Still driving, not cooking

So, it's a week since the last post, which suggests that I've cooked once since then. It's not quite that bad, but close. Locket's performance is this weekend, so life should return to something close to normal soon.

Thursday, Feb. 5 I made cottage cheese pancakes. They are very yummy and pretty good for you -- they're like little souffles. Two cups cottage cheese, 6 eggs separated, 1 cup of flour. Combine the cottage cheese, the egg yolks, the flour, a teaspoon of salt, and a dash of cinnamon. Add beaten egg whites carefully and fry on a buttered griddle.

Friday Feb. 6 I made the Cook's Illustrated ziti again -- still good.

Saturday we went to a church dinner party -- and were served the same chicken main dish we had at the one in January. It's the chicken with prunes and green olives from the original Silver Palate cookbook. It's good, and I'm happy to eat it, but I confess that I couldn't decide whether I did or did not want one of the other guests who had been at the January dinner (guests are supposed to rotate but the stir isn't very thorough) to observe that it was the same main dish. No one did and I guess that's for the best. I am betting on seeing that dish at the March dinner.

It reminds me of my college days, when I was the only one of my circle who could really cook. I made what I thought at the time was a pretty mean lasagna, which I was often asked for the recipe for. The result was that I ate my own lasagna every time I went to somebody else's house.

Sunday I made dinner! For the grandparents, too! Broccoli rabe with lots of garlic, sweet potato/cottage cheese casserole, sausages, and no salad because the greens froze in the fridge. Monday I didn't cook because I was driving Locket to rehearsal; CB made salmon cakes and spinach and salad for DH and Goody.

Tuesday was community supper: chicken and rice, and tomato soups for 89 people. Not a scrap of anything left.

Wednesday, after I drove Locket to rehearsal,I pan-grilled a steak for DH and CB and me, and made mashed potatoes with the ubiquitous cottage cheese, roasted carrots and a salad. I microwaved the carrots until they were about half-done before putting them in to roast -- that worked extremely well.

Tonight I didn't cook but I am making cupcakes for the fourth graders. They are the same ones my mother used to make for me: yellow cake with cream cheese frosting and cinnamon red hots. The red hots bleed a little pink onto the frosting -- part of the charm.

No dinner, ever

Locket is in a community theater production of "Carousel" and since she doesn't drive yet, I have to. The problem is that the community in question is not our community, it is a community 30 minutes away. We're coming up on the performance and rehearsals are happening almost every night, with the result that I haven't cooked dinner since ... um ... I'm not sure when.

Wednesday last I made pasta. Thursday I went to rehearsal. Friday I can't remember, no, wait, I made a Dutch baby -- DH was in Cambridge at an Aikido workshop. Saturday we went to a dinner party -- Yay! Sunday I went to bed as soon as I got home from rehearsal. Monday I cooked spinach to go with a cooked chicken I bought at the grocery store. Tuesday I made soup for 83, that's EIGHTY-THREE, people. And now it's Wednesday and, wait for it, I went to rehearsal.

Also, it's been in the single digits for weeks and the brown puppy and I are both going crazy; he's going out of his mind with boredom and driving me out of mine in the process. The good news is that the weather is supposed to moderate and the production is over after next weekend. I can't wait.