Flight-Risk Dinner

...Sometimes, it's just a Sparkly Pink Spatula day. Others are Black Pirate Spatula days.

Those are Bold day; self-assured, cooking dinner with veggies and stuff that looks pretty that get posted on FaceBook in the (unspoken) nightly competition among the far-flung social network.

Today was my second day at The Job. I should explain: I got a job. At a place related to Food. Delicate negotiations will take place at some time in the near future for mentions, specifics, etc. But my Anxiety-Panic disorder has been off the charts. The night before, I hyperventilated twice and nearly hurled. The next morning, The Morning I Went Back To Work I nearly hurled. It is illogical, and is the psychological equivalent of being completely consumed by an insurmountable Inner Bureaucracy.

This morning GingerMan left me on a jet plane. I know when he'll be back again (Monday). He's home to the northern, British-y bit of the Emerald Isle, Belfast. Packed him all up with the bazillionty pressies for the nieces and nephew that were supposed to go on Boxing Day when his flight was cancelled. He was crushed then, as it's been three years since our last jaunt, but I was relieved when the Eastern Seaboard shut down in the face of ice storms. Our last jaunt (2008) involved my month-long peat-log-fire-induced-sinus-bronchial-infection and The (Nearly) Last Flight Of Our Lives. The Aer Lingus pilot stuck the landing, but only just. So at 35, I developed fear of flying. I also have fear of losing a husband.

Being that the laws of physics dictate that Done is Done is Done, logic dictates that A Better Place is pretty much right here and right now. I knew the night I met that blue-eyed Ginger ten years ago there was no-one else like him, never would be ever ever ever. His singular wit, -----

Ok, I was going to come up with an entire litany of qualities and such, but really, that is his essence: His sly, devious, dry, unbelievably smart sense of humour encompasses everything he is. It is the tweak in his smile, the snap of light in his clear blue eyes. His hug reaches up and out, picture Clyde, orange beard and all, or if you're really good mates...

So, A Week of Freak-Out Dinners:

Sunday: La Victoria takeaway: Carne Asada Super Burrito, Asada Super Nachos. This is our favourite place in the Bay Area. Carne Asada is perfectly cooked every day. They also have some of the best Carnitas and OMNOMNOM LENGUA!!!! But GingerMan don't do tongue in the culinary context, so when we share one of these eeeeNORmous booooreeeetos we go conventional. I love their nachos as well, and I stand FIRMLY behind this statement: They have Yellow Cheese Sauce. I love golden corn tortilla chip rounds with yellow cheese sauce. It speaks to my heart and heals my soul. It gave me the will to live through Monday.

Monday: Didn't Die of Panic at Work: Los Gatos Brewing Company- I had perfectly rare-medium hangar steak with potato beignets. GingerMan had what were listed with a grown-up name but were, essentially CRABBY PATTIES!! They were sublime. They were perfect. They looked exactly like Crabby Patties, down to the height, shape, texture, and even the look of the lettuce. We ordered the brioche doughnuts with cocoa and a deep raspberry coulis with vanilla ice cream. The doughnuts were the sort so good that one bite should be held right in the front of the mouth and breathed through. Yes. Breathed through. You will taste the essence of a food fundamental to the human race, still hot and yeasty from the kitchen. DOOOO IT! We got the German Chocolate Cake to take home. I am eating it right now. Wait for it....

Tuesday: Pink Spatula Night: Finally home from Menlo Park, with no idea what to eat. I auto-pilot to The Plant and park near Five Guys, but the Veggie Drawer Guilt starts the car again and drives home. In the door, I start toodling round in a funk: laundry-tidy-tidy-grumble-tidy-EEWWW-WHAT IS THAT IN THE DRAWER? Bit of cleaning in the fridge. Oh lawdy, dinner at nine?? Omelette! Three eggs, whole milk, buttahbuttahbuttah. OOOOh! Green garlic stalk diced microscopic and some fresh tarragon, then say CHEEEESE! See that? See how eggmilkbuttahherbcheeeeese makes the whole post sound better?

**NOW** You're ready for it--Dessert! LGBC's German Chocolate Cake. Beautifully equal layers of coconut-pecan mixture and dark chocolate cake. Coconut layer is not eewwy-goowey icky, but seems more like a layer of cake in and of itself. Lovely lovely lovely.

I have watched James' Mays Road Trip, Episode One Hundred Ellbenty, now on to Graham Norton with Eddie Izzard and Harry Shearer. Second load of laundry is done and the dishwasher's on. I feel the calm of dirty humour, butter and baked goods triumph over the inner Anxiety Bureaucrat, if only for the night--A Pink Sparkly Spatula in hand to give it the beat-down if it comes back.

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