Dinner for weeks to come

Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of something and you pause and you think to yourself, "how the heck did I get myself into this?" For the second Saturday in a row, I've discovered myself in my kitchen going, "Who's brilliant idea was this?" I take a quick look left and another one right. My cat has already gauged the situation and disappeared. There is no one around but myself. Apparently, I got myself into this. I thought for a second. Nope that didn't seem right.

I knew who to blame. It's that store. Last week, while browsing I discovered pesto and decided that I could make it. I did too. It was good. It still is good. I have no idea how to use it so I still have it. One of my friends explained it as something that you don't need to use, you choose to use it. Thanks, lots of help as always. They recommended making pesto ice cubes until I choose to use it. I now have lots of pesto in frozen cubes.

This week, I wandered in with the idea of making cannelloni. Then in looking at the pasta sauces I came across "Authentic Pizza Sauce." I stopped and looked again. Pizza? I love pizza! And in my momentarily well-stocked kitchen I had everything except the sauce and the pepperoni. I would make pizza at some point in the future. Cans keep. So I scooped it up and kept going.

Then I discovered asiago cheese on sale. I love asiago cheese stuffed inside chicken. Not that I know how to do it but the restaurants always do a really good job. I hovered over the cheese trying to decide whether to pick some up or not. I reached my hand into the bin and pulled it back out again. Really, what was I going to do with it? When I wasn't looking, the cheese jumped into my basket. I kept looking in the opposite direction hoping that it would change its mind and jump back out.

At the deli counter, I got my sandwich meat and paused, "What would you put on pizza?" Ah! Who said that? I'm not making pizza today. Sometime in the future, remember? I discussed the relevant salami's with the deli boy and choose two. I would mix the mild and the hot salami in my pizza. Then I noticed fresh chicken. "I'll have some chicken too, please." I sighed. I knew where this was going. The problem with being a Gemini is you're never sure who's doing what until it's too late.

Thus I found myself double-tasking through two completely different meals. If I was going to turn the oven on, I was going to make it worthwhile. I put the yeast on while I chopped the pizza vegetables. I put the dough onto rise while I attacked the chicken. None of the cookbooks had the recipe I wanted so I decided I would just do it myself. I figured out that stuffing things inside a chicken breast couldn't be that difficult. I would cover it all with a white sauce and pop it in the oven so that if it leaked, it wouldn't matter. It was in the middle of thickening my sauce and adding the panfried in garlic mushrooms and green onions, while glancing over at the pizza dough, I wondered what I was doing.

My first thought was that I was coping. I had a gazillion things happening and I was actually timing it all correctly. I wasn't trying to cook vegetables but I was managing to make two dishes without it going wrong! I had all the ingredients on hand and I was following some loose mental plan. I grinned. My brother would be proud.

Ok, so one of the pizzas is a bit too brown and I'm not sure the chicken sauce has enough pep but I blame that on suddenly wishing I had white wine to dump in the sauce. I'd put cream in it and I thought that the wine would just add the extra decadence. If you're making a heart-attack in a pan, you might as well go all the way.

I now have dinner for the next two weeks at least. That is a cause for celebration. And I won't be going near that store for quite a while. I made sure to buy two week's supply of lunch meat this time so I could miss a week-end. I'm looking forward to a rational week-end next week.

Oh, I put pesto in the pizza sauce. I chose to use it. I'm choosing to use it up.