I'll seond both sets of sentiments.
But I had a cooking nightmare, too.
Being from the south, I make Mac and cheese for Thanksgiving. It's just part of southern/soul cooking. But this year, my usual Mark Bittman ("How To Cook Everything") recipe failed me. It calls for using TWO bay leaves in the steaming milk for the sauce. I usually use a half, or one.But this year, since my mac-loving son is 17, I thought, let's go adult. So Mark, I did as you instructed. But my new bay leaves were so pungant, I ended up with mac and cheese that tasted like it was spiked with Channel Number 5 (I swear, you could see Nicole Kidman's pale face in the steam.)
Into the trash, all of it.
And my homemade stuffing: a bag of chopped pecans tasted like the worst disinfectant used at the Food Emporium. The whole vat of stuffing had a vaguely Formula 409 scent.
Into the trash with the creamy perfumed mac, a pound of stuffing.
At 4:45 p.m., I stood sweating, cursing, weeping, REMAKING the mac and cheese AND the stuffing, as my kitchen garbage can smoldered with the dreadful remains of two tainted dishes.
By 7 p.m., only 4 glasses of wine (and no small amount of whine) got me in the mood to eat.
Today, anything involving bechemal sauce or chopped onions and celery and spiked store-bought nuts (my cashews also taste like the floor of a porno theater, an hour after mopping up.)
Tonight, an italian restaurant: no fowl, no cheese, no breadcrumbs.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 11/28/08 at 12:20 PM