Weeks before being admitted to the hospital, I had purchased two bricks of firm tofu. The expiration date was well into the future. I felt confident that I would use the tofu in a dish before the time-stamp indication. Into the refrigerator, the tofu went until called upon by inspiration.
When I returned from the hospital, I was greeted by a refrigerator full of "Best Used By..." products at or past their prime: milk, sour cream, pork chops, ground beef, steamed chicken, mushrooms, croissant dough, clementines--all in need (Indeed!) of some form of esculent solution. These wasting foodstuffs required some special effort; however, the milk was most simple: cereal, pancakes. I wanted something
different to ingest since I had been "blanded" by six days of stringent, yet highly nutritive, delectables.
A menu change was what I desired. Anticipating a hectic week, adjusting to my revised schedule by adding the task of dressing my leg (wounded by the surgery), by altering my sleep pattern (due to a change in my medicine regimen), I was able to compose and prepare lunch and dinner menu items for the week. The results, while organized, were not as I would have liked, yet abundantly satisfactory. "Cleaning out" the refrigerator with recipe after recipe, I noticed the tofu (and the clementines). The date of expiration was nigh; the future was now! Something had to be done. What I wrought was a fiasco.
Charred Fiasco Stew
Tofu (firm, coated, marinated, fried)
-- mustard oil
-- sweet soy
-- curry powder
Almonds (fried)
Dried Hot Chili
Shrimp (medium)
Peas
Rice Cake Ovals (boiled in Sea Salt)
Onion
Marinate (remaining for stew)
Soy Sauce
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Charred Fiasco Stew
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Slump Sump Fiasco
Clementines (boiled, peeled, pulped [liquified])
Wings (fried drumsticks [flour, salt and pepper, cayenne sauce])
Enoki and Crab Mushrooms
Rice
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Slump Sump Fiasco
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Having eaten my mistakes of progression, I decided to try making something less messy.
Early Easter Ham with a Mardi Gras Glaze
Potato (soaked in Sea Salt)
-- bake, cut in half, scoop out
-- toast shell, mash middle
-- Boiled Carrot [bits] and Shallot [slivers]
-- Lemon (juice)
-- Mozzarella (cubes melted)
Ham (hunks)
-- pressure cooked, divvy cut, baked, then broiled
-- Marinate and Glaze: dark brown sugar, filtered water, butter, arrow root, molasses
Cabbage (pressure cooked in ham stock, chopped)
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Early Easter Ham with a Mardi Gras Glaze
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This dinner was not a fiasco. A triumph. Unfortunately this meal will not last in refrigeration until Easter.
Spoils!!!
