a salad rather than a salsa.

• 5 tomatillos
• 4 slices of jicima
• ½ avocado
• Handful of cilantro
• 1 ear roasted corn
• A few table spoons of chopped onion
• Freshly squeezed lime
• salt.

It wasn’t exactly a mind blowing meal, but it was satisfying, and at least the clean up was easy.