Desperation Dinners

I called this post "Desperation Dinners," because I'm a sucker for alliteration, but I prefer to think of them as "adventure dinners."  You know the kind, where you come home after a long day and open the cupboard to find nothing you're looking for and a bunch of ingredients that don't really go together.  For some people, that would mean it was time to go shopping.  For me?  It's time to get creative.  And that's how I end up eating things that I could never in good conscience serve to anybody else: scrambled eggs over rice with sardines on top, sandwiches with nothing but cheese and mustard, microwaved frozen veggies over spaghetti with hot sauce, and so on.  I honestly and truly do not mind these concoctions, but I will admit that they're not usually meals I would choose to repeat.  Tonight I had a perfectly respectable swiss cheese and mushroom omelette with some of the aforementioned frozen vegetables on the side.  And unlike this duck, I am careful not to leave things on top of inactive burners on the stove.  Fire safety, people.  Good luck with all of your future adventure dinners!

Really Great Sandwiches

I love a really great sandwich.  There is a limitless variety of tasty sandwiches in the world, and it is fun to experiment with the options.  It's interesting that if you get two people, their ideas of what constitutes the best sandwich ever will be different, sometimes subtly and other times radically.  A sandwich is so simple, yet so deeply satisfying.  It's got everything in one handy package--protein, veggies, sauces, bread.  A sandwich that I love is thinly sliced roasted chicken (the kind you can prepare at home, not the extra-thin, deli-sliced kind), roasted red peppers, red onion, lettuce, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, and ground black pepper on a sourdough roll.  On Valentine's Day (coincidentally, not in particular observance thereof) I enjoyed a sandwich with the ingredients at hand: marbled cheddar cheese, sardines canned in tomato sauce, pickled jalapeños, roasted peppers, lettuce, and hot sauce on wheat bread.  I can't say the flavors necessarily went together, but the contrast between smooth roasted peppers, creamy cheese, crunchy jalapeños, and crispy lettuce kept my tongue most entertained.  What's your favorite sandwich?  (The finger-shaped shadows at the bottom of this picture are, not surprisingly, my fingers.  I used the photo anyway as part of my drive to focus more on consistent posts than perfection.  It's very freeing.)